Surprise Agent Invasion #30

Title: MIRANDA AND THE FIREBIRD OF MACHU PICCHU

Genre: middle-grade novel

Word Count: 52,000

Query:

While vacationing at the ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru, 13-year-old Miranda

finds herself mysteriously plunged 500 years into the past, at the time of

the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Miranda must choose between

finding her way home and using her knowledge of history to save the life

of Chaska, the Inca girl who befriended her.

Miranda becomes separated from the tour group and awakens in a moonlit

village, she is more lost than she knows. Evading capture by Inca guards,

she realizes that she has been transported into the distant past. An

aristocratic couple befriends her, mistaking her for a stranger from

another village, but the couple's daughter, Chaska, is jealous. Although

shy, Miranda rises to the occasion, and after saving Chaska from a deadly

snake and makes a friend of her former enemy, along with Kusi, Chaska's

cute brother. Miranda also befriends Pikichaki, a scrappy peasant boy,

flouting cross-class taboos.

As Miranda searches for a way home, she learns that Spanish invaders are

approaching Machu Picchu. The Inca townspeople are desperate to defend

their village at all cost, even believing human sacrifice will appease the

gods and help the Incas defeat the bloodthirsty Spaniards. An extremist

Inca priest selects Chaska to be killed. Miranda feels torn. Miranda’s

knowledge of history may be enough to save Chaska, but it could cost

Miranda’s only chance to return to her own time and family.

Though the characters are fictional, the setting is historically accurate.

The appendices include a brief history of the Incas, a glossary,

bibliography, discussion guide and maps.

The market is ripe for adventure stories, shown by the success of Rick

Riordan’s best-selling series combining modern kids with mythology of

ancient Greece and Egypt (Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Kane

Chronicles series.) Also, my novel ties into the middle-school social

studies curriculum covering the Incas.

Furthermore, there are relatively few books with Latina protagonists,

although there are 50 million Latinos in the U.S.

Travels with my husband, who is Peruvian-American, sparked my interest in

the Incas. I have 15 years of experience as an award-winning newspaper

journalist and dietitian, and am a member of SCBWI. I work well with

editors and am eager to promote my novel.

First 250:

I steadied myself against a tree trunk a safe distance from the cliff’s

edge and inhaled the scents of eucalyptus and the peppery hothouse smell

of the Peruvian jungle. My first view of Machu Picchu unfolded below me,

even more amazing than I had expected.

The city perched on a mountaintop, surrounded on three sides by a steep

gorge, and blue river, and ringed by even taller mountains. A ribbon of

mist swept over the ruins—rows of roofless grey stone houses, grassy

lanes, and a pyramid piercing the clouds. I froze, stunned by the beauty

of it. Until I heard a pinging sound.

It was Brandon, the hot guy from our tour bus, throwing stones. He was my

age, about 13. He aimed at a furry, grey animal no bigger than a rabbit—it

looked like the chinchilla I had seen in my guidebook. The animal

scrambled through a clump of flowers on a narrow ledge below the cliff.

Why had I thought Brandon was such a hunk?

“Good shot,” Stella crooned from Brandon’s side.

Brandon ran his square fingers over a jagged chunk of granite, eyes on the

creature.

“Next, I’ll nail the rat!”

“Please, leave it alone!” I stepped toward them. “Chinchillas are harmless.”

“Chinchilla?” Stella raised her eyebrows. “Like the fur coats?”

Brandon grinned and wound up his arm like a baseball pitcher.

“No!” I ran toward them, flailing on loose gravel. I slammed to my

stomach, skidding across the stones to edge of the cliff.