Kourtnie McKenzie

Eleanora doesn’t shapeshift on purpose. After sixteen years of owl wings, cat eyes, monkey tails, and never figuring out how to run without winding up a quadruped, she’d give anything for a less embarrassing natural response; well, almost anything. If word ever got out that the human princess actually descended from a skrímsli, or shapechanger, Ancillae’s lawmakers would rip her and the royal family to shreds.

Fortunately, Eleanora’s mother sent her to a village in the middle of nowhere to study with a kennari proficient in memory replacement Arts. There’s nothing to tell if the witnesses can’t remember, and all the public needs to know is that her kennari is responsible for her Artistic schooling. Her crutch comes to an end though when she’s assigned as a noble representative to a military fortress along the kingdom’s border. She’s got a whole new crowd of faces to deceive: the dwarven lieutenant, a young ambassador, and two knights intent on vying for her heart. She’s determined to discover the identity of the cloaked figures attacking her kingdom, but that may come at the terrible price of truth.

FORGOTTEN WINGS is a 110,000-word high fantasy YA with teleporting islands, seventy-five worlds, and a princess that isn’t another Cinderella.

Read the first chapter

I am currently seeking literary representation. If you are interested, please email me at kourtnie-at-g-mail-dot-com.

Thanks for visiting!

The Journey of the Aspiring Novelist

FORGOTTEN WINGS’ first draft landed a whopping 173,000 words. Each edit (I’d lose my wallet over losing my copy of SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS) shaved off 10-20k words until it inevitably reached its current length. It’s undergone trimming, slicing, dicing, and some painstaking wars over book titles with my super amazing critique readers.

I attended the San Diego Writer Conference 2009 and the Hawaii Writer Conference 2009 to learn more about the art of novel writing. Both opportunities let me discover tidbits about the publishing industry, on top of the umpteen blogs I poke in and out of; but the real teachers are the young adult books I devour during my lunch breaks, plane trips, and before bedtime reading. My Goodreads is a semi-updated window into my reading tastes.

FORGOTTEN WINGS has received peer reviews from male, female, adult, and teenage readers alike. Special thanks to Matthew, Sarah, David, Brian, Alan, Steve, and Jocelyn; and most of all, to John for reading five drafts with emails promising, “I think I made it better!” FIVE. DRAFTS. EYE BOGGLE.

FORGOTTEN WINGS is the product of years of creativity, intensive thought, a love for both young adult and fantasy books, and most of all, the people that believe in my writing.

Comments Off