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YA FANTASY/HORROR modern retelling of Perseus-Medusa Myth. Looking to swap full manuscripts!!

September 5, 2020 No Comments

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YA FANTASY/HORROR modern retelling of Perseus-Medusa Myth. Looking to swap full manuscripts!!
Hello! My name is
Sarah Penwarden
Young Adult
Fantasy Paranormal/Mythology/Fairy Tales Urban/Contemporary Fantasy Horror Body Horror
Last Modified: Sep 5, 2020 @ 10:26 pm
About Me

Hi, I’m Sarah! I’m looking for critique partners/beta-readers for my WIP first novel, a YA urban fantasy based loosely around the Perseus and Medusa myth. Think Clash of the Titans but modern, centred on two best friends in rural northern Ontario. It’s about 4 years in and 5 drafts out, and I am hoping to query starting  in 2021 (if all goes well!)

I work full time as a post-grad civil engineer in training in Toronto, Canada, but I love to read and write in my spare time. This novel has been a labour of love and a major learning experience. I came up with the idea about a decade ago and it’s been through many (major) iterations since then.

I am looking for someone to give me some constructive, unbiased feedback before I start digging through the query trenches. I have a little bit of experience reading and exchanging manuscripts and I would love to do a full novel swap.

When I’m not writing, you can find me making costumes in my basement dungeon. I love to sew!

Love to Read

My dude, I will read whatever you throw at me! My sweet spot and go-to fiction is straight-up urban fantasy (Kelley Armstrong/Jim Butcher, anyone??) but high fantasy, horror, contemporary, thriller, and any kind of crossover goes too. I gravitate towards books that get me excited, as in screaming out loud in my chair because that twist was SO good.

I have no experience critiquing picture books or early readers, unfortunately, so I would be the best fit for a YA or maybe MG.

Experience
I've written some
Critique Styles
Editorial Letter
Positive Gushing
Sandwich Critique
Track Changes in Document
Whole MS Reads
Critique Strengths
Characters
Grammar
Plot
Time Commitment
Monthly, Intermittant (ie. when you have something to share)
Life Stages
Work Full-Time
Preferred Contact Style
Email
About the Work In Progress
Details About/Query First Page Other Projects
Working Title
Gorgon
Age Category
Young Adult
Genres
Fantasy, Paranormal/Mythology/Fairy Tales, Urban/Contemporary Fantasy, Horror, Body Horror
Type of Project
Novel/Novella
Tags
#H, #medusa, #UF, best friends, mythology, retelling, ya
Seeking Critique Styles & Strengths
Blunt Truth
Editorial Letter
Line Edits
Positive Gushing
Track Changes in Document
Whole MS Reads
Big Picture
Characters
Pacing
Plot
Worldbuilding
About the WIP (Query)

The forest is screwing with Callista’s head.

She was fine in Toronto. She thought she was done with hard parts – the worst of her mother’s battle with paranoid schizophrenia, her embarrassing, awkward high school self. That night before grade 11 when she should have kissed Shawn, but didn’t. But now that she’s back for the summer in her northern hometown of West Gate, Ontario, it’s all tumbling back. The silver lining is Shawn. Because, now, finally, he is single again. So they can be together, right?

Not exactly.

Disembodied whisperings, flashes of extreme pain, freak time lapses. They all started when she reconnected with him. Not to mention his owl-eyed likeness, hidden in her shed, that she can’t remember painting. Something is wrong. Something she can’t remember. Something that happened between her and Shawn the night she almost kissed him but didn’t. The night her mom was diagnosed.

Something that takes hold when she goes missing the forest.

Filia’s best friend has disappeared, and she can’t handle it.

Seriously, she would rather screw around with her ex-boyfriend than handle it.

But now more people have disappeared and she keeps finding herself in the centre of it after she – almost – ran over the body of an old high school classmate.

Turns out her connection with the killings and disappearances may be more than coincidence. It may connect to the notes on Perseus and Medusa left behind by her dead father. Notes on the return of an ancient greek monster. The deeper she digs, the more she realizes the truth. There’s a thing – a Gorgon – killing people in the woods, and she might be the only one who can stop it.

First Page

I watched the stupid slogan sign grow larger as we approached in my mom’s red SUV. I felt more nauseous with every bump the wheels hit along the worn-out highway.

West Gate. The North Entrance to Adventure. Pop 6000.

I tried to forget the forest when I moved to the city. It was easy in Toronto. I lived each day in a world made up of concrete and high rises. The city welcomed me inside its urban bubble of hipster cafés and multiple transit systems and its feeling of progression until I came to expect it, assume it all as the way life is everywhere. It was so different from the tiny town I grew up in, situated in the middle of the vast boreal forest of Northern Ontario.  The woods surrounded it like some monster’s maw.  I had fooled myself into believing that when the forest had faded into the back of my mind, my hometown would disappear with it. That for some reason I wouldn’t have to come back. Or, if I did come back, things would have changed.

Now, the closer I got to home, the more absurd I felt for letting myself believe I had escaped. Because the forest was still here, same as when I left. Omnipresent and wild and waiting to swallow me again.

Other Projects

I want to write a sequel to Gorgon, if it goes anywhere. I also have about 25K words of a high fantasy I’m writing (think steampunk Iceland) that I’m hoping to work on once I’m done with this novel.

Contact this CP
Before you reach out...

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  • Include the link to your own CP Match profile! You can find it on your Dashboard. Don't have one yet? What are you waiting for? Anyone with a WriteOnCon.org account can make one!
  • Introduce yourself a little, and say what appealed to you about their listing.
  • Respect what's listed here in their profile. They took the time to fill it out, and they've included this information for a reason. Don't send a message about a book they specifically say is a Hard No, for example.
  • Offer to swap a small sample of your works, so you can see if you're really compatible. First chapters are a good starting place.
  • If one party no longer wants to continue the interaction, it's nobody's fault. Sometimes finding the right CP takes time.

Happy writing and CPing!

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