My 85,000-word young adult novel has been cathartic to write. The beauty of being the director of a story that has some personal truth to it is I get to change the ending. I get to craft what I would have loved to happen in my life and relationships and in a way it's healing.
Here is the pitch I've been working on that I plan to use in my query letters for my first round of agent submissions.
Most people
would rather die than give a speech, but they get by and do it anyway. If
you’ve got glossophobia though, speaking in front of others is like Death
whispering in your ear, causing you to freeze, or throw up, or faint. Charlotte
Reed, a freshman in high school, has glossophobia. It’s not only caused her to
feel abnormal; it’s shattered her dream of singing on Broadway. It was going to
happen; everyone told her so, everyone but her mom, who, for some reason, hates
when she sings. Four years and three psychiatrists after being diagnosed,
Charlotte can’t even stand up in class to introduce herself without severe
consequences. She’s completely given up on singing outside the shower until her
Aunt Jess, straight out of prison, moves in with them and tosses the stable,
quiet Reed home upside down. The last thing Charlotte expects is for her mysterious,
tatted aunt to be the one that offers to help her sing again.
Image by Benjamin Balazs from Pixabay
