My team was Team Hera, as in Hera Syndulla from Rebels. I picked her because she is fierce and motherly at the same time. One of the reasons I love participating in this particular query contest is because the participants (both the query-ers and the author-judges) foster such a supportive environment. It's hard to balance support with critique, but we do it every time. Hera would be proud of us.
Choice 1: A World Apart: This story struck me for pushing the boundaries of what constitutes romance as a genre. Besides just meeting and falling in love, the two men in this story have history and personal baggage to overcome. Their story is further complicated when a crime investigation is involved.
Choice 2: Empathy: Imminent Dawn: I must have been in a romantic mood, because even though this story is a thriller, I was first drawn in by the main character who was willing to take incredible risks to regain access to her wife. I know I'd love to read more about the cyberpunk type brain implants and the intrigue surrounding them, too. I'm just hoping the lovers make it in the end!
Choice 3: Lunar Base Lost: Frontier politics and family conflict are at the center of this story. I was intrigued by the motivations of the characters, and curious to see how far they are willing to go to get their way. I also really liked seeing the way the author incorporated the feedback received to hone and focus the query itself. The last version was a much tighter piece of work than the first one, and that's really the goal of the whole experience in a contest like this one.
Choice 4: No Rest for the Wicked: The author posted this one as an adult gaslight fantasy. Gaslight or steampunk is a genre I'm really starting to appreciate. They seem to capture that old movie feeling of a woman with spunk and moxie. The main character of this one sounds like a woman I'd enjoy inviting to tea so she could tell me about the cons she has pulled and the trouble she's escaped.
Choice 5: Prisoner of Fate: I was intrigued from the opening line of this query, which intermixed the modern concept of a mid-life crisis with the old-fashioned one of a carriage. When I moved onto the excerpt and met Sedhan, a man obviously up to no good, my curiosity was piqued.
I didn't get to read ALL the entries. Darn day job getting in the way of my fun . . . But you can check out all the entries here and at the blogs of the other hosting authors: Elsie Elmore (Team Droids), Elizabeth Roderick (Team Leia), Kathleen Ann Palm (Team Darkside), Rena Rocford (Team Rebels), and of course, our organizer and Grand Poobah, Katie Hamstead Teller.
If you're a writer working on querying your work, you can glean a lot of insight looking through contests like this one. And if you're a reader, it's a good way to see who the new up-and-coming authors might be in the next few years.
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