NaNoPITCHMo 2: MAGIC RED AND WILD

Today's pitch is for a novel I worked on a year or two ago and shelved temporarily after the first draft. I felt that I needed some distance from the narrative in order to come back with fresh eyes at a later time. I also had a new idea that I was desperate to write, and which has since turned into one of my favorite projects ever.

But I still hope to get back to this one at some point. I really enjoyed writing the voice in this story, and it was fun to explore the different magics as well. And I can certainly say I've spent enough time doing other things that the book will feel new again!

Pitch:

Mudge is a red mage living in hiding—with her three adoptive aunts—from the blue mages who want them dead. Every night she watches the stars and dreams of going to Cobalt City to study astronomy at the university—against her aunts’ wishes—even though she’d be killed if anyone caught her doing red magic there. When her Aunt Buld is stolen into the shadow world while helping Mudge create a golem, Mudge is left with no choice—her only chance of getting her aunt back is to go to the city and learn as much as she can about blue magic.

Once in Cobalt she discovers that creating a blue magic spell to save her aunt might be possible. But the only way to do it requires breaking into the most secure building in the city. She enlists the help of a sympathetic blue mage named Joon who has his own reasons for wanting to break in. But when rebel red mages bomb the city, Mudge’s assumptions about who is good and who is bad begin to crumble. Why do the blue mages hate her aunts so much? And why did her aunts never tell her about her blue mage family? As tension between the two sides heats up, Mudge must decide: is she red or is she blue?