Today, the pitch is being judged by Sarah LaPolla from Curtis Brown LTD. You can read her interview with me here. And see her agent bio here.
Here are some other interviews to help you get to know her taste and style:
YA Highway
Mother, Write, Repeat
Guide to Literary Agents
Winner: Gets a 1st chapter/query critique from Sarah!
When: Begins today, Tuesday Sept 14th at Noon EST and ends Wed Sept. 15th at midnight EST (I will close comments when it officially ends so if you get a comment in, you are counted.)
What: Leave your paragraph pitch in the comments on this post. Your pitch can be NO MORE than 4 or 5 sentences and MUST be something Sarah is looking for.
Eligibility
- If your manuscript is still in WIP - you may enter since this is a query critique
- Your pitch must only be 4 to 5 sentences. Your entry must follow the rules to be counted.
- This is for unagented/unpublished book writers only. (if you've published articles or essays - you can enter!)
- You can only enter ONCE so choose wisely!
- You must be a follower of my blog and either twitter or my newsletter (whichever you would use more :). If I were you, I would also follow Sarah's blog and Twitter too!
- title of book
- genre
- your paragraph pitch
- your email
67 comments:
Title: Shimmering Angels
Genre: Paranormal YA
Paragraph Pitch:
When sixteen-year-old Rayna Evans spots two angels—one with midnight black wings—nearly four months after her release from the Sunflower Sanitarium, she thinks she’s going crazy again until she finds her classmate dead. The bodies begin to pile up. There is something as mysterious about these deaths as her mother’s four years ago. Ray vows to find answers and end the killings before anyone else gets hurt. But protecting her friends means not only working with the angels but also trusting them and jeopardizing the one thing she desperately needs to hold onto: her sanity.
Thank you so much Shelli for hosting and Sarah for your time!
-Lisa B.
angel28140 (at) yahoo (dot) com
Title: Emma's Heaven
Genre: Up Market Women's Fiction
Paragrah Pitch:
Megan sees her missing daughter, Emma, everywhere. The little girl standing in the supermarket, the child waiting for the swings at the playground, the girl with ice cream dripping down her face.
But it's never Emma.
Megan wonders if she lost her sanity until, at the local town fair, she sees Emma holding hands and laughing with an elderly couple. Armed with only a photo and motherly instinct, Megan questions whether she's closing in on the people who took her child, or if she's giving up everything to chase an illusion.
What a fantastic opportunity! Thanks so much!
Steena - steenah@telus.net
Title: Hallways of Hell
Genre: YA
Paragraph Pitch:
Kylie broke the cardinal rule of high school when she gave the head cheerleader, Natalie, a black eye right before homecoming. It’s not her fault Natalie dragged her dead mother into the fight over Natalie’s boyfriend Drew, the guy Kylie has been secretly crushing on since middle school. Because of Kylie's actions Natalie is doing everything in her power to make Kylie a total outcast. Kylie accepts her fate of social damnation, but when she meets Braydon, the new guy in school who is charming, good looking and has a fighting chance at popularity, she can’t figure out why he wants to choose friendship with her over joining the ranks of the popular. Kylie will learn that Braydon may understand her situation more than she ever thought possible and it all has to do with the dark secret he’s been keeping from her.
Thanks for a great contest.
~Theresa
(Tmpmarkmajor(at)aol(dot)com
Title: THE GHOST SEER
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Paragraph pitch:
Sixteen-year-old Kayley Cartwright sees ghosts -- she's a Seer -- but it's no big deal because ghosts are harmless. When Kayley meets gorgeous, sweet Evan with his to-die-for British accent, she develops a huge crush on him and is thrilled that the attraction is mutual. Then Kayley learns of a new, mutant strain of ghosts who are intent on killing her for some, unknown reason and, even scarier, mutant ghosts appear to be living to Seers. Kayley revels in the interest gorgeous Evan shows her but grows suspicious when he starts acting strangely. Could Evan be a mutant ghost out to kill her?
Thank you, Shelli and Sarah!
-Tessa
tessadevan at hotmail dot com
Into
YA Fantasy
To escape death at the hands of a trusted orphanage employee, 17-year-old Faith runs headfirst into another world. Led by and insane, beautiful creature named Uri, they trek through the new land that is home to flesh-eating lake monsters, gnarled forest demon children, and a city full of faceless human replicas. But when Uri's odd nature turns homicidal, Faith must fight for both her life and her unborn child's.
