Manuscript Status: Finished
Mentor: Charlie Holmberg
Mentee: Heather Elliott
Title: SONG OF SULEIMAN
Category/Genre: Young Adult Historical Fantasy
Word Count: 93,000
Pitch:
NATIONAL TREASURE meets ALADDIN when sixteen-year-old Israelite Peni discovers an ancient mystery hidden in the Song of Solomon. Desperate to escape her abusive betrothed, she disguises herself as a leper and travels the Persian Empire hunting King Solomon’s magic ring. Succeed, and she’ll win her freedom. Fail, and evil fire spirits only the ring can control will burn her world to ash.
Excerpt:
If I hadn’t almost died for Josef’s stolen lamb, I never would have met the Persian or learned of Suleiman’s lost scroll.
Josef stopped me just outside the market in the Israelite quarter of Samaria City. The afternoon heat transformed the stench of the livestock pens into acrid steam, and even though I wore a linen gown, sweat trickled down my back.
Josef dragged the toe of his frayed rope sandal through the road dust and refused to look at me as he muttered, “Mistress, my lamb was taken from her pen this afternoon. I was away. My wife did not see the thief.”
I tensed, looking to see if anybody in the narrow street could overhear us, but the bawling from the sheep pens drowned out our conversation. Reassured, I glared at him in a way most disrespectful for a young, unmarried woman. Sixteen is not young when you have yet to bear children, Leah’s voice whispered in my mind, but I ignored it. I had a lot of practice doing that.
“What do you expect me to do?” I hissed, although I knew what he expected—for me to find his lamb. I also knew my neighbors might kill me if I tried. Even so, longing parched my mouth. The mystery beckoned to me like a stream of fresh water to a woman lost in the desert.
9 Comments
lindsaymealing · November 5, 2016 at 1:22 am
I’d love to read more of this! Please send your first 50 pages as a Word document to querylindsay@emeraldcityliterary.com. Include Pitch Wars in the subject line along with your query in the body of your email.
Thanks!
Rena Rossner · November 5, 2016 at 4:14 pm
I’d love to take a look at the first 50 pages! Please send your query pasted in the email and the pages attached in a word document to: rena (at) thedeborahharrisagency (dot) com
Thanks!
– Rena Rossner
The Deborah Harris Agency
Brianne Johnson · November 6, 2016 at 10:58 pm
Hi Heather!
Neat premise – I’m curious to see how you developed it further. Could you send the first 50 pages to bjohnson@WritersHouse.com? Make sure to include Pitch Wars in the subject line!
All the best,
Brianne Johnson
Hillary Jacobson · November 7, 2016 at 12:35 pm
I’d love to read more! Please send the full manuscript to hjacobson@icmpartners.com Thank you!!
Logan Garrison Savits · November 7, 2016 at 5:26 pm
Hi! I’d love to take a closer look at your work. Please send your query letter in the body of an email and attach the first 50 pages as a word or pdf doc. You can reach me at lgarrison (at) thegernertco (dot) com. Thank you!
~Logan Garrison Savits
The Gernert Company
Laura Biagi, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency · November 8, 2016 at 4:07 pm
What a stellar premise! I’d love to see the full manuscript. Please send it + query + synopsis to LBiagi (at) jvnla (dot) com, with Pitch Wars in the subject line. Excited to read!
Christa Heschke (@ChristaHeschke) · November 9, 2016 at 6:06 pm
Sounds cool! Please send a query, synopsis and first 25 pages to chquery@mcintoshandotis.com. Please mark “Pitch Wars request” in the subject line. –Christa Heschke
Andrew Buckley (@abuckley23) · November 10, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Great concept, great excerpt. We’d love to see some more. Please send a query with the first 3 chapters to acquisitions@curiosityquills.com with ‘Pitch Wars’ in the subject line.
Nikki T. · November 16, 2016 at 3:36 pm
I’ll take a look at this. Send query + first 15 pages pasted in the body of your email to submissions at hollowayliteraryagency . com. Header should read: Query/Nikki/Title/Genre/Pitchwars. Thank you.
Comments are closed.