Custom Friend
In the year 2125, disfigured 8th grader Anne Vasquez keeps getting spammed with ads for friendbots. She certainly fits the profile! Bullied for her scars and the low-budget avatars she wears to her virtual school, Anne has had it with human “friends”. In desperation, Anne installs Custom Friend 1.0, an AI friendbot you can tune to any personality. It’s 72% honest, 29% sarcastic and 100% driven to build up Anne’s popularity. With the help of her AI friend, Anne soon goes from class reject to global celebrity with millions of followers. But when her custom friend’s “favors” turn intrusive and dangerous, Anne realizes that this bot’s only “friend” is the evil software company that made it—and a custom friend can never be deleted. If only she’d read the Terms & Conditions! To escape the corporate clutches of her AI genie, Anne will have to make an impossible choice between fame and friendship, and reveal to the world who she really is—scars and all.
Chapter 1 of Custom Friend was published in Bardsy’s Spring 2024 First Chapters anthology. I am seeking representation for the novel.
Take the Mic!
8th grader Roderick Martinez has failure down to an art. From baseball to swimming to asking out girls, there seems to be no limit to what he cannot do. The one joy in Roderick’s life is his dream of performing stand-up on the big stage like the comedians he mimics on YouTube. If only he were good at it! He can never remember his own jokes, and the comeback lines he’s memorized are useless against the bullies who pummel him at the pool. Also not laughing are Roderick’s grumpy teachers and his engineer mom, who calculates the meager salary Roderick would earn as a small-town comedian. Roderick’s dream seems doomed until he meets Rob, a washed-up comedian who teaches Roderick how to write his own material. With Rob’s help, Roderick learns how to poke fun at everything around him—school, church, his enemies, and most importantly, himself. Will he have what it takes to win over the jeering crowds when he gets on a real stage?
Take the Mic is a work in progress. Stay tuned!