As you will have noted in my previous post I am now working on my eleventh novel - oh my god, give it up already. :) Book ten the fabulous (ahem!) The Poisoned Apple is the most successful to date with three full requests from three top agents, a few partial requests and a lovely personal letter from the Darley Anderson agency that I've pinned to my memo board. Unfortunately, all three full requests (and the partials) came back with no's, in fact one didn't even come back with a no from the agent - she had her assistant do it (that's not good, right?). So here is where I beg for help...
I need some beta readers who are willing to be brutal and tear the story apart. I am see-sawing at the moment between keeping my original plan of 11 short MG books (because Lily is 11) or maybe joining the first book and the second 'Strange Bones' into one book and tying the story off with a neat bow and trashing the idea of a series. I'd love to know what people think of the first book and of course what is wrong with it.
Here's the blurb:
Lily Sunday is not having a good eleventh birthday. Her father went out for a newspaper and hasn’t returned, her birthday party is cancelled and her mother is preoccupied with her new friend, Fyodor Lavoisier, and teeth. Oh, and thanks to a dodgy birthday wish, she is bundled into a car and left with her Aunt Beatrix in the town of Corpsetithe, where summer is winter and garden gnomes scare away beasts.
Her suitcase tries to eat her, a blizzard blows into the house, the woods are full of zombies known locally as Dead Feet, oh and she has to go to school. Lily very much wishes she could go back to being ten-years-old, but her friend Larry Bones’ time-shifting watch does not wind backwards.
It's 24,000 words long and aimed at 8-12 year olds. If you are interested in reading it my email is firemaiden (at) blueyonder (dot) co.uk - and please feel free to ignore this post.