Thank you both!
ce.murphy at yahoo dot com
Title: FLUX
Genre: YA Paranormal
Paragraph Pitch:
The war to decide the fate of mankind has begun; the humans just don’t know it yet. Then again, neither do the three supernatural orphans whose actions will decide the outcome of the war.
Tired of being shunned by his own, Gabe forsakes angelic law to inform Hex that she’s a fairy—not a human orphan. And when Gabe’s continued naïve actions put Hex back in sites of the human who has already tried to kill her once, Hex must choose between putting her faith in an angel or heeding the counsel of her personal demon, Luce, to stay alive another day—not to mention fight in some supernatural war.
author.pratt at gmail dot com
Thank you!
Half-truth
YA paranormal
Rose Woodman couldn't care less about the fate of the Fae. After all, one of the them enchanted and abandoned her mother to the fatal birthing of his unusual child. Rose has no intention of following in those footsteps. That's why she learned to shoot so well. So why can't she forget the eyes of the young man who watches her from the shadows or his claim that the future of Faerie lies in her mixed-blood?
susan.b.james(at)sbcglobal(dot)net
blog-www.elfmama/livejournal.com
Title: FLIGHT
Genre: literary fiction/magic realism
When Maria Black experiences intense changes, she grows sick and feverish until she bursts into flames. From the fire that consumes her, a bird rises, takes flight, and returns to human form. Maria has suppressed burning for years but the quiet life she has built is interrupted when she runs—quite literally—into the famous musician Sam Montgomery and learns that they have been dreaming about each other. As they get to know each other, only Sam is willing to question the meaning behind their dreams; Maria is not interested in posing questions that don’t have answers. When Sam and Maria fall in love, she is forced to decide between her normal life with her husband and a seemingly predestined love that reawakens questions about meaning and why she burns.
writermorris(at)gmail(dot)com
The Magic Withheld
urban fantasy
Justus Aubre is what the Imperium hates, a mage with unrestrained power. The secret guild of wizards wants him leashed. He wants them to butt out of his life so he can run his bar and live in obscurity among the humans. Then Sable interrupts his safe life and the Imperium isn’t far behind her.
beccoff(at)nwmo(dot)net
http://spiritcalled.blogspot.com/
Good contest :) Thanks for the opportunity.
Title: Mermaid in the Summer of Burning Water
Genre: YA Fantasy
In the dead of night, a deepwater oil rig explodes – sky bursts into continuous flame, stars are obliterated from view and military personnel are sent in to keep reporters and locals away. Three teenagers – Shrimp, Raine and Noah – sneak onto the beach one night, discover an unconscious mermaid lying facedown in the sand and try to roll her over. As the mixture of oil, dispersant and the natural coating on her scales soaks into their fingertips, they experience a heightening of all their senses. Over the next few months, they see and hear things they never noticed before, symptoms of deeply buried family secrets, including the accidental death of a twin. When the mermaid awakens, she offers the teenagers a chance to heal their families and bring the oil company to justice.
Email: author@marilynpeake.com
Thank you so much, Shelli and Sarah, for this awesome contest!
- Marilyn Peake
Marilyn Peake
Title: Bittersweet Melody
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Pitch: When you’re a muse who isn’t permitted to inspire, life pretty much sucks—especially for a restless muse like Melody. After having her inspiration license revoked for a hundred years for reckless behavior, Melody is finally released from house arrest and put on probation. When her inspiration officer assigns her to help a pair of brothers, Melody is grateful to finally be working a case again, but she doesn’t count on both brothers falling in love with her. Love between muses and humans is forbidden, so when Melody starts to reciprocate feelings for one of the lovelorn brothers, she must decide: lose the one she loves to keep her muse status or give in to her feelings and give up her immortality.
dorothyanndreyer@gmail.com
Thank you Shelli and Sarah! :D
The Shadow of Moonlight
YA Paranormal
Lexy’s not the type of girl to stand by and watch a fight—after all she’s been training all of her life to fight the infected. In her world there are two simple rules 1. Zombies are bad. 2. Werewolves are worse. But Lexy has to choose between following what her family has taught her or following Kaden, a werewolf, for a chance to save Jason the boy—I mean zombie of her dreams.
miriam.caldwell (at) gmail.com
Title: Unraveled
Genre: YA Mystery
Paragraph Pitch:
All sixteen year old math prodigy, Autumn, wants to do is read about serial killers and dream about becoming an FBI agent. When her older sister is murdered, she begins her own investigation using the techniques and forensics she’s read about. When the evidence points towards someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait sets a dangerous trap to obtain his confession for her sister’s murder.
