Writing

2011 Query for the teen novels How Good It Can Be and The Love Quad

When does borderline abusive behavior cross the line?

When Emma gets with Blake, she thinks she’s found the perfect guy and considers giving up her dream of going away for college to stay with him.

When the rumors about Blake start—that he’s hooked up with other girls—and Emma’s confronted with evidence of his character firsthand—he borrows money from her, complains about who she hangs out with and tries to control what she does in her free time, Emma refuses to believe that Blake’s unworthy.

When Blake physically assaults her, Emma must make a decision whether or not to stay with him. Ultimately, Blake chooses for her when he recklessly takes his own life. In the end Emma Saffron finds out how good it can be to be true to herself.

My debut teen novel How Good It Can Be is in a workshopped draft at 70,000 words.

A few teens have read the novel—here’s their feedback: http://twitpic.com/1mzkxh and http://www.michellezaffino.com/blog/1398/#respond

Why let tragic events color the course of your life?

Why is it that even though Emma’s at school in California, she still thinks about her ex-boyfriend Blake?

Why does she attract friends who also have issues? Spencer, who struggles with his sexuality, Guy, who has almost zero confidence, and Alexis, whose New York upbringing gave her too much?

Why does she fall into The Love Quad? This modern story is one about ‘girls who like boys who like boys who like girls who like girls.’

Why despite the consequences does Emma thrive, excelling in school and as a deejay for the campus station? She realizes that bad things happen to everybody and that you don’t have to let events like coming out, prejudice, sexual violence, or attempted suicide direct the course of your life.

The Love Quad is the sequel to How Good It Can Be and is in a workshopped draft at 68,000 words.

Please contact me if you would like to see the plot synopsis for each of these novels, or a sample chapter.

I also recently finished the rough draft of an historical novel for teens, set in 1501 Rome that centers on the satirical statue called Pasquino (which is my maternal grandmother’s surname).

Many Thanks—Michelle Zaffino

About Michelle Zaffino

Michelle Zaffino has over 15 years of creative industry experience, including magazine and online publishing, writing, editing and copywriting. She worked in New York for publications such as Redbook, Elle, Sports Afield and Esquire, and while managing the research department at Marie Claire, she wrote Does Your Man Need A Makeover?, which inspired tv’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Now living in San Francisco, she writes copy for websites like Men’s Wearhouse, Wild Planet, Charlotte Russe, TRIA Beauty, Sephora, Banana Republic, Dockers, Gap, Piperlime, Old Navy, Lucy Activewear, Perricone MD, Eco to the People, Eco Fashion World and her own websites, www.inthestacks.tv and www.michellezaffino.com. She recently completed her first teen novel, How Good It Can Be, a sequel and an historical novel for teens, and is currently working on a series for young adults. Michelle is also a MLIS student who plans to see her interest in writing, books, online copywriting and computers converge in a future job in digital libraries.

A video query can be viewed here:

http://www.michellezaffino.com/blog/1413/#respond

Cover lines on a fashion magazine are almost like ads for life lessons you should’ve already learned. ‘Is He Cheating on You?’ and ‘How to Live Up to Your True Potential’ are universal problems many people begin to reconcile in their teens. The correlation between the high school and college experience and the articles we were printing when I was a magazine editor in New York (the head of Research at Marie Claire) wasn’t lost on me. In fact, it cemented my intention to write my first young adult novel How Good It Can Be. I now live in San Francisco, where I work as a copywriter.

In How Good It Can Be we meet 17-year old Emma Saffron, a smart, bookish teen with fashion sense and style to spare. Full of curiosity, Emma is eager to graduate high school and start living life. A shy girl, more than a few pain-in-the-ass boys have chased her, without success. Then Emma encounters the devastatingly cool guy Blake and everything changes—she falls in love for the first time and soon loses her virginity to him. The theme of awakening continues to play out and Emma learns a huge life lesson when Blake turns abusive. How Good It Can Be shows how Emma survives and thrives, rejects what other people think and is ultimately true to herself. The book covers issues such as first love, jealousy, losing your virginity, abuse, competition, betrayal, and death. Abuse among teenagers is more common than people like to think. According to a recent article in the New York Times, 10% of teenagers in a serious relationship are abused by their partner. That statistic makes quite a sensational cover line.

How Good It Can Be and Emma shine as a source of modern feminist inspiration for young readers, encouraging them to be leaders of their lives not followers. I hope to suggest to teens that bad situations don’t have to direct the course of your life and that they don’t have to settle for an unworthy partner to be part of the status quo. After workshopping How Good It Can Be, I spent the past couple years rewriting and revising, editing and proofreading, and now at 70,000 words it reads remarkably well.

A sequel to this novel is complete at 68,000 words and is currently being workshopped. Tentatively titled The Love Quad, it follows Emma Saffron to college where she meets a motley group of interesting characters including her gay best friend, where the love story develops into a girls who like boys who like boys who like girls who like girls conundrum. Emma learns that everyone goes through bad experiences and that you can’t let them affect the course of your life. I’d like to sell these two books as a package.

Please contact me for sample chapters, a plot synopsis, and an outline. Thank you for reading—Michelle