The best part of the contests for us around here is when we hear about successes. Today we are so happy to have Tobie Easton and her Pitch Wars mentor, Skylar Dorset, here for a little Q and A. Tobie recently signed with Jennifer Unter with The Unter Agency. So as to not make this post a novel, we’ll jump right into the interview. Tobie, what made you decide to send a Pitch Wars Read more…
CONTEST SCHEDULE In an effort to relieve contest fatigue for agents, plus with my future editing schedule and book release ahead for me, I’m making some changes to my contests. There won’t be a Pitch Madness this September. Instead, I’m moving Pitch Wars into its spot and adding more mentors. Pitch Madness will be held every year in March. And there will be a quarterly #PitMad throughout the year. And hopefully, I’ll be less crazy. Read more…
Hi everyone! I’m honored to be on Brenda’s blog today to talk about the reality of contests. Four years ago, I started seriously pursuing a career in writing. After revising my first manuscript for what seemed like a gazillion times (realistically, probably twelve at that point), I got serious about querying. I only sent out a handful, but ran straight into brick walls. Then I discovered Twitter and the amazing Brenda Drake! Immediately upon Read more…
The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Monica Bustamante Wagner, Elizabeth Briggs, Kimberly P. Chase, and me. We’re basing it on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us will serve as coaches and select projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages. We also had guest “celebrity” coaches this year, and I would like to give a special thanks to Heather Webb for helping Team Read more…
Genre: Adult Sci-Fi Title: SimSim Word Count: 75,000 Query: Trader, pirate, crook – take your pick, they all describe Ali Baba Khan, and he doesn’t really care what you call him. There’s only one thing on his mind, and that’s making the Reformation pay. They took everything from him – his home, his livelihood, his beloved wife – and now he’s going to destroy them. Twelve long years of careful planning have led him to Read more…
Genre: YA Gothic Romance Title: A MAGIC DARK AND BRIGHT Word Count: 84,000 Query: Seventeen-year-old Amelia Dupree hasn’t seen the ghost who haunts the woods surrounding her hometown of Asylum, Pennsylvania, since her brother died. Desperate for any connection to her brother, Amelia spends sleepless nights watching the forest. But the Woman in White seems to have disappeared…until Charlie Blue moves in next door. Amelia can’t help liking him, even though she spent her childhood Read more…
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy Title: HERITAGE BLADE Word Count: 84,000 Query: Sixteen-year-old Jay is the most lethal secret walking the streets of Chicago. Trained to hunt rogue Pandorans—supernatural beings who cross into this world through Pandora’s Box—he’s making a name for himself as the boy who smells of blood and magic. But people like Jay, known as Sentinels, are only good at what they do so long as no one knows they do it. The Read more…
Genre: Historical Title: THE MAGICIAN’S DAUGHTER Word Count: 92,000 Query: Not many women are magicians in 1870s Paris, but that doesn’t stop Valentina Gianetti—until the day her father is killed onstage. She puts her onstage career on hold to find his killer, and soon finds herself entangled in an underground society of spectacular performers that are much more than they seem. Helping Valentina in her quest are the honest, Daire O’Flynn, and not so honest, Read more…
Genre: YA Contemporary Title: TROUBLED Word Count: 57,000 Query: Sixteen-year-old Kyle Grimstone will do anything to escape the barbaric regime at St. Bonaparte Military Academy. He can’t endure two more years under Headmaster Sterm. The deranged dictator’s questionable disciplinary methods drive cadets to the brink of suicide. The school board’s annual review is Kyle’s best chance to get out early. If he proves he’s changed his reckless behavior, he’s free to leave. But like all Read more…
Genre: MG Magical Realism Title: ONE OF THOSE TIMES Word Count: 30,000 Query: When twelve-year-old Sam Heans finds a tattered datebook on the sidewalk, it doesn’t take long for him to realize it’s everything but ordinary. The book contains clues of things that will happen to him—or so he thinks. The book isn’t predicting Sam’s future, it’s instructing; telling him to do things that either put his neck on the line, or humiliate him in Read more…