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 starting on February 5, 2020, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2019 Pitch Wars Mentor and Mentee Teams.
Next up, we have . . .
Kaitlyn Hill – Mentee
Auriane Desombre – Mentor
Susan Lee – Mentor
Auriane & Susan, why did you choose Kaitlyn?
Auriane: I fell in love with Kaitlyn’s charming voice and super fun setting! Her book is such a sweet, funny love story and we fell in love with it right away.
Susan: We were really hoping to find something light, fun and romancey, and Kaitlyn’s MS was exactly that! The voice is so charming and the food…oh goodness, the FOOD! And a lotta laughs too. 🙂
Kaitlyn, why did you choose to submit to Auriane & Susan?
I was mainly interested in working with Auriane and Susan because their blog hop wish list was filled with pictures of their cute dogs. Secondarily, I liked that they were a team of co-mentors who seemed to get along and could provide multiple perspectives on my work. They both appreciate a good romance, have great senses of humor, and value girl power, which I felt were key to connecting with my manuscript.
Auriane & Susan, summarize Kaitlyn’s book in 3 words.
Delicious feminist romance
Kaitlyn, summarize your book in 3 words.
Food, feminism, ~feels~
Auriane & Susan, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.
Auriane: I graduated from high school in Greece!
Susan: I auditioned for the best show to ever be produced, American Gladiators, the day after my high school graduation.
(We’re YA authors – see how the only interesting things we can come up are from our high school days? A total snoozefest since then…ha!)
Kaitlyn, what do you hope to get out of the Pitch Wars experience?
I’ve already started to connect with other mentees and am really excited about becoming a part of a far-reaching community of writers. Writing has often felt pretty lonely to me in the past, as it’s not a part of me I’ve shared much with “real life” friends, so the chance to have a built-in group of people with the same passion going through the same, super cool experience is so fun. I also hope to come away feeling like I’ve grown in my writing abilities and to have a new toolbox of skills/techniques to use going forward.
Kaitlyn, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your manuscript unique?
I’ve lived most of my life in a Kentucky town that I love dearly, but the whirlwind year I spent in Seattle, WA, partially inspired this manuscript. I had fun writing a girl from the South who moves away from home for the first time and is finding her way as a baby feminist of sorts. She’s figuring out what she believes and how a lot of the ideas she grew up with about what women should be are actually quite harmful. And to further complicate matters, there’s a cute boy and a taste of internet fame. All of these (sans internet fame, but there’s still time) are things I’ve experienced in young adulthood and have made for the most personal story I’ve written yet. I’d like to think that makes it unique, but a lot of themes within will hopefully resonate with others on their own journeys into finding what they value, who they love, etc. A couple of extra facts about me, the person behind the writer, are that I’m a romance novel junkie, I love giraffes and my chihuahua, Lilly, the most of all animals, and I compulsively quote obscure Saturday Night Live sketches that no one else remembers (like the Maya Angelou prank show, I Know Why the Caged Bird Laughs. “It was an act…of whimsy!”).
Thank you for supporting our Pitch Wars Teams! The Agent Showcase is February 5 – 10, 2020, and our next Twitter Pitch Party on #PitMad is December 5, 2019! Want to know more about #PitMad? Go here.