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February 13, 2013 by meredithmansfield

Not much to say today. I’m just having one of those days where everything feels like I’m Sisyphus perennially trying to push a boulder uphill, only to have it roll back down to the bottom again. (Gotta love the Greeks for imaginative punishments in Hades.)

Sisyphus (Photo credit: AK Rockefeller)

I’m basically an optimistic person (which is very useful for an aspiring writer), but every once in a while . . . . Maybe I’ve just been doing revisions for too long and it’s time to start on something brand new. Maybe I just need to go outside and dig up some ivy. That should help.

Well, enough of that. Since I can’t come up with anything else, here’s the latest (but not the last) version of my query for THE BARD’S GIFT:

Sixteen-year-old Astrid keeps mostly to herself, amusing herself with the stories her grandmother used to tell. She’s too shy even to talk in front of the young man she secretly dreams of, Torolf. Then the Norse god of eloquence appears in Astrid’s dreams and forces her to drink from the Mead of Poetry. Suddenly, she’s compelled to tell her stories. In public. Even in front of Torolf.

This leads her to actually talk to Torolf–and find out that he likes her, too. They’ve barely enjoyed their first kiss when the seeress makes a prophecy that will split them apart. The seeress proclaims that Astrid’s gift for knowing the exactly right story to comfort, inspire, instruct, or warn is the key to a new future for their people. According to the seeress, Astrid must sail with the people to the part of the map labelled “Here be dragons”, while Torolf undertakes a hazardous voyage in the opposite direction, to Iceland, to supply the fledgling colony.

What they don’t know is that ambitious Helga has a plan to control Astrid’s abilities and status to take power for her own family. First, they need to get Torolf out of the way, so they arrange for him to be stranded in Iceland.

It will take both of them to thwart Helga’s plot. Torolf strains his inventiveness to its limits to get back. And Astrid has to learn to trust herself and her stories to keep her people from repeating past mistakes and hold off Helga’s attempted coup which could doom their only chance.