A Debut Y.A. thriller
in the querying trenches
Eight girls.
One secret that won’t let go.
Two lives that will never be the same.
spared
by
r.m. lavender
An artistic introvert saves her longtime tormentor at a deadly cost, then must cover it up with the girl she saved.
A thriller for young adult readers
SPARED explores a sharp enemies-to-friends arc and a fraught shared-secret reckoning—all in the unforgiving wild.
With a friend like her, who needs enemies?
The Story . . .
An artistic introvert who saves the life of her arch nemesis at a deadly cost, then must cover it up with the girl she saved.
Mae lives for painting, but she’s still reeling from Jessica’s latest cruelty. She can’t take another minute of abuse, but the chance to paint high mountain scenes among girls of different backgrounds on Foxmoor’s Junior Bio trip is too good to pass up—if she can survive a week trapped with Jessica and her minions.
When a small plane crashes into their camp, killing a classmate and both teachers, and wrecking the bus, their divide only deepens. Mae helps the injured pilot, while something about him unsettles Jessica. Sneaking back to the wreckage alone, she finds a gun and a stash of cash—and takes them. As factions form around Jessica’s drinking and need for control, Mae wrestles with past trauma triggered by the chaos and her growing entanglement with the pilot. When she overhears him threaten Jessica and finds him holding her at knifepoint, her past floods back, driving her to stop his assault—leaving the pilot dead.
Mae’s shock doubles when Jessica pulls her into a trembling hug and insists they hide everything, or Mae could face a murder charge. Mae can’t disagree. But once home, police scrutiny strains their fragile alliance, and Mae discovers how much Jessica is still willing to hide. Now Mae must decide whether to hold Jessica’s secret or betray herself.
About R.M. Lavender
A career in teaching, artmaking, writing, and parenting his daughter led Lavender to write stories about distinct, strong female protagonists who face rising complications in pursuit of driving needs. Characters’ past experiences condition their motivations, their decision making, and, ultimately, their growth and change.
Developing compelling fiction and screenwriting projects is in some ways much like the work of painting and sculpture—but with words invoking millions of mind’s eye images instead of singular ones made to invite multiple interpretations. “Painting with words” is a kind of collaboration—one that creates immersive reader experiences crafted simultaneously between the writer and reader.
Lavender was briefly represented by Michael Hamilburg until his passing, has earned finalist awards in three creative writing competitions, including one sponsored by the SCBWI, and was a semi- or quarter-finalist in four others. Also a realist painter, Lavender studied and practices the oil-on-panel techniques that were in use from the Renaissance through the 19th century, many of them originally developed by Leonardo da Vinci and shared with his apprentices in his Treatise on Painting. Lavender has also published several journal articles on art education and contributed a chapter to Garb: A Fashion and Culture Reader.
determination | Mae
Her hands sticky on the wheel, Mae turns up the school’s long, curving drive as her dashboard clock ticks down another minute she doesn’t have.
Across the lot, Mrs. Rooney is already cranking the bus engine. “Be here by eight on the dot, or miss the trip,” she’d said. “One year, we had to leave a girl behind.”
Warnings like that, echoing in Mae’s head, only send butterflies circling inside her. And setting eyes on Foxmoor School for Girls, after her … time away, turns the fluttering into a storm. Sure, the place is as beautiful as ever, but the idea of facing a bunch of staring Foxmoor-girls, not so much. They’ll all be wondering if that nutcase Mae Reynolds really thinks she can handle the one thing they all love the most, the Fall Junior Bio Wilderness trip.
Not that they have any idea how her head is doing by now.
As she steers her dad’s old pickup into the farthest-out parking space, her front wheel rides up the curb, then flops back down, hard. The load of wooden lampposts from his production of Phantom clatters loudly in the back. Mae flushes hot up to her ears, muttering, “Way to go.”
Luckily, no one seems to notice her cringey arrival. But that’s because they’re already crowding around the school’s small bus. The second Ms. Strand finishes cramming bags and boxes into the rear section, Mrs. Rooney will be itching to take off.
Mae could’ve just skipped the trip, but that would cost her the chance to paint in a real high-mountain forest, with a real river, and the most colorful fall leaves she’s ever seen. “It’ll be spectacular,” Ms. Strand had emailed. “I hope we can do some painting together.” She didn’t add, “No serious art student should pass this up,” but she’d have been right. Copying photos from nature books doesn’t compare. They can’t show enough detail, and their colors are always dull.
On the other hand, if Mae had just kept working on the new landscape painting she left on her easel at home, she could have finished it, then taken it in next week to show Ms. Strand.
“Are you sure about doing this, Mae?” Mom had said at breakfast, in her special “I’m just concerned” voice. “Not long ago you were desperate to change schools, after your—”
“After my freak-out of the century, you mean. I was so done with Foxmoor.”
“But what about art, and Ms. Strand? You always say she’s the best there is.”
“She is,” Mae said, “but even with her on the trip, it’s a whole week of camping with eight girls piled into one tent. What torture. Especially since half of them think ‘wilderness’ is what happens when the gardener doesn’t show up.”
… Cont’d
Other Projects
Other Projects
Outlined or In-Progress
Several YA stories focusing on finding identity and agency, with high stakes and sustained tension, including:
Hunted. A YA thriller featuring SPARED’s main character, Mae and Jessica, as they try to outrun and stop the killer who’s after them.
Shades of Indigo. A YA thriller with high tension, including Foxmoor School for Girls’ new girl, Indigo, and SPAREDs’ main characters, Mae and Jessica.
A novel for the adult fiction market.
The Golden Boy. A Pacific Northwest timber-man loses his young son in a river accident, and finds his only solace in carving large wooden figures. When he is ‘discovered’ by a vacationing art dealer who draws him into the New York art world, his inspiration is nearly destroyed by the trappings of his remarkable success. Ultimately, he's forced to choose between two very different worlds.
Screenplays
Latude. Based on the true story of a pre-revolutionary French man wrongly imprisoned for 27 years, this historical drama includes two prison escapes—one of which historians have called “the most daring in history”—and features a remarkably noble-hearted woman whose tireless determination aids Latude’s struggle for freedom.
No Turning Back. A contemporary suspense-drama about a group of teen girls stuck in the wilderness after a cataclysmic event kills their teachers, leaving two antagonists to confront nature, overcome the clash of a lifetime, and liberate themselves emotionally. (The inspiration for the YA novel, Sudden Sisters.)
The Golden Boy. A contemporary drama with threads of romance about a timber-town folk artist who’s discovered by a vacationing art dealer, only to become a New York art world sensation. When the source of his inspiration is all but destroyed by his own success, he must face his wrenching past, and choose between newfound fame and true love.
Awards and honors
Semi-Finalist, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, 2012, No Turning Back - Novel
Third Place, 5th Annual IndieProducer Screenwriting Competition, 2007, The Golden Boy - Original Screenplay
Finalist, SCBWI Kimberly Colen Memorial Grant, 2006, No Turning Back - Novel
Semi-Finalist, William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, 2006, No Turning Back - Novel
Quarter-Finalist, 11th Annual Writers Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition, 2004, Latude - Adaptation Screenplay
Finalist, 1st Annual IndieProducer Screenwriting Competition, 2002, No Turning Back - Original Screenplay
Quarter-Finalist, Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Competition, 2002, No Turning Back - Original Screenplay
Finalist, Malcom-Vincent Screenwriting Contest, 1992, Latude - Adaptation Screenplay
Contact R.M. Lavender
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