Welcome to the Pitch Wars Agent Showcase! Adult and New Adult entries …
For those unfamiliar with Pitch Wars, it’s a contest where published/agented authors, editors, or interns chose mentees and work with them for two months to make their work shine. Our amazing mentors chose one (some cases two) writer to mentor from nearly 2000 entries for this year’s for the agent showcase.
For a list of the amazing agents participating in Pitch Wars 2016, go here and here.
AGENTS: To make requests, simply peruse the following entries and enter what you would like to have the writers’ send you in the comments of the posts. Please include submission guidelines and/or additional instructions.
PLEASE only agent comments. All others save your comments until after the agent round. If you would like to cheer on your friends, go to the Twitter hashtag #PitchWars and show your support there. Thank you!
Here are the links to each entry’s post for your convenience…
PW #101: Adult Literary/Magical Realism (#ownvoices): THESE ARE THE DAYS WITHOUT HER
Pitch: When immigration takes Yolandi’s breadwinning aunt under suspicion she’s a coyote, Yolandi and her sisters are abandoned—again. Adults this time, they’re old enough to know: pay the rent or end up on the streets. Hoping to rescue her tia and keep the family in ice-cream sandwiches and toilet paper, Yolandi pens an over-the-top zine. But the Cervantes women aren’t ready for the family secrets they’ll uncover. READ MORE . . .
PW #102: Adult Fantasy: THE LAST WITCH OF CAELHEARTH
Pitch: Throughout Willa’s young life, strong magic was forbidden. But when the rebellious Baron arrives to conscript her village, her own magic erupts. She kills a man, fails to save her beloved, and is kidnapped by the Baron, who wishes to shape her into a weapon. If Willa resists, he’ll slaughter her village. But cooperation would destroy her kingdom. READ MORE . . .
PW #103: Adult Historical Fiction: THE LAND BETWEEN KINGS
Pitch: In Viking-occupied Ireland, outcast jurist Cathal investigates a murder for the Irish king, unbeknownst to his Norse employer. Meanwhile, Norsewoman Ragna guards a dangerous secret that will entangle her in Cathal’s inquiry. As war looms, Cathal must play both sides or end up dead—and Ragna’s freedom depends on his silence. READ MORE . . .
PW #104: Adult Fantasy: THE PROTECTOR OF THE SEVERN
Pitch: When a treaty negotiation turns into an ambush, Protector Cira Conwy is forced to outrun assassins with her only surviving bodyguard, Lt. Ethan Daniels. While escaping across the Severn midlands—and falling hard for the lieutenant—Cira is blindsided by the reemergence of a weapon that could change the course of a brewing war. But when that same weapon threatens heartbreak, she’ll have to confront the demons in her past if she wants to change her future. READ MORE . . .
PW #105: Adult Fantasy Romance: THE RAVEN PRISONER
Pitch: LOST GIRL meets THE CAPTIVE PRINCE when succubus Harlyn’s captor ignites more than contempt. After learning the truth about the war that claimed her mother’s life, Harlyn must decide whether to fight for her captor’s faction and avenge her mother or escape the chains around her neck—and her heart—for good. READ MORE . . .
PW #106: Adult Contemporary Romance: CLAIMING HEARTS AND SPACES
Pitch: Income slashed, career-driven Madison can’t afford rent. Unfortunately, the only suitable roommate she can find is an ex-mobster…and the guy who swiped her purse. But Cole defies her expectations—he’s charming, sexy, an amazing cook—yet he’s frustratingly hell-bent on keeping his heart and secrets buried. When the mob calls though, Cole’s dark past and present collide, putting Madison in the deadly middle. READ MORE . . .
PW #107: Adult Women’s Fiction: GHOSTS OF RODEO DRIVE
Pitch: After growing up without indoor plumbing, Sierra moves to Beverly Hills, determined to marry for money. When a hot NBA player’s car knocks her out of her fake Louboutins, Sierra sees dollar signs–and wedding bells. Unfortunately, her job is “cursed”: No female employee has tied the knot in decades. Sierra explores life as a sugar baby, but when the cute magician downstairs helps her with a work presentation, she wonders if money is what she really wants, after all. READ MORE . . .
PW #108: Adult Contemporary Romance: FALLING FOR THE OTHER BROTHER
Pitch: Divorcee Aven Conner is done ditching her aspirations for men who ghost on her. She cashes in her Lexus convertible for lotus pose and returns home to follow her neglected dream of opening a yoga center. When sparks fly with her ex-boyfriend’s younger brother, she learns to bend a little, until his plan to leave threatens to break her. READ MORE . . .