Thanks for a great contest,
Susan
bradley_susan (at) yahoo (dot) com
Title: The Heartbreak Boys
Genre: YA Contemporary
Paragraph Pitch:
As a teen, most people aren't thinking about settling down and having a family. Neither was Eoghan until he moved in with Alex and his son Ryan. Now the attraction between Eoghan and Alex have them changing their idea of love. But when Eoghan's future comes calling and Alex can't let go of the past, both boys find their lives might not match up as well as they thought.
Email: Lauren51990 AT aol DOT com
Title: Baby Love
Genre: YA Horror
Paragraph Pitch:
"Outdoor girl" Maxine is vacationing with her family at the Carribean island of Sweet Ends when a harpy joins the party...and starts snacking on guests and locals alike. Unborn children are supposed to be a harpy's greatest craving, which is bad news since her mom's pregnant, her brother is four, and she isn't quite eighteen. With the help of Lucinda, a cheeky resort housekeeper, and Raile, a surly woodsman, Maxine hunts the harpy down before they become its next meal.
mariantpinera(@)gmail.com
Thanks for this!
Title: Bittersweet
Genre: YA
Paragraph Pitch:
Seventeen year old Riley always took her social status for granted until an affair with her married art teacher ruined it all. Now, the whole school has turned on her - including her previous best friends - and her parents won't even look her in the eye. And then Theo shows up, so determined to save her from her path of self destruction and hard front. Except his need to save her comes from a deep, dark secret that could have serious consequences for them both.
Thanks for this!
chanelle(@)chanellegray(.)com
title of book: The Last Onset
genre: YA dystopia
paragraph pitch:
This time, Armageddon was planned. Mykelle, a cynical 16-year-old computer prodigy, is elected to survive. But Mykelle isn't happy to just leave everything behind — including her kid sister — so she hacks into the system so her sister can go with her.
And when Mykelle discovers that the destruction — from the wars to the natural disasters — is really a plot for eugenics planned by the government leaders, she decides to take action . . . before they wipe out the targeted 95% of the earths' population.
info:
chersti.nieveen [at] gmail [dot] com
http://cherstinieveen.wordpress.com
Hey thanks for hosting the contest Shelli, and for judging Sarah! This is such a great opportunity :-)
Awesome contest! The following pitch is for my YA fantasy novel, The Cure.
Seventeen-year-old William is Infected, which means when he dies he'll be reanimated into a flesh-eating monster. Tessa, the girl he loves, is Clean, and as the Infection is spread through blood and saliva, the two of them don't have much of a future together. When Will hears rumors of a cure, he leaves his protected community in search of it. And maybe he'll find it, if he can survive the journey through a post-apocalyptic countryside full of monsters.
kat-tastic(at)live(dot)com
I wasn't going to enter but why not.... :)
MERCY
YA magical realism
Eighteen-year-old Camilla Jay can rewind up to twenty-four hours to change events and she remembers everything. A tragedy like the death of her twin sister Madelyn shouldn’t be possible, yet Madelyn drowns - twice. Five months later, she finds notes hinting Madelyn might have known what would happen, leading Camilla on a quest to collect whatever her sister might have left her. In doing so, she must reconsider everything that has led her here and confront her actions at the accident, both times, if she’s to understand her gift, her relationship with Madelyn, and herself.
jessica @ jessicatudor.com
Sendek
Science Fantasy
In a world that tried to crush all forms of magic in favor of science, astronomer Talia Shannon is trapped. Her prophetic nightmares point to an approaching invasion, but to warn the military would expose her magical nature. If anyone learned she could heal herself, every scientist on the planet would want a piece of her.
