Our mentors are editing, our mentees are revising, and we hope you’re making progress on your own manuscript! While we’re all working toward the Agent Showcase on November 1st-7th, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2017 Pitch Wars Teams.
And now, we have . . .
Amelia Denyven Ross — Mentee
Amelinda Bérubé – Mentor
Amelia, why did you choose to submit to Amelinda?
When I saw Amelinda’s wish list seeking spine-tingling, atmospheric and lyrical novels, I felt my manuscript was a perfect match. She also said she enjoyed weirdness and ambiguity, which is practically a profile for Meadowview.
Amelinda, why did you choose Amelia’s manuscript?
Amelia’s manuscript – a Southern Gothic about a girl facing down her mother’s demons in a deeply peculiar town – hit my freaky little heart where it lives. She’s got a vividly haunted setting, characters whose voices leap off the page, and gorgeous, lyrical prose: in short, a dreamy, surreal story beautifully told. So I loved it – but I also felt like I knew how to help. A lot of what I recommended had to do with rounding out backstory (and wordcount) and walking that tricky line between evocatively underexplained and confusing, both of which were issues I dealt with in revising my own debut. I’m super excited to see where MEADOWVIEW goes!
Amelia, summarize your book in 3 words.
Lightning. Mother. Shadow.
Amelinda, summarize Amelia’s book in 3 words.
Lightning, liminality, Appalachia
Amelia, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your MS unique?
I live in the heart of Appalachia and immerse myself in mountain culture wherever possible, from ballad and shape-note singing to contra dancing and hiking the Blue Ridge. My novel seeks to capture the wonder and mystery these mountains evoke, with a southern gothic twist and traces of magical realism. Many southern gothic novels are set in the marshes and swamplands of Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama, rather than the mountainous regions of the south, which bring their own fog-laden eeriness. Meadowview is all about finding balance in the liminal spaces of life, having the courage to step into the unknown, and especially bridging the gap between terror and wonder.
Amelinda, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.
By day, I work for the Canadian public service, which is mostly pretty unremarkable, except for the one time I got to be in the same room as Justin Trudeau.
Check out . . .
THE DARK BENEATH THE ICE by Amelinda Bérubé
Expected publication: August 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire
Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity in a literary ghost story about a former dancer whose grip on sanity starts to slip when she begins to think a dark entity is stalking her and craves her life.
Thank you for supporting our Pitch Wars Teams! And remember, there’s a #PitMad Twitter pitch party on September 7th.