PW #109: Adult Contemporary Romance: ALL SONGS ARE LOVE SONGS
Pitch: Roadie Jesse lands a job as assistant to a rock star, catapulting her into the public eye and putting the spotlight on her relationship with bass tech Wes. But a fan-fueled smear campaign threatens to force Jesse to leave her dream job to protect the man she loves. READ MORE . . .
PW #110: Adult Contemporary Fantasy with M/M Romance: PARADISA
Pitch: All gods may be real, but the greatest heroes are human. That includes gay ex-Navy SEAL Connor Bishara when he discovers the world’s deepest secret—Paradisa, a realm where every mythic pantheon resides, and some are rebelling against Paradisa’s uneasy truce. To survive, Connor must bind his soul to divine healer Raphael. Both men will fight to balance attraction and duty as they save human and heavenly realms from a war between gods. SUPERNATURAL x JASON BOURNE READ MORE . . .
PW #111: New Adult Contemporary Romance: PROMISE ME ALWAYS
Pitch: Best-selling rap artist Danny Anderson believes he has everything he needs. But a surprise reunion with Gabrielle, the woman who owns his heart and is now a single mother, leaves him shell-shocked. Refusing to let his true desires, love and family, continue to elude him, Danny will stop at nothing. Even if it means confronting his past once and for all. READ MORE . . .
PW #112: Adult Gaslamp Fantasy: THE RESURRECTIONIST OF CALIGO
Pitch: Roger Weathersby, Man of Science, is reduced to body-snatching after a prison stint rewards his love affair with Sibylla, a princess exiled for refusing to marry her cousin. When Roger unearths a strangled woman and is framed for her murder, Sibylla must pardon him from the scaffold with her “faerie-magic”—thus cursing him with an unquenchable addiction—as the murder count rises in a dangerous game of magic vs. science. READ MORE . . .
PW #113: Adult Historical Fiction, Own Voices: BEYOND THE CARVED WALLS
Pitch: Sold by her family into a Muslim harem, Hindu girl Sundari must rise in power, even at the cost of losing herself, or be crushed by the harem’s brutal politics. READ MORE . . .
PW #114: Adult Upmarket fiction with elements of suspense and magical realism: ONLY WHEN I FALL
Pitch: Tristesse, a homeless but talented artist, is out of second chances–until Mia, his drug-dealer and ex-girlfriend, secretly enters his painting into an online contest. The image goes viral, sparking a widespread search, but not everyone chasing Tristesse means him well. With his pursuers closing in, he battles his addiction while Mia fights to save the man she wishes she didn’t love. READ MORE . . .
PW #115: Adult Women’s Fiction: THE ONES WE CHOOSE
Pitch: When geneticist Paige Robson decided to use an anonymous sperm donor, she believed she was protecting her child from the abandonment she faced with her own father. But when her son’s donor suddenly shows up in their life, she must choose between giving her son the truth he craves and losing the people she loves most because of it. READ MORE . . .
PW #116: Adult Sci-Fantasy: SLOW BURN ARMAGEDDON
Pitch: Asher broke the hacker’s number one rule: Never steal from your employer. Then he broke rule number two: When you do, don’t get caught. Now, he’s on the run through Boston, sporting unknown cybernetics and sharing brain-space with a fallen goddess. Asher wants nothing to do with her, but she insists there’s more at stake than his life. A storm of radioactive magic looms, and unless Asher can discover how to exorcise the goddess, it’s going to delete the eastern seaboard. READ MORE . . .
PW #117: Adult Psychological Suspense/Domestic Thriller (#ownvoices): BABY TEETH
Pitch: Recovering from Crohn’s disease surgery and overwhelmed by her mute seven-year-old’s increasingly defiant behavior, Suzette’s health and sanity hinge on finding professional help for her daughter. Hanna resents Mommy treating her like a “bad seed” and vows revenge so she can live happily ever after with Daddy. Their battles escalate, but only one will win the mother-daughter war. READ MORE . . .
PW #118: Adult Apocalyptic Women’s Fiction: THOSE WE LEFT BEHIND
Pitch: With an asteroid on course to hit Earth, best friends Lilia and Magda journey across an apocalyptic Midwest toward one last shuttle launch. Lilia must find the courage to return to her family, and Magda must decide if revenge is worth dying for when THELMA AND LOUISE meets STATION ELEVEN. READ MORE . . .
