MONTH-LONG LOVE SONG
An Unpublished YA Novel
by Deborah Solo Collins
My newest manuscript is now complete. I’m so grateful to all my critique partners and beta readers who generously read this book and helped me improve it! I’m so excited for this one, because it uses a unique multi-point-of-view structure that is sometimes nonlinear. This allowed me to be really creative with character voice and play with the reveal of information—lots of fun twists that can only work when a story is told from more than one point of view. It is my goal to sign with a literary agent and traditionally publish this work.
What’s it About?
Eighteen-year-old Quinn is the leader of a Queer rock band, and she’s spent four years preparing for one epic opportunity: a month-long competition that would launch her band to the national level if they win. But just days before the competition starts, Quinn walks in on her girlfriend/drummer making out with their bassist at the drum set.
Heartbroken and seething, Quinn fires them both. And with no other options, she has to convince her siblings to join her band. Her beatboxing little brother is good to go. But her stage-shy sister, Hali, only agrees in an attempt to mend their strained relationship. Good thing their parents are out of town so they can get away with marathon rehearsals and a practice-gig at an all-night beach party. Things are coming together for the competition, until Quinn falls hard for Forest, a sweet, introverted aspiring tattoo artist with abandonment issues—who is a dude.
Will fans of her song “Girls Only” still vote for her if she’s technically bi? And it only makes things more complicated that historically-straight Hali starts crushing on a girl, treading on Quinn’s now fragile identity. The contest amps up, Quinn’s feelings for Forest grow, and her ex-girlfriend’s new band becomes real competition. Quinn will have to decide between her onstage persona and herself—and risk losing the guy she loves, her fan base, her relationship with her siblings, and her one shot at fame in the process.
BETTER AS BOYFRIENDS
An Unpublished YA Novel
by Deborah Solo Collins
My manuscript, BETTER AS BOYFRIENDS, remains unpublished. I had a much better experience trying to find an agent for this manuscript than I did for my first manuscript. I was honored to received many requests from agents to read it, but I have not received an offer of representation at this time. The full manuscript is still out with a few agents. In the meantime, I have written two other manuscripts that are now in various stages of editing and I’m excited that one of these might be a stronger debut project with a more hooking external stake.
What’s it About?
Out-and-proud Ethan has his anxiety disorder pretty much under control, and he’s just landed his first boyfriend, adorable Ben. As long as Ethan passes his driver’s test before his sister abandons him for college, his summer is going to be basically perfect. But when Ethan’s enigmatic and recently out childhood friend, Mateo, returns to their small Michigan town, Ethan is swept up in his long-standing, unrequited crush on him.
Ethan tries to focus on Ben (the sweet boy who actually likes him back!), but when Mateo leans in closer at the edge of the dock in the moonlight, Ethan wonders if his crush on Mateo is as hopeless as he’s always believed.
As summer surges forward—teaching kids’ theater and dance classes with Ben, learning how to drive with Mateo, and attempting to be less embarrassingly dependent on his sister—Ethan’s attraction to Mateo only intensifies, which is not ideal for Ethan’s rising anxiety. And when a mutual friend starts flirting with Mateo, Ethan knows he’ll have to decide to either stay with the boy he’s happy with or risk his heart going after the secretive boy he’s always wanted.
The heart of the story is this: falling in love will not magically erase your mental health issues—but love is still something worth growing for and fighting to keep.
It’s Not What You’re Thinking
An unpublished YA Novel
by Deborah Solo Collins
As this aesthetic board promises, there will be a lot of running, kissing, and reckless shit going down in cars.
My historical fiction YA novel of 82,000 words, IT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE THINKING, features LGBTQIA+ characters and is set in the iconic year of 1999, well before the start of the Me Too movement and when the word gay was still frequently used as an insult.
IT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE THINKING is my first manuscript, and I have not yet found representation as an author, so it remains unpublished. I have written more complete YA LGBTQIA+ manuscripts since, and I have learned so much about my personal style as an author through that work. I hope to return to IT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE THINKING when the time is right.
What’s it about?
Brooke, age sixteen and new to a small Michigan town, feels isolated by her secrets, until she gets lost on an evening run through wooded back roads and is forced to trust three teenage guys laughing around a campfire: sarcastic Alex, shy River, and flirtatious Jason.
As she becomes part of their circle, Brooke should feel like she has it made. She’s dominating on the cross country team and getting straight A’s, but no one knows the truth—that she lies awake at night burying her bisexual attractions and reliving a traumatic encounter with a boy at her old school.
Desperate to feel normal, she clings to a growing crush on Jason (but he totally should have mentioned he already has a girlfriend). And when one of the boys confides that he is gay, knowing his secret makes it harder to keep her own identity hidden. As each boy pulls her toward new experiences—lying to her parents, staying up late at campfires, and sneaking into a gay nightclub on Halloween—she must choose to remain emotionally paralyzed by her secrets or edge closer to the self-acceptance that she desperately needs to heal . . . and to the full truth of the painful night that still haunts her.
(This is totally a glamour shot of my actual manuscript. Single spaced to save paper. You can tell I’m super proud, right?)
To read my recent review of Let’s Get Back to the Party, by Zak Salih for Fiction Writers Review, please click HERE.