Query:
Twelve-year-old Ledger is worried. If his tinkering dad doesn’t stop wasting money on eccentric brainstorms and flakey inventions, they could lose the family bookstore, their life savings and their house. To make matters worse, Dad’s workshop just exploded—and this was no accident. Somebody blew it up on purpose.
Granddad arrives to take Ledger and his kid sister, Savvy, to Camp Eureka—The Quintessential Inventor’s Camp for Nerdy kids—until Dad can figure out who dynamited his workshop. But on the way, Granddad goes missing and now Ledger and Savvy are on their own to reach Camp Eureka and figure out who’s messing with their family before they strike again.
When they arrive (dripping wet but alive), the perplexing camp director won’t let them join the search for Granddad—that is, unless they prove themselves by winning the camp’s Weird Wacky Water War and Pretty Nerdy Baby Buggy Derby. Ledger can’t understand what’s up with the camp director, but one thing he knows for sure: An inventive mind could really come in handy right now.
LEDGER DEMAIN AND THE AWESOME UMBRELLA is a 57,000-word, upper MG adventure with Sci-Fi elements and series potential.
By the way, I know a little something about inventions, living and inventing in Silicon Valley with 27 patents to my name. I’m also a member of SCBWI and the South Bay Writers Club, graduate of U. of MD with a BA in English Lit and author of 14 tech books published by Bantam, Simon & Schuster and other top publishers.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this project.
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First 250 words:
Chapter 1 – The Umbrella Arrives
Ledger usually tried to change the subject whenever his clueless dad presented some new invention, but not today. Not after the huge explosion.
He lay stretched out on his bed with his head at the wrong end, his stocking feet on the pillow—the best way to hang out on a rainy Saturday morning. He flexed his toes, thinking about summer vacation and wondering if his kid sister had left any yogurt in the fridge, when—KA-BLOOEY!
It sounded like the world’s largest dump truck had slammed into the side of the house. It shook their home. It shook his bed.
It shook Ledger right onto the floor.
“What the—”
Savvy barged through the door. “Did you hear that?” she yelled, then stopped. “Ledger?”
He poked his head up from the other side of the bed, frowning. “Do I look deaf?”
“Come on!” Without waiting, she shot out of the room and down the stairs.
He caught up with her on the basement steps where she stood staring at the choking dust that poured out of their dad’s workshop. The blackened door at their feet had been blown right off its hinges. The door lifted, rotated and fell on its other side to reveal their dad, coughing and struggling to sit up.
“Dad,” Ledger shouted, “Can you hear me? Look at my hand, how many fingers?”
“Yes, I can hear you, please don’t yell. I see four fingers—no, wait.” He shook his head. “Two fingers and a thumb.”