The Writer's Voice Contest Entry

Okay, now that I can breathe, yay! There's an awesome contest going on, and I got in by the skin of my teeth! Here's the details:

“The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Monica B.W. of Love YA, and Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.). We’re basing it on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us will serve as coaches and select projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages.

And here's my entry!

INSATIABLE
YA Contemporary Fantasy
68,000 words

Query:

Every night when the houselights go down, seventeen-year-old kinetic Charlie Brimm secretly feasts on the brilliant auras of the human crowd around him. Their music-heightened, upbeat energies replenish Charlie’s own rapidly depleted energy, keeping him alive and healthy—if not completely satisfied.

Then Charlie meets bard-faery and rock singer, Len. One taste of her unusual silver energy leaves him speechless, breathless, and satisfied like no human aura has ever done. The best part? It’s so abundant, he can’t drain her.

But her faery band mates have another mission besides rocking the ears off the local teens. They’re collecting the darkest, most troubled auras from the crowds. In order to fulfill their sacrifice to an ancient faery on the fall equinox, they need lots of negative energy bottled up in one tidy package. The teens provide the auras, but they need someone with Charlie’s ravenous appetite to hold it all. Now that they’ve found him, they need to keep him hungry.

Starving. 

There’s a problem. The more of Len’s aura Charlie absorbs, the less energy he needs to recharge. That’s bad news for the band, but Charlie creates another kink in their hopes for power and glory. Len’s falling for him. The closer she and Charlie get, the more defiant she becomes about gathering the city’s teens for the offering. And an empty vessel won’t do.

Charlie doesn’t want to drain the teens of their energy or to be eaten in turn, but letting Len and her stabilizing aura go means returning to a life of nightly feedings and an insatiable hunger. But getting caught will not only end his life, but the other teens’ lives as well.

First 250:

Everyone gives off colorful haloes of energy. Human seers like to call them auras.

I like to call them dinner.  

Dinner’s where I’m headed right now. With all the clubs, concerts, and parties a guy can crash, the city of Kroewe is the perfect place to get some energy. Which is important for a kinetic like me. All I gotta do is throw myself into a crowd, get close to the auras that appeal most to me, and draw some energy here and there until I’m satisfied. And no one knows anything happened.

 I’m hitting a club called Beatz tonight. Techno’s not really my style, but the place is always packed when they’ve got DJ FYXE. I love watching the kaleidoscope of energies as everybody hits the dance floor. With all the reds, blues, yellows, and greens mixed together, it’s like my own light show. In front of me stands a cute redhead. I know she’s interested because she keeps glancing over her shoulder at me and then giggling with her friends. Too bad her aura’s a funky mix of greenish-pink and red. She’s got some issues going on I’d rather not taste. The glances over her shoulder are becoming longer and slightly uncomfortable stares, but since I’m curious why the line seems extra-long tonight, I introduce myself. “Hey, I’m Charlie.”

Red giggles with the girls around her before she answers. Already I’m wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. She’s gonna be hard to ditch when feeding time comes, and I’m not in the mood for her brand of bruised energy tonight.