Day 25 of 30 days of Fiction: “26) Write a personalized rejection letter for the YA novel ‘Sparkle Lust.'”

This is an in-joke of sorts off of the Addergoole setting; one might wonder why, of everyone, you never see Ardell’s Change…

Dear Ardell Drake:

Thank you for submitting your novel “Sparkle Lust” for consideration. However, we are not interested in publishing it at this time for several reasons.

Firstly, although you billed this as YA, and I acknowledge that the main characters are, indeed, teenagers throughout most of the story, the subject matter is uncomfortably dark even for jaded adults.

The story itself, of a stifling, abusive stepfather, a distant father, an inappropriately interested professor, and a heavy-handed first boyfriend, bears telling, I believe, but the dark and fantastic elements that you choose to couch it in bring it into the realm of a terrifying acid trip. In addition, although I am impressed with the way your metaphors carry through the entire tale, I am not certain why you chose to use something so reminiscent of recent well-known YA novels as a symbol for uncertain sexuality.

That similarity – the sparkle which you even put in the title of your novel – would open this publishing house up to potential lawsuits, since it cannot be said that your novel is a parody or satire of the original.

Additionally, the thinly-veiled autobiographical nature of some of your details is worrisome, and would likely cause many of our customers distress. If such things are truly happening in an American boarding school; action should be taken.

And, as a personal reason, Dr. Regine Avonmorea gives this publishing house quite a bit of money, and would be very irked with this novel. And your stepfather would break my neck.

My apologies, and we wish you luck with another publishing house,

Lyn Thorne-Alder
Editor,
Alder’s Grove Press

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