Kalie Holford (YA Contemporary)

Author: Kalie Holford (@kwrites4)

Age Range: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary

Agent: Alex Rice, Creative Artists Agency

The Query Letter:

THE LAST LOVE SONG is a queer Mamma Mia for fans of Nina LaCour's Everything Leads to You and Erin Hahn's You'd Be Mine. This YA contemporary is complete at 84,000 words, and [redacted editors] expressed interest in my pitch during PitMad events.

Eighteen-year-old Mia Peters never met her late mother, famous 80s country star Tori Rose, but she’s spent her life chasing her story. Desperate for answers her small-town refuses to give, Mia seeks a way to justify leaving for her own music dreams despite her mother’s tragedy. When she finds her mother’s old diary, she uncovers a scavenger hunt of Tori’s past, leading to the truth behind her mom’s life and death, and her unknown father.

Through clues hidden around her seaside town and letters depicting a summer with two boys under the neon lights of the City of Music, Tori shows Mia the other side of her own dreams. As Mia continues to uncover more stories and falls deeper in love with a girl who plans on leaving, she questions every reason she's decided to stay home and every uncharted possibility that lies in searching for more.

In an epistolary novel incorporating lyrics and diary entries to jump between past and present, stardom and small-town life, Mia and Tori struggle to pave the way for each other and themselves. And when Mia has a part to play in Tori Rose’s unfinished ending, she’ll have to complete her mother’s story before the music ruins them both.

I’m a college freshman who loves writing coming-of-age stories in YA. I've worked with industry professionals as a mentee in Author Mentor Match Round 6 and the TeenPit Class of 2018, and I mentor in the near-peer mentorship program The Write Team. When I'm not writing, I can be found reading, studying, or working on my school newspaper.

Thank you for your time and consideration.