An Agent's Inbox #15

Dear Agent,

While running with scissors, seventh-grader, Lucienne trips and loses her eye. By age sixteen, Lucienne feels like a freak despite having a prosthetic eye, and wonders if the sloth Jeremy tripped her on purpose. She wished she knew the truth.

One morning Lucienne can not only see through her prosthetic eye, but sees her mother’s lies.  Losing the dad she loved to cook with was bad enough but being stuck with her workaholic mother who lies isintolerable. The eye reveals the secrets she’s always suspected her mother is hiding about her missing dad. Lucienne must decide whom to trust when everyone she loves harbors secrets.  And she must decide to dig for untruths that may upset the house of cards she lives in. The truth will put Lucienne in danger, and she’ll have to use the magic that created her eye to save lives.

Readers of Far from You by Lisa Schroeder will connect with Lucienne’s grief over her father and strained relationship with her mother, while readers of Divergent by Veronica Roth will be swept up in the plot twists. This manuscript is written in the first person from Lucienne’s point of view. It alternates chapters between Lucienne’s past and present. These mosaic tiles culminate to reveal several betrayals and one deadly secret.

Thank you for your consideration of my 66k-word YA fantasy Naked Eye.  A synopsis and complete manuscript are available upon request.  This is a multiple submission.

I’m a member of SCBWI.  My short story “Daisy” was included in the 100 Stories for Queensland anthology and my vampire short story “Allured”will appear in the upcoming YA Fangtales anthology. I’m a substitute teacher in the Cambridge Public Schools, which gives me ample opportunity to observe teenagers in their natural habitat.  Thank you for your consideration of this manuscript.

Sincerely,
T.M.


NAKED EYE

You know how adults always warn children not to run with scissors because they could lose an eye and to stop tipping back their chairs because they could crack open their skulls?  I’ve never cracked open my skull from tipping back a desk chair, but in 7th-grade, I ran with scissors and lost an eye.

Three years later, my prosthetic eye looks and works almost like my old eye.  The unusual amber hue of the left eye has been recreated to an amazing degree. If my left eye moves to the left or right or up or down, so does my fake one, though not as well.  At this point, most people have forgotten I’d lost an eye.  I didn’t forget. For one, it doesn’t feel like my old eye and I know if I step into sunlight, my left pupil dilates while my right one does not because it’s always set for “moderate light” as Doctor Ocular calls it.

I also haven’t forgotten how the other kids at school treated me for the year I'd refused to get the glass eye.  Only Orion and Morgan have stuck with me.

Sitting in the rustic kitchen eating yogurt, I watch my mother blab into her cell phone at the other end of the table. “Yes, if there’s anything really wrong after the inspection, you can walk away without penalty….  Yes,the inspector will be very thorough. Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”

I smirk because at least she’s there for someone.