Our mentors are mentoring, 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 9, 2021, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2021 Pitch Wars Mentor and Mentee Teams.
Next up, we have . . .
Aurora Palit – Mentee
Regina Black – Mentor
Nikki Payne – Mentor
Regina and Nikki, why did you choose Aurora?
Regina: Aurora is a phenomenal writer. Her dialogue is sharp and smart, and her prose is beautiful. SUGAR AND SPICE is funny, romantic, and steamy; everything you want in a romcom. But it also has incredibly insightful commentary about the cultural divide between first gen immigrants and their parents. We knew from her first ten pages that she had the potential to be an exciting new voice in romance.
Nikki: Aurora drew us into her world in the first opening lines. We love to see characters struggling with the complexities of their own lives while still managing to choose love. Dev was such a fully realized love interest also– the type of character you couldn’t wait to see fall in love.
Aurora, why did you choose to submit to Regina and Nikki?
It was important to me to work with mentors who understand the need for diverse voices in the Romance genre – especially if it’s something they strive to write into their own work. And Nikki and Regina’s strengths as mentors complement each other so beautifully… They’re a dream team!
Regina and Nikki, summarize Aurora’s book in 3 words.
Regina: Smart, steamy, and funny
Nikki: Spicy, Swoony, Special
Aurora, summarize your book in 3 words.
Colourful, banter, and sunshine/grump.
Regina and Nikki, tell us about yourselves. Something we may not already know.
Regina: I’m an identical twin who’s married to an identical twin.
Nikki: I was a former Park Ranger
Aurora, what do you hope to get out of the Pitch Wars experience?
For me, writing a novel was challenging but it’s a walk in the park compared to what comes next: revisions (eeek). I want to learn how to revise my work, what tools to use to improve my writing and my vision for my story,, and how to take something I care deeply about and shape it into something that readers will care about even after they’ve finished reading.
Aurora, tell us about yourself. What makes you and your manuscript unique?
As a grad student, I was fascinated by literature by writers of colour, especially stories of imagined worlds, retelling the past, cultural identities,, and messy families. My manuscript explores some of the harsh realities associated with being a POC but in a way that focuses on love, humor, and the hope that the impossible is possible for everyone.
Add Regina’s upcoming release, THE ART OF SCANDAL to Goodreads …
Regina’s debut, THE ART OF SCANDAL, is a Shondaland inspired, marriage of inconvenience romance in which a woman agrees to play the role of the perfect Black trophy wife for her cheating husband’s political campaign, but falls for a much younger man in the process. Releasing from Grand Central in Summer 2023.
Add Nikki’s upcoming release, PRIDE AND PROTEST to Goodreads …
Nikki’s romantic comedy, PRIDE AND PROTEST is a fresh reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that asks what if Elizabeth Bennet was a round-the-way girl from DC? Releasing from Berkley in November 2022.
Thank you for supporting our Pitch Wars Teams! The Agent Showcase is February 9-14, 2022. Make sure to stop by then and check out all our mentees’ entries when it opens.