PW #119: Adult Historical Mystery: A LADY’S GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE AND MURDER
Pitch: A high society burglar. A marriage-mad sister. A murdered footman. When the London Season turns deadly, Victorian widow Frances Wynn fears one of her sister’s suitors may be the killer. She must use her wit, social artistry, and a circle of gossiping friends and enemies to find the culprit before she becomes his next victim. READ MORE . . .
PW #120: Adult Commercial Fiction: LIES UNDERCOVER
Pitch: Miss Congeniality meets 21 Jump Street
Serious field operative to fake Youtube beauty Vlogger? Not the CIA career trajectory Kira anticipated. When a lethal drug circulates the NYC modeling community, Kira’s thrust into a world of models, mayhem, drug lords, and douchelord exes. Solving the case while deciding between kissing or kicking Blue Sandoval-Mendoza? It’s complicated. Now, if she can just find a Met Gala dress that’ll hide all her knives… READ MORE . . .
PW #121: Adult Contemporary Women’s Fiction: EX, EX, OH
Pitch:
Losing fiancé to the head of a roleplaying game empire? X
Burying herself in 80-hour work weeks to forget? X
Dating the ex of the woman who stole her fiancé? Oh…
Meg and Nicholas’ chemistry is volcanic, but he runs the game business with their wildly charismatic—and just plain wild—exes. Dating Nicholas means letting them back into her life just as she’s recovering from the devastating break-up they caused. Dungeons and Dragons? More like Lawyers v. LARPers as Meg takes on the manipulative people who aren’t quite ready to let her and Nicholas go. READ MORE . . .
PW #122: New Adult Contemporary Romance: ONE HUNDRED AND ONE CHANCES
Pitch: Kira is days away from killing herself when she confesses her plan to Chase, her handsome neighbor. Determined to rekindle her passion for life, Chase proposes a bucket list—one hundred and one challenges to help Kira remember that life and love are worth fighting for. All she has to do is hold on. READ MORE . . .
PW #123: Adult Contemporary Romance: THE MOMENT I FALL
Pitch: Tattoo artist Knox falls for recovering aerialist, Genevieve, the moment she throws him off balance at physical therapy. Already losing the use of his legs; he can’t afford to lose his heart. His only definite plan for the future includes a wheelchair, but the Moroccan beauty is determined to prove that all of him is worth loving. READ MORE . . .
PW #124: Adult Commercial Fiction: DRAG NET
Pitch: MG’s world revolves around geek culture, designing for drag shows, and writing comic books. A rash of copy-cat crimes from her favorite series disturbs the peace, bringing with them handsome Matteo Kildaire, LAPD, who needs her expertise. When MG learns she’s being framed, sleuthing on her own will either exonerate her or land her in the clink. READ MORE . . .
PW #125: Adult Contemporary Romance: A HEART’S DESIGN
Pitch: When Madison lands a project with real estate tycoon Jase Cutter, one that will ignite her architectural career, she doesn’t expect his request for secrecy—or to fall hard for the sexy-sweet bachelor who’s haunted by a past he can’t escape. But when one leaked story fuels a firestorm of doubt, Madison realizes she stands to lose her career, and her heart. READ MORE . . .
PW #126: Adult Upmarket Women’s Fiction: 101 NORTH
Pitch: On September 11, Erin sips cocktails on a Spanish beach while her husband, who didn’t want her to go on this girls’ trip, is at work on the 101st floor, North Tower. When she makes it home and Daniel doesn’t, guilt pushes Erin into a dark fog of pills and booze. After a downward spiral sends her plunging off the cliffs of coastal highway 101 North, she must decide whether to accept her new fate or give up on life. READ MORE . . .
PW #127: Adult Science Fiction: ERGO SUM
Pitch: Ethan Ogden, a robotics prodigy suffering from PTSD, returns to Africa to work for a company with dubious motives. After an experimental nanotechnology treatment saves his life, he begins to question his own thoughts—and whether he’s still human—as he races to stop a civil war. READ MORE . . .
PW #128: Adult Mystery: DERAILED
Pitch: Second-generation P.I. Kelly Pruett has a deaf daughter, an over-protective ex-husband, and her first real case involving a woman who drunkenly stumbled into the path of a train. Kelly is desperate to prove the death was no accident, but as she sinks further into the world of Portland’s elite, she finds that exposing the truth could cost Kelly her daughter and her life. READ MORE. . .
