This story sparked into existence after I read a news article about a letter lost in the mail for 70 years that was finally delivered. Merging the idea with that "impossible love" angle from movies like Somewhere in Time and The Mailbox, I wanted to write a story that mirrored that elusive angst for a modern YA reader.
YA Paranormal Romance
Word Count 89 K
Just like the borrowed prom dress hanging in her closet, Ashlee’s life isn’t quite her own. Instead of making herself happy, she’s making decisions to please her family and friends, leaving her feeling more fake than the role she plays in her high school musical.
With only two weeks until prom and no prospects for a date, salvation seemingly arrives in a mysterious letter with no return address and postmarked…1950? The letter summons her to a park where she meets James, a virtual Prince Charming in every way except one: he’s a ghost. After a fallout with his sweetheart, Arabella, then meeting his demise in the Korean War, James has been waiting seventy years to make amends–but his letter arrives decades too late and is mistakenly delivered to Ashlee, who now sleeps in Arabella’s old bedroom.
With help from theater tech geek and crush, Skyler, his dementia-ridden grandmother (a former classmate of James’s), and a 1950s-era yearbook, Ashlee pieces together the couple’s tragic love story then uses her acting skills to pass herself off as Arabella in hopes of finally giving James closure to cross over to the spirit world.
But good intentions often come with unexpected consequences, and now Ashlee’s life is in serious disarray. Instead of freeing James, she’s tethered him to her world and released an entire baseball team of restless ghosts to wreak havoc on her high school. And if only she’d been honest with Skyler about the real reason behind her sudden interest in his grandmother and her high school memories! Withholding the truth has left their budding romance on the rocks.
To right her wrongs, Ashlee not only must pull off the performance of her life to send James and his mischievous friends back to the spirit world where they belong but also come clean with Skyler and learn to be herself if she wants to regain his trust. If she fails, she’ll not only lose Skyler, but she might lose her life as well!
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION ABOUT THIS TITLE
This manuscript placed second in the competitive YA Speculative Fiction category of the First Chapter Contest at Storymakers 2022.
As I explored the characters I wanted to write, I envisioned the letter's author, who would be at least seventy years older than the current resident of the house where the letter would ultimately be delivered. There was a multi-generational gap at play, but I still wanted there to be a deep connection.
My grandfather had served in the signal battalion in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, and much of the grounding for the letter-author's character development was based on his memoirs. My daughter had just graduated from high school, and had recently navigated the decisions, life changes, and experiences that are part of that coming-of-age package. It was perfect fodder for the unsuspecting protagonist who would receive the letter. Armed with two very different yet connected individuals for frame of reference, I built the story.
When I realized that my leading modern characters would bond over a shared fandom, I needed to invent my own fictional TV series they could make reference to. The task seemed ominous. If the series was not sufficiently fleshed out in my mind, it would feel too generic. But that felt like writing a book inside a book! Instead, I asked my daughter's permission to base my fictional series off a set of characters she and her friends had meticulously invented and written about during middle school. I knew all their stories already!
Setting the whole story into the framework of Cinderella - perhaps the world's most famous "impossible love" story - I added some ghostly intrigue and a few horror elements to pull everything together. My favorite pitch for this story is "Cinderella meets Scooby-Doo."
To see this manuscript, please contact Cathie Hedrick-Armstrong at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
Copyright © 2024 Tara Lundmark - All Rights Reserved.
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