03/31/2022
Victoria Carbol (vcarbol on QT) has signed with agent Margaret Danko of Irene Goodman Literary Agency.
Dear [agent],
[TITLE] is an #ownvoices YA contemporary fantasy novel complete at 100,000 words. A genderbent retelling of BEOWULF, it combines the sapphic pining of Kalynn Bayron's CINDERELLA IS DEAD with the interplay between mythology and modern life in CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas.
Seventeen-year-old foster kid Freya Larson just wants a family. So when her eighteenth birthday rolls around, she jumps at an invitation to move to Coln St Aldwyns, a tiny English village home to more sheep than people and cousins she hasn't seen in a decade. There's just one problem: Freya sees ghosts, and a particularly haunting red-eyed one seems to have followed her there.
Desperate not to blow her chance at picket-fence happiness, Freya starts a rampage of normalcy: trying out for rugby, scarfing bacon with her cousins, and ignoring her personal phantom. That is, until her new English teacher suddenly transforms into a barghest, a monster with the body of a wolf and snout of a pig. About to be brutally devoured, the red-eyed ghost materializes to save Freya's life and offer a proposition: she will protect Freya and her entire family, if Freya helps her in return. Not a ghost at all, but rather a very real fire-wielding witch called Asheni, the rescuer believes Freya is the Wakeful Sleeper, someone with the ability to see into the past—all because of some stupid birthmark. Asheni is on a quest to find an ancient sword, and she wants Freya to learn the truth behind the sticky death of its original owner to help her claim it. One strange hallucination of a medieval battle and a barghest attack later, Freya takes the deal.
Now, Freya must master her newfound ability and uncover the mysterious history of the notorious blade. But those who control the barghests are after the sword too, and the more Freya sees about the relationship between the sword's original owner and Asheni, the less certain she is that she can trust the witch. (Even if she is frustratingly beautiful.) With lives and loyalties on the line, Freya finds herself torn between love and duty, as all this digging around in the past might mean destroying her and her newfound family's future.
My debut novel, [TITLE] is my queer feminist reimagining of the literature I fell in love with during my degree in medieval history. When not writing, I can be found creating bookish content for my YouTube channel, "Inquillery", which has a platform of over 24,000 subscribers.
Thank you very much for your time!
Sincerely,
Victoria