Talia must learn to trust the magic coursing through her veins if she wants to survive the invasion and find a way to save her world. When science fails to protect her way of life, magic becomes the only hope.
charity.bradford@gmail.com
Title: Vestige
Genre: suspense/magical realism
Pitch paragraph:
Tess Garibaldi’s past collides with the present when she discovers she’s a Vestige – a reincarnated soul sent to protect civilizations. Haunted by the failure in a past life to save her Incan lover and his people, flight attendant Tess sets out to destroy the Trinity Necklace, an Incan artifact that causes death by incurable disease. To end the destructive powers of the relic forever, Tess must find and stop the enemy from her past and present and reunite with her reincarnated Incan lover. With a handsome anthropologist and dodgy ex-husband as the only candidates for mate or foe, Tess must choose wisely, or else she will lose her lover again – and mankind could perish.
Email: alli_sinclair (at) yahoo.com
Thank you for this opportunity!
Title: Pulse
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pitch: Lara leaves her perfect world to discover the dark secrets of the modern world that she was stolen from as a baby. Once here, she’s arrested as a suspected kidnapper and falls in love with the FBI agent assigned to interrogate her. In the end, she must choose between an immortal, single existence and a mortal life with a man who’s only too human.
Thanks for the fun contest!
kellybryson02(at)hotmail(dot)com
Title: The Surface of the Deep
Genre: YA Fantasy
Paragraph pitch:
Ares is Adonia’s most feared group of rebels; the king’s bane and the ones with the best chance to end his corrupt reign. But even the famed resistance is being crushed, and its final hope rests with a set of twins—infants who possess the rare power to kill with their minds. Eighteen years later, Valerian and Astra, hidden away in our world as children, have no knowledge of Adonia or their deadly powers. When Ares' leader crashes into their lives, they are dragged back home and forced to learn how to use their powers, charged with killing the king. All they want are answers, but in Adonia, the wrong questions can prove deadly—Ares is just as treacherous as the king, and revealing their secrets—or failing their mission—will label Valerian and Astra as traitors, for which the only punishment is death.
Email: jenniferwhite13 (at) ymail (dot) com
Title: The Practice of Wearing Skin
Genre: YA
Paragraph pitch:
Sixteen-year-old epic loner Sofia knows she has some lingering issues from being abandoned by her mom a year ago. So when Theo, a total weirdo who calls himself a grim reaper, approaches her and says she has thirty days until she dies, well that’s just freaking awesome. At least there’s one other person in the world that needs therapy more than she does.
Then near the end of her thirty days, Sofia uncovers evidence that her mom might never have abandoned her at all, but that she’s a grim reaper too. Sofia takes the chance to reconcile with her mom and join Theo, whose British accent, grey eyes, and perfect boy jeans are incentive enough to continue “living” with him as a reaper too, but when she makes it to the afterlife, Sofia learns the heartbreaking reason why her mom hasn’t tried to contact her in the last year.
Email: camarshallwrites AT gmail DOT com
Title: The Sober Coach
Genre: YA Contemporary
Seventeen-year-old Curtis isn’t some strung-out Hollywood actor; he’s a high school junior who happens to be under a lot of pressure to be perfect. Can anyone really blame him for letting off a little steam every once in a while to party with his friends?
His father certainly can, which is why he hires Tess, the resident prude, to be Curtis’s sober coach. Even though Tess’s upbringing makes her the ideal candidate for the job, she’s not exactly thrilled at babysitting the arrogant man-child.
Both of them know she’s out to change him, but Curtis soon realizes two can play that game: let the battle between virtue and vice begin.
nkrell(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thanks so much for hosting this, Shelli and thanks also to Sarah for her time!
Title: Where The Stones Speak
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Long ago, when pepper was more treasured than gold, there existed women of renowned talents.
Banished by those fearful to harbor one so marked with magick, sixteen-year old Iona, clan ruler on The Isle of Virgins, wields a javelin and sword to protect her refuge and ensure the existence of her kind. There she has received wise and ancient tutelage from those who wish to foster her talents for the good of mankind. But when she discovers she is a sibyl of ancient lineage, she must journey to find her sacred circle of stones and proclaim her oracles to the multitudes— But first she must evade the many who seek to silence the ancient world’s last free sibyl.
angelagoughnour at gmail.com
Thanks for this great opportunity guys!!
