ENTRY for THE WRITER'S VOICE

Title: TIME SLEEPERS
Genre: YA, time travel

QUERY:

Dear Agent,

I’m currently seeking representation for my young adult novel, TIME SLEEPERS. Given your interest in sci-fi I thought this might be a good fit for you.

Before Laken Mitchell is born her parents are using their time machine to check up on her. By the age of seventeen Laken is secretly using the machine too. With a Dexter-like code for choosing girls she has a grudge against, she sends them into the past. But she may also be sending them to their graves.

She really isn’t an evil person though. Honest. When she realizes her mistake she convinces her best friend Skylar to time travel with her to 1994 so they can rescue one of her victims. The problem is the girl dies as soon as they return to 2020. Laken and Skylar time travel back to un-rescue her but that creates a paradox — that, and the fact that Laken accidentally leaves Skylar in the past.

Laken returns alone to an aftereffect she couldn’t have imagined. If she tries to change the past one more time she, or her best friend, will cease to exist.

TIME SLEEPERS is complete at 50,000 words and the manuscript is available upon request. I’ve been writing for teens for twelve years and have been indie-published in the US and traditionally published in Germany. I've included the first 250 words below.

Thank you,

Debra Chapoton

First 250:

Anybody who did what I did would eventually kill someone. Accidentally … or not so accidentally. Sometimes you can see death on someone’s face and there’s nothing you can do except move on.

“You’re going to have to pull the switch,” I told Skylar as I stumbled past the controls and toward the time machine. “I don’t think I can run and leap like I did before.” I climbed up onto the cushioned white platform, curled myself into a ball around my giant purse—which should have held what we’d need to return—and prayed we’d make it.

Skylar stood by the panel of coordinates biting her nails. “Do I change anything?”

I couldn’t imagine why she’d need to change anything, but my head was mud and my vision was fading so I said, “Make it plus six for the far right elevation. Then hit the lever and run.”

I heard her squeal and though I couldn’t see her I knew the instant she landed next to me on the machine.  I heard another voice too, then a popping sound, like weak firecrackers, and I smelled the electricity. We fell that time—our second time travel. Six feet of sudden drop. It was hardly long enough to comprehend what was happening. I landed on my back and then I slid head first a few feet, my bag tumbling from my arms. I thought I’d never be able to suck in the air. It was a horrible, helpless feeling having my breath knocked out of me.

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