Thanks, everybody. Signed the agreement on Monday and mailed it back. Now I'm working on getting new versions of Word installed on my son's computers so I can use them for work when my Power Mac dies, which it is trying very hard to do. And filing my taxes, and the FAFSA for my college-bound son, and all that stuff that will get in the way of the revisions if I don't take care of it now.
Here's the query for the book:
Twelve-year-old Charlotte Pilchard isn’t really a Pilchard at all. She’s a changeling, the daughter of a selky, left to be raised by humans. Her mother’s parting words--Be good, my darling, and always do as you are told--have bound her to a life of obedience.
When the Pilchards send her into service as a housemaid, Charlotte learns just how dangerous obedience can be. Feldspar Hall is a lonely, cursed place, its owner an old woman crippled by rheumatism and tortured by dark secrets from her past. Mr. Winthrop, the heir to the estate, is tired of waiting for her to die. He has a plan to speed her on her way, using Charlotte as his accomplice.
His orders are like a chain dragging Charlotte step by step closer to murder. The harder she resists, the more she finds herself caught in his trap. Her own life will end on the gallows if she can’t find a way to free herself.
CHARLOTTE PILCHARD is a 45,000 word Gothic Victorian fantasy for middle grade readers.
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I guess Phil didn't see his shadow, so here's hoping you snowbound folks are in for some relief! Santa Cruz temps are dropping fast today, so... maybe groundhogs don't work around here.