PW #129: Adult Humorous Women’s Fiction (#ownvoices): MY NAME IS NOT JULIE
Pitch: MASTER OF NONE meets BRIDGET JONES: Drowning in a never-ending onslaught of parental nagging, work catastrophes, and romantic blunders, unlucky-at-life Korean-American millennial Julia Jung is fed up and wants a do-over. Pronto. She moves on a whim to Seattle with no job, cash or friends, and must figure out how to navigate adulthood relying only on herself. READ MORE . . .
PW #130: Adult Supernatural Suspense: SOLSTICE SISTERS
Pitch: After her grandmother passed away, Cici Dardompre left America’s most haunted city in search of proof that death isn’t as final as her mortician father believes. But when an upstart eco-friendly funeral home threatens the family’s traditional business, she returns to Salem and finds a haunted tour-guide job to keep her quest alive. As spirits of Salem’s legendary witches begin hunting her, Cici jumps at the chance to slip through time in search of Granmè and prove that what matters in death, as in life, is defining your own narrative. READ MORE . . .
PW #131: Adult Contemporary Interracial Romance (#ownvoices): #INTERCEPTED
Pitch: When Marlee Harper learns her NFL-star boyfriend is wide-receiving other women, she swears off athletes, but new quarterback Gavin proves irresistible. Unfortunately, between the teammates’ wives and the rabid fans, their love may not last the season when REAL HOUSEWIVES meets ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. READ MORE . . .
PW #132: Adult Romance: ONCE WHEN YOU WERE MINE
Pitch: Twenty years. Two continents. A third chance at first love. On a whirlwind trip to Leningrad, a sheltered American and a sweet but pragmatic Soviet fall in love as teens, bridging their language barrier with local underground rock and shared Walkman headphones. A decade later a missed connection leaves them yearning for unattainable love. When they get one final chance, his rock stardom and her newfound independence threaten the possibility of a life together. READ MORE . . .
PW #133: Adult Contemporary Romance (#ownvoices): RELATIONSHIP ON RETAINER
Pitch: In this gender-swapped Pretty Woman, a brainy economist desperate for love but struggling with intimacy issues stemming from her autism hires a male escort—a complex Hapa man escaping the shadow of his past. When he awakens her dormant sexuality and she reminds him he’s more than the body he was hired for, they must decide if what they have together is more than just a relationship on retainer. READ MORE . . .
PW #134: Adult Contemporary Romance (Body-Positive): MOONLIGHT & WHISKEY
Pitch: When a plus-sized engineer with body issues collides with a tattooed, commitment-shy frontman, Avery learns to rock her curves. But as her connection with Declan deepens and Avery’s vacation ends, attraction alone can’t burn away their darkest fears. Both must face powerful insecurities to embrace a love as elemental as the sultry New Orleans night. READ MORE . . .
PW #135: Adult Speculative Fiction (mystery): SHARDS OF SOULS
Pitch: Cole Lachlan and his brother Reese use their abilities to hold souls to save lives. When Reese disappears, Cole discovers evidence suggesting his brother is involved in soul trafficking. Cole needs to use his illicit past to fight a cult and crooked cops to find his brother before they both lose their souls. READ MORE . . .
PW #136: Adult Fantasy: SHATTERSPELL
Pitch: When the taboo spells that bind Hulgardt to serve the ruthless Duke of Temborough break, his newfound conscience prompts him to rescue the duke’s heir from her father’s deadly schemes—unaware that Edrienne has a few schemes of her own. READ MORE . . .
PW #137: Adult Paranormal Romance (#ownvoices): RIVEN
Pitch: Bent on revenge, Asha discovers the little sister she thought dead a prisoner of the man she’s sworn to destroy. Her only hope lies in trusting an irresistible man with shadowy goals of his own, even at the risk of her heart. READ MORE . . .
PW #138: Adult Contemporary Fantasy: SIGHT OF HAND
Pitch: Deaf street magician Nick Hazard goes from struggling performer to suspected terrorist when a job gone spectacularly wrong lands him in Seattle’s City Hall with a ticking bomb. He escapes, but with cops, crooks, and a government agency full of super humans breathing down his neck, Nick will have to use his street smarts and preternatural eyesight to find the real bomber—preferably before the bomber finds him. READ MORE . . .
PW #139: Adult/SciFi Thriller: #FEEDWAR
Pitch: Data sniper Reef Gibson and her crew of Feeders are feuding for control of FeedTower—the world’s largest social network. Reef doesn’t care: her mother is dying. When Reef discovers a life-saving drug, the lone seller is an old flame from a rival crew. And he wants FeedTower in return. But so does Reef’s vicious boss. Let the #FeedWar begin. READ MORE . . .