Introducing Shutterbug Meets (Invisble) Girl

For those of you who missed this post, I'll just recap by saying that after having finished MIRRORPASS at the beginning of August, I'm finally starting a new WIP, and here are all the juicy details.

Title: Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl  
Genre: YA magic realism with elements of action, adventure, and romance.
Status: Drafting.
Pinterest page: here. 

I have a working blurb up on the WIP page, but I thought you guys would much rather read this early prologue:

This is the story of a girl who didn’t belong anywhere, who slept in the velvet curtains of an old theater and danced over steam grates. Her name was long forgotten. Her past, unknown. Sometimes she sank beneath the ground where the city’s roar became a steady heartbeat. Sometimes she visited the children’s hospital and whispered stories to the sleepers. When she was very lonely, she drifted up to the moon, until the pull of the earth was barely a tug at her feet.

She didn’t realize how lonely she’d become. How often she floated above the highest skyscrapers, her chin tipped up toward the stars, thinking she could drift away forever, and nobody would notice.

She was wrong.

Toby would have noticed. She did not always remember him, but Toby had never forgotten about her. Even though he was in high school now. Even though he’d had friends and crushes, joined a band, switched to photography, moved downtown—the memory was always there. Making him think. Making him wonder why.

In a way, this as much his story as hers. Because though she had forgotten him, Toby was determined to find her, and bring her back. 

But that doesn't tell you much about the actual plot, so, elevator pitch:

Peter Pan meets 500 Days of Summer When sixteen-year-old Toby McCleary finds an impossibly old photo of a girl he befriended, and lost, just nine years ago, he sets out on a quest to find the mysterious disappearing girl of his childhood--and keep her safe from the crime family claiming her as one of their own.

Ooooh. Ahhh.

Those of you who have a sense of my writing will know this is a different sort of novel for me. I've never once written a high-school story, or anything in first-person present-tense, or heck, even a romance before. It's set in a city, and I've never lived in a city. Half of it is told by a boy, and I am not a boy. It does not have mad scientists, for once. Instead, it involves a crime family with a very big secret.

It's younger. It's sweeter. It's in some ways more real, and more grim, and more beautiful, than anything I've written in a long while.

It also involves a lot more dialogue, and all in all, I am ridiculously excited about it.

Okay, but enough of me talking! Playlist time. It's been interesting working on the playlist, because I have the voices of both Toby and his mystery girl to consider, along what happens when you put those two characters and voices together.

So here are a few of Mirelle's songs: 

Next a few of Toby's songs, although I'm having trouble finding songs for Toby, which means either A) I don't listen to his kind of music enough, or B) I'm having trouble pinning down his voice. Probably both. Anyway, songs:

And here are what I call the duet songs:

I think I will leave it at that, but if any of you have song recommendations, please do share. (And as always, please feel free to tell me how your WIP's are going!)

Truly and always,
-Creative A