Title: BATTLE RING SEVEN
Genre: YA contemporary/coming-of-age
Paragraph Pitch:
Role-playing his life as a dark elf, 14-year-old Troy McAllister encounters daily battles with zombies and dragons, giants and ogres. While these foes and obstacles are chillingly real, the labels are all in his head. As he struggles to level up in the Battle Ring realm, he must forge alliances and develop courage while facing the Green Ogre (the school bully), evil zombies (a pack of teens from his trailer park), and pot-pushing lab partners. Trust issues abound for Dark Troy after he is abandoned by his mother, aka the Winged Blue Witch, and he must decide whether the mysterious girl in the library is an enchantress of benevolence--or one of evil.
The ultimate success of his future life depends upon it.
email: artzicarol [at] gmail [dot] com
Title: Across Two Universes
Genre: Science Fiction
Paragraph Pitch
Paul Harrison just lost his mom, discovered he’s the clone of a TwenCen rock star named Sean Quinn, and realized his Sean-obsessed great-uncle may have had his mom killed to gain control of him. Inspired by Hamlet, Paul plans to make his great-uncle confess by impersonating Sean’s angry ghost. To prepare for the role, he travels to another universe to meet Sean, then decides he must save Sean from being murdered himself. But saving Sean may cause the wormhole connecting the universes to collapse—unless Paul can master a quantum talent without losing his mind.
e-mail: sandra@sandraulbrich.com
Thanks to both of you for hosting/judging this contest!
Title: WITCH-ed
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pitch:
After finding a dying woman in an alley, Becca's life was turned upside down in an instant. She now had unspeakable powers, a new life and love, and a psychotic killer out to steal her powers. Along with a group of local witches, Becca plays a magical game of cat and mouse as she searches for the killers identity.Becca soon realizes that we all have a destiny set forth for us, but it is uo to us to choose the path that leads to it.
Thanks.
anna.annablack.roudenbush@gmail.com
Title: Drowning
Genre: YA urban fantasy
One Paragraph Pitch:
Only Elly knows her twin sister didn't drown in that crowded harbor like everyone thinks. She actually fell through a gate into a war-torn city in another world. It's not like Elly can tell anyone that, though, or she'll also have to tell them that she can read her sister's mind. When Elly decides to follow her sister's clues into the dark city, she finds herself at the heart of the battle, with one side claiming she is the rightful heir to the crown and the other side supposedly wanting her dead. Unsure of who she can trust, Elly must find her sister and get her home alive.
Thanks so much for this opportunity!
acasile (at) gmail (dot) com
Kwizera Means Hope
YA
Rwandan teenager Cecile Kwizera survived four years of war, one hundred days of genocide and the death of her father in a refugee camp, and now she must overcome the guilt of having survived.
After watching her Tutsi classmates die and losing her father, nightmares and guilt plague Cecile. Unable to go back to school, she picks tea leaves with her mother all day. Despite the rumors, she refuses to believe her missing older brother joined the militias. Cecile dreams of a better life for herself and her younger siblings.
Thanks so much, Shelli and Sarah, for the opportunity.
Vicki Tremper
www.vbtremper.wordpress.com
Ack! I left my blog address instead of email.
Kwizera Means Hope goes with vtremp (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Sorry and thanks!
Hi Shelli! My story isn't right for Sarah, but she sounds like an awesome agent! You always have the neatest things going on here at your blog!
Title: Forever More
Genre: YA paranormal
Sixteen-year-old Victoria Robinson has two options: death or imprisonment.
Victoria has just found out that a. her family is cursed, and b. her immediate future involves either death or a life-time imprisonment at her Grandma’s creepy house.
If being part of the curse isn’t bad enough, Victoria has to contend with the knowledge that whatever fate befalls her, the other will go to her cousin, Elspeth.
But Victoria doesn’t take crap from anyone, least of all a four-hundred-year-old curse.
jaded747[AT]gmail[DOT]com
Thanks for the awesome chance!
"Waiting for April"
Paranormal romance
Twenty-one-year-old college student, April Fletcher, is unaware that she is living her fifteenth life.
