Flyboy

BY kasey leblanc

balzer + bray

2024

Query Letter

FLYBOY (94,000 words) is an #ownvoices novel that combines the queer coming out of Mason Deaver’s I Wish You All the Best and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda with a dose of magic in the vein of Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Weight of Feathers.

After an incident at his public high school leaves closeted trans teenager Asher Sullivan needing stitches, his mother betrays him in the worst possible way--sending him to Catholic School for senior year. As if being groomed by his grandparents for a future he wants no part of wasn’t bad enough, now he’s also got to contend with hideous plaid skirts, cranky nuns, and #bathroomJesus. At least he’s got his bff Moira to help him survive it all.

When Asher begins dreaming of a magical circus, he’s excited to have one place where he can finally be seen, even if that place exists only in his sleep. Or at least, that’s what he believes, until the day when his annoyingly attractive rival Apollo walks out of his dreams and into his classroom. On the heels of his realization that the Midnight Circus might be more than a figment of his imagination, Asher also learns that it’s not forever, that one day he will be forced to leave.

Desperate to preserve the first place he’s ever truly felt at home, Asher steals the book that controls the circus. But the theft has unintended consequences for the circus, his straining friendship with Moira, and his growing relationship with Apollo. As both worlds collide, Asher must decide how far he’s willing to go to preserve both. And if he’s willing to face his biggest challenge yet--coming clean, and coming out.

I was a 2019 Alice Hoffman fellow with GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator Program and a finalist for the 2019 Boston Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence position. I have since been published by [WBUR’s Cognoscenti, WriterUnboxed, and Them. When not writing, I can be found learning to unicycle and mourning the loss of Boston’s only flying trapeze school.

Age Range

Young Adult

Genre

Fantasy (Contemporary)

Word Count

94,000

Book Link

https://www.amazon.com/Flyboy-Kasey-LeBlanc/dp/0063284359/

Agent

Mollie Glick at CAA (but the first agent to offer was Sara Megibow at KT Literary)

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Query Stats

Number of Queries Sent

35

Number of Full Requests Received

11

Number of Offers of Representation

5

Number of Months Spent Querying This Novel

2 months

Number of Manuscripts Queried Before This One

0

Publication Status of The Book Queried

Under Contract (Big 5)

Note to Querying Writers:

While this was the first novel I queried, I wrote and shelved a book before this without querying it.