An Agent's Inbox #18

Dear Ms. Smith:

On a dark and rain-slicked road, there's a car crash, one that changes the lives of three teens forever.

Seventeen-year-old Hailey Steele killed her boyfriend in a car wreck, which fills her with guilt and self-loathing. So when Eli Carter enters her life, Hailey persistently denies her attraction and developing feelings for him. It is wrong to like someone else when your boyfriend is dead. It’s easier to cope in other ways, like changing schools and using alcohol.

Meanwhile, Jeremy McClure--not realizing he’s dead--waits in the cemetery for his girlfriend to arrive. He’s certain they agreed to meet here. The last time Jeremy saw Hailey they were cruising a dark and drizzly road after an underage party.  What he doesn’t expect is an encounter with someone else.

Eli Carter has a jaded past. His junior year was full of skeletons, and his closet thrown wide open for the entire high school to see. But he manned up, and still got burned. With new girl Hailey, Eli has the chance for a fresh start, someone who knows nothing about his past. That is, if she’ll ever give him the time of day.

HAUNTED, my young adult contemporary novel--complete at 83,100 words--shows the intersecting lives of three teens who are trapped in the most unusual of love triangles--one that crosses the boundaries of death. Told in alternating points of view, the novel poses the questions: Can we continue to maintain love through the boundaries of death? And, can new love find us after loss?

To date, I have written and published three novels, along with a book of short essays. Additionally, I have been published at The Fertile Source, in Cliterature Journal, and online at The Daily Beast. In 2009 and 2010, I worked at Inside/Outside Magazine, penning the magazine’s “With the Kids” column. I co-write the YA blog, Moxie Writers, with fellow young adult novelist, Rebecca Green Gasper. I recently completed a travel memoir about my family’s year on the road and my unexpected pregnancy, the marital strain that resulted from the news, and the devastating birth of our youngest son during the trip.

Thank you in advance for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

S.O.

HAUNTED

Hailey

It’s raining, so I shouldn’t have agreed to be the designated driver. But here I am. There are no alternatives. I take the keys from Jeremy and dash toward his Subaru. The earthy smell of water soaking into the dirt and pavement rises around us. Jeremy ducks down as if walking between the raindrops, as if he will live forever within their spaces.

“Let me drive,” he says, though his speech is drowned in grogginess.

“I’ve got it,” I say as we scramble for the car. “Just relax. Get some rest,” I say even though I teeter on the edge of sleep, too. But I want to take care of him.

I fire up the engine and crank the heat. Jeremy slips into the passenger’s seat, pulls his door closed, and immediately turns the stereo to our song. Before taking off, I eye him briefly: his bangs hanging limply in his face as he tugs his plastered shirt from his chest. He pushes his head into the back of the headrest and closes his eyes.

As the music plays, Jeremy lifts his lids and reaches out to finger the ends of my hair. His eyes mingle with mine for a moment, then he grabs my hand. “Love you, Hailey.”

“Love you, too.”

“I’m so drunk.” Then he lets go and balances between sleep and wakefulness.

I turn on the wipers and try hard to focus on the blurry road ahead.