Manuscript Status: Finished
Mentor Name: Katherine Fleet
Mentee Name: Christine Webb
Title: THE ART OF INSANITY
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary, #ownvoices
Word Count: 79,000
Pitch:
Natalie didn’t plan to be alive for senior year. Now, she’ll do anything to keep her suicide attempt and bipolar diagnosis a secret, even complying with the blackmail demands of an eccentric sophomore. But with an art scholarship, her prized reputation, and the perfect guy on the line, convincing everyone she’s not crazy might cost Natalie her own sanity. WHEN WE COLLIDED meets IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY in this humorous #ownvoices novel.
Excerpt:
The car accident this summer wasn’t an accident.
Secrets have weight, and that one’s heavy. Most of my secrets are light. For example, I dropped a bottle of nail polish behind the couch last year. Now my mom will find a small puddle of Lime-So-Sublime on the floor if she ever decides to remodel. I plan to blame it on the cat.
Which reminds me: I need to get a cat.
Let’s see…other secrets…I pretend high heels are comfortable even though I get blisters whenever I wear them. My recovering ankle has given me an excuse to wear tennis shoes to school for the foreseeable future, so the accident wasn’t all bad.
One more example: My brother’s beta fish is not the same one he asked me to feed when he left for spring break. The pet store had a near-perfect match, and Brent isn’t very observant. Rest in peace, original Finny.
See? Pretty tame secrets. Until now.
“Natalie,” my mom says, “remember what we discussed—not telling people about…you know.”
She’s sitting with my brother and me as we eat our traditional first-day-of-school omelets. What’s odd is that my big secret—the car accident—isn’t the one my mom’s warning me to keep this morning. According to her, I have a bigger one.
8 Comments
Jim McCarthy · November 2, 2017 at 10:05 pm
I’d loved to have a look! Please send the full manuscript to jmccarthy@dystel.com. A Word attachment is most preferable if possible. Best,
Jim
Jess Dallow · November 3, 2017 at 10:21 am
Hi Christine,
I’d love to read more! Please send the full manuscript attached in a word doc with your query letter in the body of the email to Jess@Browerliterary.com with #PitchWars and your title in the subject. Looking forward to reading!
Jess
Jenny Bent · November 3, 2017 at 10:49 am
Please email query and full ms (as an attachment) to info@thebentagency.com, PITCHWARS in subject line. Thanks!
Annie Bomke · November 3, 2017 at 12:17 pm
Love the voice! I’d love it if you could send me the first 100 pages to submissions@abliterary.com!
Blair Wilson · November 4, 2017 at 1:47 pm
I’d love to read more! Please send the full manuscript as a Word doc with the query pasted into the first page of the document to queries@parkliterary.com with “BLAIR WILSON – PITCH WARS REQUEST” in the subject. Thanks so much–looking forward to reading!
Kristy Hunter · November 4, 2017 at 10:02 pm
I’d LOVE to see more! Please send the full manuscript as a Word doc to kristy.hunter@knightagency.net with you query in the body of the email and “Pitch Wars: TITLE” in the subject. Thanks! Looking forward to reading.
Roseanne Wells · November 5, 2017 at 6:14 pm
I’d love to read more! Please use the guidelines on jdlit.com to send 30pp (instead of the normal 20), and include #Pitchwars in the subject line. I can’t wait to dive in!
Roseanne Wells
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency
Tanusri Prasanna · November 8, 2017 at 4:01 pm
What’s the bigger secret? I NEED to know! I was hooked by your pitch and would love to read the full manuscript. Please send to tprasanna@foundrymedia.com, subject “PitchWars Request.” Thank you!
Comments are closed.