Nathan Bransford is conducting an experiment on his blog. He asked volunteers to send in queries for his followers to vote on as if they were agents requesting a manuscript. He randomly selected five from the genre with the most entries. Sadly, YA Fantasy edged out Mystery Suspense, so mine didn’t make it.
What is funny is that one of the entries is a query for one of the Spring Novel Contest entries I read for the Houston Writer’s Guild. I remember specifically reading this entry, and based on the tone and voice of the author I’m fairly certain I know who the writer is.
Now, keep in mind that I am not a YA Fantasy genre lover, but not only did I not vote for this person’s query, but the excerpts of his writing I’ve read I find incredibly banal and poorly written. Due to the fact that his query is smoking the other query entries, and based on the fact that his novel entry (yet another story I judged last year) came in third in the Fall Novel Writing Contest, I’m guessing something about his writing just rubs me wrong. Kinda makes me feel like a dog who growls at a passer-by for no ostensibly reason.
It's strange, although his writing is liked by many (based on the blog's comments) I don’t like the voice, I don’t care for the quirky humor, and it reminds me of the type of writing a Sci-Fi Channel, Trek obsessed, Comic-Con dresser would enjoy.
But, he does seem to make it work. Then again, maybe there are more people out there who want to read about a girl who "though she's pretty sure she must be lying in a hospital somewhere and experiencing the world's wildest coma-induced nightmare, she's soon facing monsters, handsome princes, and evil villains with diabolical plans to take over this very scary world."
Personnally, I just don't see the allure.
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