The Hangman Series is a young-adult trilogy of fiction that I’m writing.
The Guesser is the first book in the series and is currently being queried.
The Killing Tides (Working Title), book two in the trilogy, is currently being written.
The Guesser Pitch
In 2165, live hangings happen in a global effort to manage overpopulation. Hangman has been in affect for nearly two generations – and no one seems to question the validity or humiliation of its daily wrath. There are rules that everyone has to follow, not the least of which is that Guessers and Hangers cannot be together as more than schoolmates, workmates or friends. What would be worse than having to guess a puzzle while your love stands with a noose around her neck? Knowing that she will hang no matter what.
Short Synopsis
Jason Wagner is a Guesser, and although he had a powerful relationship with Maydah Riggs, a Hanger, a family tragedy ripped them apart. For seven years they’ve shared school hallways but never talked – until now. Maydah’s dreams have been urging her to communicate with Jason once again. It is her birthday, and as the rules state, she will have to participate in hangings since she’s turning seventeen. Jason’s birthday is three days away, at which point, he will have to participate as well.
After a heated reuniting, Jason and Maydah receive a seemingly magical message made out of Scrabble tiles – predicting that ‘she will hang on his birthday’.
Within hours of receiving this message, Jason meets Garrett, a retired Executioner, who has been waiting for Jason since he received a secret message years before. Guided by Garrett’s wisdom, strength and connections to the Exits, those who have managed to escape Hangman, Jason and Maydah learn about the reality of Hangman – and more.
As Jason struggles to understand his powerful gift of love energy-healing, and accept that he is the hero who is fated to stop Hangman, and Maydah learns that her instincts and the purple fleck in her eye separate her from others – including Jason, the young friends must navigate through feelings of frustration, fear and first love.
Add to the mix, a living ‘ghost’ named Brenna; Karl, an angry cop who also has the purple fleck, and information about the great coming human extinction, and his love Boston, a young doctor, plus books that come alive and walls that shift – and the Exits who are determined to help stop Hangman at all costs, Jason and Maydah are thrown neck-deep into a world they never knew existed.
The Killing Tides (Working Title) Pitch
Our heroes Jason Wagner and Maydah Riggs face separate realities that teach them about their individual histories and how they must use their power in the present in order to protect their futures. As they meet new people they must decide who to trust and what to believe. Will their love withstand a lengthy separation and stories that could change their intertwined fates? Hangman is a deathly game – or is it?
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 