Entry #29: The Writers Voice: Peculiar Dark

Note: So it may border on a bit excessive, but I couldn’t quite stand the thought of not replying to all your generous comments individually. I really appreciate it. You guys rock.

Title: PECULIAR DARK
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

QUERY
Five things Angela James never thought she’d do:

1. Throw a birthday party for a supernatural creature.
2. Break into a police officer’s apartment.
3. Wield an axe.
4. Burn a house down.
5. Kill a monster. Scratch that – kill anything, period.

Let’s just say Angela’s sophomore year isn’t exactly panning out. A week after moving to the town of Peculiar, a violent fever racks her body for days, and even after she comes out of it, she doesn’t feel right. Headaches, body aches, weird visions, strange songs on the air… And she’s not alone. Her classmate, Zee Morales, and his sister Izzy are having the exact same trouble. Angela thinks they must be going crazy, but the real answer is far less comforting. They have become vessels for magic – magic that their human bodies can barely contain – and there are creatures hunting them who would rip them to shreds to get at it.

Enter Wy, a blue-skinned, winged boy who literally drops from the sky with a sword and a bad attitude. He claims to be their protector and ally, but he’s got an agenda of his own that doesn’t always seem to include their best interests. Wy the Blue Wonder – and the magic secrets that come with him – throw Angela’s whole life out of whack. She worries her parents and her brother, flakes out at school, breaks the law – and those aren’t even the worst parts. Because the creatures lurking in the dark are shapeshifters. They can look like anyone at anytime, so you may not even know you’re in danger until it’s too late.

A Buffy the Vampire Slayer-type thriller – but with 60% more magic and zero vampires – PECULIAR DARK is a young adult urban fantasy following Angela, Zee and Izzy in their attempts to stay not-dead. It is complete at 91,000 words.

EXCERPT
The wind woke Angela before the fever did.

Back home, surrounded by New Jersey’s dense woods and thick greenery, the treetops had caught every breeze, tossing them around far overhead, but it was different here. The wind bowled over the plains like a brute. It wrapped around the house, rooted out cracks and corners, and lodged itself there, howling and whistling.

Angela lay beneath her comforter, listening to the roof and walls shudder under gusty slaps. All of her skin ached, and the insides of her body felt molten with heat, but whenever she kicked her blankets off, she shivered violently. Pain throbbed from her temples up to the crown of her skull and back down into her jaw. Her limbs were weak and heavy, and the backs of her eyes were boiling.

She felt like hell.

It crossed her mind to go downstairs – wake her parents, get a thermometer, park it on the couch nestled in the slightly ratty old comforter that she wouldn’t let her mom throw out – but her body burned all over, brain spinning like a planet.

Angela tried to be still – still and quiet so sleep could come claim her – but she couldn’t. Every inch of her skin was hot and tight and painful, and she writhed around, getting her legs twisted up in the sheets. Flailing aggressively, she kicked herself free.

Without the blankets, she shook with violent tremors, curled on the bare mattress.