Friday, September 6, 2013

Pitch Madness SJ-9: RAGDOLL


Genre:  YA Magical Realism

Word Count:  53,000

Pitch: A sixteen-year-old girl isn't the only one writing in her Diary Dearest. Her dolls are, too. Ancestral types named Ragdoll and Porcelain Doll who crave two very different endings for the girl they haunt.


Excerpt:  
ragdoll
i crinkle to life when her blood spills.
i move in red and breath.
she don’t see me as i truly am and she don’t know that i see,
everything.
i am her childhood doll.
i’ve seen since we first found each otha’.
she was four.
that be twelve years ago.
i been ‘round lots longer.
i don’t know how long.
i only remember the smell of smoke and turpentine,
the taste of oiled cinnamon,
the feel of hard straw and needle pinch as it sewed on each stitch of mouth and coarse yarn hair.
i didn’t have to see to know it flamed shaggy red.
it was a long and painful process.
creation always is.
the nimble strength and rough tenderness in my maker’s hands taught me everything
i needed to know
'bout love.
my button eyes were sewn on last.
i saw my maker.
old and weathered, battered by time, her skin dark chocolate, and her eyes rheumatic.
she saw me smile and smiled in return, patting my stuffed arms and legs.
she’ll need you, she whispered in a voice i recognized as my own.
i travelled great distances, through many hands and lives,
none of ‘em right for me,
to find the girl who needs me most,
the one my creator created me for.

Friday, October 31st
My dolls haunt me. They jump inside me and make me write things I don’t want to write. Things I don’t need to remember. I try to ignore them, but it doesn't do any good.

6 comments:

  1. I'll but property! (Query and first 75 pages)

    Thanks!
    Pete Knapp

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  2. This is excellently creepy. So creepy that I might not be able to read it because haunted/haunting dolls? *shudder* But still, excellent.

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  3. There's a reason the PitchMadness feed was buzzing about this one. Amazing unique concept, writing that grabs hold and DOES NOT LET GO. So, so brilliant!

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  4. I honestly didn't get this the first time I read it and it was Fiona who shoved this back under my nose and said "this is so good". It's like a YA Chucky - good creepy. I did like the pitch, but got a bit confused reading the excerpt as I thought the story was going to include the ragdoll's pov all the way through it. I should've read all the way to the bottom (my bad).

    The opening from the ragdoll was super creepy in the best possible way and set up the premise nicely.

    I think why there could have been not as many bids as I expected (or as it deserved given the amount of buzz this had on twitter) was the inability to connect to an MC. There's no name in the pitch or the excerpt. I think: Sixteen-year-old isn't the only one writing in her Diary Dearest - would have created a better connection with the agents.

    I hope you find a home for this as I think it's perfectly creepy and full of win.

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  5. Ever since watching the movie DOLLS when I was younger....antique type dolls freak me the heck out. So. This book would be terrifying, but I think incredibly fun. I got chills just reading this.

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  6. Such lovely comments! Thank you for taking the time to compliment me. <3 And yes, Sharon, you certainly have a valid point. I LOVED being on your team! MUCH thanks to Fiona for forcing it back under your nose...hee hee. So ecstatic that Peter Knapp sees potential in this!

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