GUTGAA Query Winner! + Final week around the corner

What a whirlwind of a week! I can't tell you how much I've learned from all the participants in this weeks festivities. Seriously, I loath writing queries and being able to read so many good ones really gives me hope.
I have said it before and I will say it again, I truly wanted to pass everyone through. I have grown to love my blogfesters and it killed me to have to only give ten names to Lora...well fourteen and she picked the last one.

Anyhoo, that isn't what you really came here for so let's get on with it shall we. Lora has whittled the ten finalists down to one and the WINNER IS.....

LISA CHICKOS

Query for The Mermaid Gene

For a refresher on her query:

Dear Agent:

An arctic mermaid is the last thing seventeen year-old Kai Murphy expects to glimpse when she joins a beluga whale research team in Alaska.

An aspiring scientist, Kai dismisses Anchorage’s mermaid myths until the late-night sighting of a silvery, speckled tail threatens her convictions. Teamed up with flirtatious twin deckhands Noah and Aidan Fischer, she decides to investigate.

Turns out a mermaid sighting isn’t her research team’s only mystery. There are also secret closets filled with hunting rifles, blood-filled plastic bins and shadowy beluga poachers haunting the inlet’s icy waters.

As Kai searches for answers and begins falling for Noah, she realizes even he isn’t above suspicion. The fate of her team, her belugas and the mysterious creature in the inlet just may rest in her hands.

THE MERMAID GENE is a YA urban fantasy novel, complete at 98,000 words. I have worked as a zookeeper and educator at many facilities, including the Alaska Zoo of Anchorage, and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks & Aquariums published my article “The Dangers of Human Interactions with Marine Mammals” in its 2007 Ocean Literacy and Marine Mammals: An Easy Reference Guide. This experience sets THE MERMAID GENE apart and allows me to take readers behind-the-scenes into the thrilling and often-misunderstood world of beluga whale research.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Me

Here is how Lora did her whittling:

10 total points were possible, and I awarded half, quarter, and three-quarters points in categories that were so-so, a hair off, or nearly there.

Categories:

1. Muscular prose (tightness on the sentence level)  

2. Overall flow

3. Clear MC throughout

4. Clear stakes

5. Logic of plot points as revealed through query

6. Voice and voice consistency

7. Compelling plot

8. Professional bio/closing

9. Info-dump

10. Length (adhering to the 250 ideal / 300 max standard)

 Lisa, congrats! You've won your choice of a query critique or a first five page critique from Lora herself!

And congrats to everyone else here is what Lora had to say about them all:

 

Whew. SOOO hard. BTW, on the scale, nobody scored lower than a 7, and final three-way tie was broken by a quarter of a point. Great job, everybody!

***

The fun doesn't stop yet people! We have one more week and the best has totally been saved for last. Agent Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency and the ultra-talented, already hooked an agent, Monica B.W. are teaming up to help out with our final week of the Gearin' Up to Get an Agent Blogfest by picking the winners of the first 200 words novel competition. Two winners will be chosen and this contest is open only to young adult, middle grade and picture book submissions as that is what Kathleen is on the prowl for. Sorry to everyone else.

Beginning Sunday evening I will put up the sign-up list along with some extra tidbits. If you haven't gotten your name on the master GUTGAA list, go here and get to it. You will be in the presence of awesomeness. I hope to see you there!

Until then...

Keep learning. Keep writing.