My name is G Allen Matthews. With my 13-y/o step-daughter, we have completed an MG novel that we are querying around. While not a new writer, I am new to MG. I thought I had written a YA novel... A publisher corrected me. It is upper MG (lower YA)., in line with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, particularly the Heroes of Olympus series.
I love my work. I'm supposed to. I am looking for readers to "test read" the work. All I ask is two things: read it all and tell me what you thought., good or bad. I cannot afford beta readers, so I am not seeking that kind of feedback. Just "I liked it," or "I didn't like it," perhaps rate it based on the 5-star scale. Anything else you want to add will be appreciated. Hopefully you will rave a little. But you might not.
Title: Zachary Zaad and the Terrorization of Zee Authors: G Allen Matthews and Shian Zhiey Falcotelo Genre: Upper MG Fantasy adventure romcom. Word count: 75000 Unpublished, so your feedback could lead to improvements. No inappropriate material, one "damn" and one "$@#%" used humorously.
SEO tags include: Coming of Age; First love; comedy; middle grade; Lower YA; best friends; romance; romcom; family; loss; mystery; thriller; laugh out loud; and a lot more.
Because the information below contains spoilers, if you are interested but do not want to be spoiled, stop after the blurb. I can send the file to you in PDF, epub, or uploaded to Google Drive (my least preferred option as my older Windows laptop messes with the process).
Reply here (preferred for transparency) or email me directly: zyzyxisgreat@proton.me, with the subject line: "Zaad Test Reader"
Let me know if you "generally" fit the preferred target audience, but nothing specific. If you don't fit the general target audience, that's fine. I accept anyone willing to read. _________________________________________________
Blurb: At the beginning of the summer after 8th grade — Zach’s life went weird. Tossed into the air like confetti, everything about his life as a middle school kid changed. School changed. Friends changed. Family changed. Neighbors changed. His whole life all fell back into a warped hodgepodge of a mishmash. Everyone and everything landed to form a puzzle of his life in new and zigzagged places. Even his best friend, Zyler Zyzyx. His once intact and perfect life spiraled into one giant zwirl. It all started with a girl and a monster. ____________________________________________
Details and simple synopsis (CONTAINS SPOILERS):
Using multiple-1st person POV, the characters share the story as if “face-to-face” with the reader. The characters are prone to step out of the storytelling in Ferris Bueller-style asides. The text plays with alliteration, the characters even making jokes about it. And all proper nouns begin with Z.
A definite MG writing style, Riordan is a major influence. But, with clear YA content, especially the ending. Zaad has: unique voices, thriller elements with a “mystery,” and a laugh-out-loud romcom. We created an unusual coming-of-age tale. Talking animals, sort of, through use of the Greek mythological therianthrope; humans that transform into animals. My coauthor is a young Filipina, an underrepresented demographic. The Zaad world also expands into a series (4-books total).
There is something weird about Zachary Zaad, even though he is perfectly ordinary. He is a bit short, and a little scrawny, and his hair is always an unkempt mess. And the brutal murder of his grandmother by the Terrorization. Even so, he remains un-extraordinary. Except there is something bafflingly wrong about him. A terrifying nightmare haunts Zach into thinking he has become the Terrorization, awakening one morning with a beard of chicken feathers around his mouth, terrifying his best friend, Zyler Zyzyx.
His dreams become wilder, yet passionate, playful, but terrifying. Each time waking again bewildered in unusual places. One Saturday morning, he discovers Zemira Zambrano, and everything changes. The nightmares pale in comparison to his instant attraction to Zemira.
She, too, struggles with confounding changes in her life. She fights her attraction to this unusually ordinary boy. Discovering “Mrs. Zemira Zaad” scrawled in her chemistry notebook, she panics. My potent passion to become a prima ballerina will never permit any boy to obscure my path. Great... Now I am alliterating. But she cannot stop herself, drawn inexorably to Zachary.
His world flips upside down with the murder of Zach’s grandfather by the Terrorization. Shocked from his dreams, he leads his friends on a hunt to solve the mystery that baffles Zee. (Zach learns he is an African lion therianthrope. Zemira is a lioness.) The threesome ventures up Mount Zaza to discover what—or who—the Terrorization is and stop it... if it does not kill them first.
