Mentor Name: Evelyn Skye
Mentee Name: Summer Spence
Title: OF NIGHT AND STONE
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 92,000
Pitch:
One girl in present day.
Two lost princes from long ago.
All three very much alive…
When seventeen-year-old Elisabeth is forced to spend her summer at Bell Hall, she expects only a crumbling medieval castle. But when she discovers a centuries-old mystery within the walls, she’ll have to decide whether it’s worth disturbing history—both her own and all of England’s—to free the secrets locked inside.
Excerpt:
England. Present Day.
Every stone in this damn castle looks the same. I hold my phone up against the darkness, feeling my way along the crumbling walls. I’d woken to a dim glow edging the stained glass above my bed, hinting of daylight, and couldn’t get back to sleep.
Because today is the day.
My breath whispers over the stone, disturbing six hundred years of stagnant air. Cold sweat beads in the deep scar that slicks along my hairline, dripping like blood, and memories best locked away ooze into the shadows with me.
Blood and flame and nighttime sky. Her hand, so still.
My feet falter in the darkness.
The ghost of Mom’s hand squeezes my shoulder, and my phone dips, the weak light dropping onto the small wooden box clutched in my other arm. Oval-shaped and carved into a blooming rose on top. Too light to believe there’s anything in it at all.
“You’re home, Momma,” I whisper to the box.
I can’t believe I’m here without her.
I can’t believe I can’t find a damn light switch.
My flip-flops echo as I bump down unfamiliar corridors cloaked in the gloom of centuries, jittery panic building in my chest with each step. My first day here and they’ll probably never find my body.
5 Comments
Ammi-Joan Paquette · November 4, 2014 at 11:32 am
Would love to take a look – please send first 3 chaps. Thanks!
Stefanie Lieberman · November 4, 2014 at 12:24 pm
I’d like to see more, please! Please send the query, synopsis and first ten pages to submissions(at)janklow(dot)com. In the subject line of your email, please type: For Stefanie Lieberman – PITCH WARS REQUEST
Amanda Panitch · November 4, 2014 at 1:33 pm
Hi Summer! I’d love to read more! Please send your first 100 pages to me as a Word document at amanda[at]LMQlit[dot]com.
Lara Perkins · November 4, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Hi Summer,
I’m intrigued, and I’d love to see more! Please feel free to send your query and the full ms (as a word or pdf attachment) to lara@andreabrownlit.com, and please write “Pitch Wars Request: Of Night and Stone” in your subject line. Thanks!
Lana Popovic · November 5, 2014 at 11:40 am
Hi Summer,
This sounds delicious in all my favorite ways, and I love the opening. Could I see the full ms, please, as a PDF, along with the synopsis? To lana@chalbergsussman.com, with PitchWars: OF NIGHT AND STONE in the subject line. I’m so excited to read!
All my best,
Lana
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