I’m not sure how many of you know this (although you probably assumed if you’ve clicked around my website or read my first two posts) but… I wrote a book! I finished it several years ago and have been working on polishing, editing, and re-editing it in order to get it to a point where it can be submitted to agents. Thanks to several people who gave me incredibly helpful feedback (and one specific person who knows exactly who she is that made me strongly encouraged me to re-write the entire middle section), I finally feel that it’s at a level where I can no longer improve it. Not to say that it’s not without fault (trust me, I’m still finding typos), but it’s as good as I can make it without professional help.
The story of Veritas (which is the Latin word for truth) is set in the fictional small town of Metzker, KS, which is loosely based on my own hometown in southwestern Kansas. But before all you Cimarron people start looking for people you know within the story, please note that none of the characters are actually based on anyone from back home. I just borrowed some names. Mostly last names. Any resemblance to real people or places is purely coincidental. (Seriously, I promise.) Veritas is a suspenseful contemporary young adult novel with a healthy dose of mystery and a hint of science fiction. Here’s the synopsis I wrote to include with my query letters:
When she receives a mysterious letter in the mail, Varity Randal enlists the help of her best friend Rachelle to uncover a posthumous note from their friend Lane that appears to be the beginning of an unfinished scavenger hunt. It is almost a year after his death, and Varity and Rachelle are determined to reconnect with their childhood friend one last time.
The clues lead not only to an unexpected friendship with Austin, the boy who moved into Lane’s old house, but also the accidental discovery of dangerous secrets Lane had been hiding while he was alive. With the information they learn, the two friends must decide what is more important: their safety or figuring out the truth about what happened to Lane.
So if that sounds like something you’d like to read, hopefully that means there’s an agent out there as well who wants to help me get it published. The problem I’ve been running into is that the agents I’ve pitched to so far have either given me form responses, which I completely understand (literary agents get hundreds of queries every day), or I’ve gotten really nice compliments on my writing, but ultimately, they don’t feel right for the project, which I also get. And of course, some don’t respond at all.
I want someone who wants to champion my novel. Who is so excited about it they can’t stop recommending it to people. Think about the last book you read that you absolutely loved and couldn’t stop raving about it to anyone who would listen. Veritas deserves to have someone feel that way about it. Someone other than myself (or my friends), of course.
So, the agent search continues!
Britnie Jenkins 