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 3rd-9th, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2016 Pitch Wars Teams.
And now, we have . . .
Rachelle Harp – Mentee
Dan Malossi – Mentor
Rachelle: Why did you choose Dan?
Since Dan also writes sci-fi thrillers, right away, I knew he’d be a good match. And we both liked a lot of the same authors and seemed to have similar sci-fi interests. And of course he’s awesome!
Dan: Why did you choose Rachelle’s manuscript?
I loved the writing right away. The story had great potential as well. I love the idea of the dark future of social media taken to such imaginative ends, where everything is available about everyone twenty-four seven, and gang wars take place in cyberspace. This is West Side Story waged in digibits in a dark future, which I dig. The characters ring true…which is essential.
Rachelle: Summarize your book in three words.
“Twitter on steroids”
Dan: Summarize Rachelle’s book in three words.
“Twitterish, futuristic hellscape”
Rachelle: Tell us about yourself. What makes you and your MS unique?
I’m a Texas gal with a serious coffee addiction. I write all types of spec fiction–adult to YA, short story to novels. My first pro-published sci-fi short story will appear soon in Galaxy’s Edge Magazine. I teach music in my non-writing life, spoil my cat, and look for any reason to watch Firefly or go to Starbucks.
My manuscript, #FeedWar, is an adult sci-fi thriller with a pulp-noir feel to it. Kind of like Blade Runner meets the Godfather. It’s a near future story of a girl caught up in the cyber mafia, trying save her loved ones. And there’s a guy as well–you have to have a little romance, right?
Dan: Tell us about yourself. Something we might not already know.
I’m a high school English teacher in New York, which means I read a great deal of bad writing every single working day of my life (and some good; don’t think I’m embittered). It’s actually a joy to teach writing, but at the same time it increases awareness of how hard it is to develop a unique and salable voice. This is part of the reason Ms. Harp’s MS stood out from the rest for me.