April doesn’t know that she has never before survived to see her twenty-second birthday, nor does she realise that Scott Parker, her best friend, is actually her soul mate. Sadly, April is also oblivious to the fact that whenever she dies, fate renders Scott Parker immortal until she returns to him and confesses her love.
Scott Parker knows.
Unfortunately, what Scott Parker doesn’t know is that there is someone else out there whose immortality is dependent on the death of April Fletcher, and that person is dead set on living forever.
Thanks!
Jaime
lawrence(dot)jaime(at)gmail(dot)com
Title: Pieces of Moon
Genre: YA Magic Realism
A summer in Belize becomes a race against time for Time. When Tess travels back to fifteenth-century Maya, she uncovers her part in the ancient End-of-Time prophecy. Thrust into a battle between two Mayan gods, it is up to Tess to change history. But there is one person standing in her way--Eron, the Spanish soldier who is sad, brooding, and stubborn but always wonderful. And who she will love for all Time.
jessicaloliveros (at) gmail (dot) com
Thanks for holding another fun opportunity like this.
Title: Tattle Tell
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Pitch: Ephram Gray has been identified as a mutant since birth. Which wouldn't be so bad if the government would just leave him alone. Things get worse when a friend shows signs of mutation, forcing him to tattle. Discovering the truth behind the identification process and the men in suits leaves Ephram with a decision. Either risk telling on another friend or accept the life of a loser tattle tale.
Email: DawnEmbers@ymail.com
Wow, lots of characters named Tess!! :)
I know, Lisa! I noticed that as I read through. I think I'm the fourth or fifth Tess.
Title: High Hopes
Genre: Contemporary YA
Paragraph Pitch:
HIGH HOPES is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey,” but instead of going to Bath, eighteen-year-old Katie Moreland takes a trip to Florida for Spring Break week. There, she meets Hal Tilney, who quickly wins her over with his charm and wit, and who also happens to live in one of the most haunted houses in America – the home where the events of “The Amityville Horror” took place. When Katie is invited to visit for the weekend, her horror-obsessed brain goes into overdrive and she imagines ghosts and ghouls around every corner. Hal tries to explain to her that all the sinister stories about the house are just rumors, but Katie is convinced that the Amityville home is hiding a dark secret. Katie tries to find the source of her supernatural suspicions, but doesn’t know she also runs the risk of something truly scary – losing the guy she loves.
Email: lisagalek at gmail dot com
Title: Waking the Binding Tree
Genre: YA Fiction
Elliana thought the stories her abuela told her were just family legends. But when her clumsy behavior lands her in alternative school, obsessive-compulsive Jillian and mind-reading wannabe Javier help her delve into her own untapped power. While on a trip to Mexico to visit her grandmother, Elliana accidently unleashes the spirit of an ancient ancestor, banished inside the binding tree, who has been waiting to return to power for over four hundred years. As the ghost gains strength by stealing the memories of her loved ones, it’s a race between deception that’s centuries in the making and awkward teenage self-discovery. Can Elliana realize her own strength before she loses her family- and their history- forever?
jlhendricks924 at yahoo dot come
I am learning so much from both blogs! Thanks so much!
Title: From The Other Side
Genre: YA Horror
Email: rachael[dot]harrie[at]gmail[dot]com
For misfit Verity Ronson, being brutally murdered in a dark magick ceremony is only the beginning of her problems. As a ghost, Verity finds herself filled with uncontrollable rages and an unquenchable desire for vengeance against the teens who killed her---including the boy she once loved.
Struggling to harness her unpredictable and deadly new powers, Verity haunts and possesses her murderers, determined to make their lives---and deaths---as painful as possible. But as her world becomes darker and more drenched in blood, Verity begins to lose herself. And she soon realizes that, once you’ve started killing, it can be very hard to stop.
LOVE your pitch contests Shelli!!! Such a fantastic opportunity :)
In the Shadow of Vesuvius.
YA Historical Fiction
Vesuvius awakens. To save the infant she cares for, fifteen-year-old Mira must escape her master, and the slave ordered to shadow her, or share Herculaneum's fate.