I love my work. I'm supposed to. I am looking for readers to "test read" the work. All I ask is two things: read it all and tell me what you thought., good or bad. I cannot afford beta readers, so I am not seeking that kind of feedback. Just "I liked it," or "I didn't like it," perhaps rate it based on the 5-star scale. Anything else you want to add will be appreciated. Hopefully you will rave a little. But you might not.
Title: Zachary Zaad and the Terrorization of Zee
Authors: G Allen Matthews and Shian Zhiey Falcotelo
Genre: Upper MG Fantasy adventure romcom.
Word count: 75000
Unpublished, so your feedback could lead to improvements. No inappropriate material, one "damn" and one "$@#%" used humorously.
SEO tags include: Coming of Age; First love; comedy; middle grade; Lower YA; best friends; romance; romcom; family; loss; mystery; thriller; laugh out loud; and a lot more.
Because the information below contains spoilers, if you are interested but do not want to be spoiled, stop after the blurb. I can send the file to you in PDF, epub, or uploaded to Google Drive (my least preferred option as my older Windows laptop messes with the process).
Reply here (preferred for transparency) or email me directly:
zyzyxisgreat@proton.me,
with the subject line: "Zaad Test Reader"
Let me know if you "generally" fit the preferred target audience, but nothing specific. If you don't fit the general target audience, that's fine. I accept anyone willing to read.
_________________________________________________
Blurb:
At the beginning of the summer after 8th grade — Zach’s life went weird. Tossed into the air like confetti, everything about his life as a middle school kid changed. School changed. Friends changed. Family changed. Neighbors changed. His whole life all fell back into a warped hodgepodge of a mishmash. Everyone and everything landed to form a puzzle of his life in new and zigzagged places. Even his best friend, Zyler Zyzyx. His once intact and perfect life spiraled into one giant zwirl.
It all started with a girl and a monster.
____________________________________________
Details and simple synopsis (CONTAINS SPOILERS):
Using multiple-1st person POV, the characters share the story as if “face-to-face” with the reader. The characters are prone to step out of the storytelling in Ferris Bueller-style asides. The text plays with alliteration, the characters even making jokes about it. And all proper nouns begin with Z.
A definite MG writing style, Riordan is a major influence. But, with clear YA content, especially the ending. Zaad has: unique voices, thriller elements with a “mystery,” and a laugh-out-loud romcom. We created an unusual coming-of-age tale. Talking animals, sort of, through use of the Greek mythological therianthrope; humans that transform into animals. My coauthor is a young Filipina, an underrepresented demographic. The Zaad world also expands into a series (4-books total).
There is something weird about Zachary Zaad, even though he is perfectly ordinary. He is a bit short, and a little scrawny, and his hair is always an unkempt mess. And the brutal murder of his grandmother by the Terrorization. Even so, he remains un-extraordinary. Except there is something bafflingly wrong about him. A terrifying nightmare haunts Zach into thinking he has become the Terrorization, awakening one morning with a beard of chicken feathers around his mouth, terrifying his best friend, Zyler Zyzyx.
His dreams become wilder, yet passionate, playful, but terrifying. Each time waking again bewildered in unusual places. One Saturday morning, he discovers Zemira Zambrano, and everything changes. The nightmares pale in comparison to his instant attraction to Zemira.
She, too, struggles with confounding changes in her life. She fights her attraction to this unusually ordinary boy. Discovering “Mrs. Zemira Zaad” scrawled in her chemistry notebook, she panics. My potent passion to become a prima ballerina will never permit any boy to obscure my path. Great... Now I am alliterating. But she cannot stop herself, drawn inexorably to Zachary.
His world flips upside down with the murder of Zach’s grandfather by the Terrorization. Shocked from his dreams, he leads his friends on a hunt to solve the mystery that baffles Zee. (Zach learns he is an African lion therianthrope. Zemira is a lioness.) The threesome ventures up Mount Zaza to discover what—or who—the Terrorization is and stop it... if it does not kill them first.