Title: Colors Like Memories
Genre: YA Paranormal
Pitch:
Julia has a secret: she killed the guy she loved. It was an accident—sort of. Julia is a Sary, the soul of a child who died before birth, assigned to help those on the verge of ending their lives; she must save Marcy, or leave the Sary. When Marcy pieces together the truth about who her best friend really is, it shatters their friendship and any chance Julia had of helping her. The only way Julia can fix everything is by facing her past, but that’s going to require risking her role with the Sary, and endangering Marcy’s life.
Email: mrs.which (@) gmail.com
Thanks for holding this contest!
Title: The Spirit-Hunters
Genre: YA Steampunk
Pitch:
When a decomposing body delivers a ransom note for Eleanor's brother, she resolves to do anything to get him back. To face the armies of dead that have him, she joins forces with a three-man spirit-hunting team. Now Eleanor has to kick undead butt and deal with her growing attraction to the team's inventor, an exasperating but gorgeous ex-con. From the steampunk lab of the Spirit-Hunters to the emptied cemeteries of Philadelphia, Eleanor must follow the clues – and the bodies – to find her brother and stop the Dead before it's too late.
Email: stowersd (at) gmail (dot) com
Just thought I'd check in and am so impressed by these pitches! (Way to make it easy for me, writers...)
Title: LOOKING GLASS HOUSE
Genre: YA Contemporary
When you’re trapped inside the looking glass, the only way to get where you're going is to face the thing you most want to escape.
Alice Crawford appears from the outside to be a privileged sixteen-year-old, but she believes Seth will turn away when he sees inside her world, where Mum self-medicates bipolar disorder with gin and Dad turned his back years ago. Ally tries to escape the way her sister does - with pills, alcohol and the touch of a stranger. She risks losing Seth because of her own behavior, not her mother’s. When Ally realizes she must confront her parents’ world instead of running from it, she’ll find love, life and freedom from her LOOKING GLASS HOUSE.
Email: underthecoverswriter at gmail dot com
Title: THE GHOST WRITER
Genre: YA Ghost Story
Email: marcykate (at) gmail (dot) com
Seventeen-year-old Tessa James can’t even watch Casper the Friendly Ghost without nightmares, so when letters written in a French appear on her nightstand she does her damnedest to ignore the implications.
Soon Tessa realizes the letters are pieces of a diary, and the tale of Ava Dubois, a runaway millgirl turned rising starlet, begins to unravel. The Castle Theatre, her employer and once Ava's, is about to produce Hamlet, the very play canceled by Ava’s untimely death in 1935. A bizarre series of accidents plague the theatre staff, while the steady stream of letters and rumors of ghosts force Tessa into a dangerous game. She wants no part, but with the body count piling up—in the past and present—she must checkmate her ghosts and Ava's if she wants to live long enough to have a future.
Title: You Were Forever
Genre: Literary Fiction
From the Civil War when New York City’s fire department was still a volunteer force through September 11th and its aftermath, You Were Forever moves through time to tell the stories of women and girls whose lives are intertwined with the FDNY—the mothers, wives, mistresses, sisters and daughters of New York City firefighters.
Among them are eight-year-old Katie Doyle of Long Island who loses her adoptive father, a lawyer, on September 11th and her birth mother, Maggie O’Reilly, the daughter of a Brooklyn fireman killed in the line of duty in 1982 who never tells her boyfriend, also from a fire-family and waiting impatiently to join the FDNY himself, that he is a father. Katie’s great-grandmother, Annie-Rose, must stand by as her husband begins an affair with the widow of another fireman—Matty, who works at the firehouse as a matron (housekeeper) to support her children, customary in the days before the city offered benefits to fire widows. And Bridie Earley, a famine immigrant from Ireland working as a maid, who falls in love with the ghost of Civil War solider, a fireman who went to war as a paid substitute for her employer.
In the years that follow September 11th, it will be Katie’s search for her birth parents that ties the narratives in You Were Forever together.
Email: kathm317@gmail.com
Title: LOCK 19
Genre: YA Fiction
Pitch:
When Tabby's brother is killed by a car bomb that incinerates her father's genetics lab, she refuses to believe he is a part of the terrorist group blamed for the explosion-- until she finds his confession. Heartbroken and desperate for answers, she follows a trail of clues he left behind, uncovering a dark family secret, a gang of genetic outcasts with magnetic powers and an obscure code only she can crack. As her brother's mystery unravels, Tabby comes to understand his sacrifice and realizes the only way to make his life matter is to take up his cause and destroy her father's legacy. Even if doing so may cost her her life.
Email: sabrina.wolford(at)gmail(dot)com
Title: Slipperage
Genre: YA science fiction
Paragraph Pitch:
The young king Zuku of the planet Mardyth doesn’t want to get married, and he especially doesn’t want to marry any of the daughters of his sworn enemy, Ali Alam Alem, no matter what his advisors say. But when Ali Alam Alem’s twelve oldest daughters, along with their entire space ship, keep disappearing only to return with tales of dancing and demon princes, Zuku can’t resist looking into the matter. After all, he is better at talking to machines than he is at talking to girls. The more he researches, the more involved he gets and now Zuku must figure out how to save the princess he doesn’t want to admit to loving before he loses her forever.
Email: jeni.any.dots (at) gmail (dot) com
Title: DESTINED
Genre: YA retelling (Cupid & Psyche)
Paragraph pitch:
Sadie's not just the most beautiful girl in ancient Greece, she's also Cupid's super-secret love interest. But Cupid can only keep his identity secret by visiting Sadie at night, veiled in darkness. Somehow, Sadie has to learn to love a god she will never see after being told in a prophecy that he's a monster. When Sadie finally gives into her fears, and takes a peak at his face, she loses Cupid's immortal love. As Sadie journeys alone through ancient Greece to reclaim Cupid's heart, she finds the strength to take on the gods and challenges the ancient adage: you cannot escape what is destined.
Title: Unseen Beauty
Genre: YA Fantasy
Paragraph Pitch:
Claudette must make the beautiful Seline fall in love with Beast before the castle is destroyed. Unfortunately Claudette is invisible, and no one from outside of the castle, including Seline, can hear her either. Such circumstances make encouraging Seline's romance with the arrogant Beast difficult enough, but then Claudette has to fall in love with Beast herself. Could an impertinent parlor maid's love be good enough to break the spell on the enchanted prince?
amity (dot) irene (at) gmail (dot) com
Title: Alternate
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Pitch:
Sixteen year old Sara Morgan is drawn into a war between parallel universes when she meets Elira Black, an alternate version of herself from another dimension. Elira is the chosen one, a leader of the resistance trying to stop an empire from conquering all the worlds of the multiverse. The two girls share the same DNA, but couldn't be more different - Sara is no hero and has spent her entire life running away from her problems, while Elira has trained for her destiny since birth. But when the chosen one dies and Sara discovers Earth is the empire's next target, she must pretend to be Elira Black and find a way to make the prophecy come true to save everyone she loves.
My email is ebriggs23 at gmail.com. Thanks for this great contest!
Title: Unlives of the Undead
Genre: YA Paranormal
Pitch:
George, a dim-witted zombie, is on Unlives of the Undead, a reality show too dull for viewers to care about. That changes when one of the cast members, a snarky vampire, gets a stake through her heart. The show becomes must-see TV as audiences follow the hunt for the slayer. Unfortunately for George, all the evidence points to him. To avoid spending the rest of his unlife in jail, George must use all the power in his cognitively-challenged zombie brain to elude overzealous detectives, swirly-obsessed jocks, and vengeful vampires long enough to solve the crime and figure out who framed him.
Email: dustin.warren(at)nc.rr.com
Title of the book: The Lion Awakens
Genre: YA
Paragraph pitch:
Annie Lange thought her mom died when she was four. David McClure thought his dad died when he was four. Both are dead wrong. Their parents live in a parallel universe ruled by a tyrant hell-bent on taking over Annie and David’s world because his is dying. It’s up to teens to stop him and bring their parents home.
Email: Buffy@ydr.com
Title: Edge of the Falls
Genre: YA Dystopian
Sabah has lived her whole life Outside the Commission controlled City. She likes it that way--giving away all choice and freedom is too steep a price to pay for safety. But when she is saved by a ban-wolf, the rejected genetic experiments of the Commission, she begins to question everything she knows. Arjun is wild and dangerous and honest in a way the her childhood friend, Berg, never has been. And despite the fur and claws, she can't help the attraction she feels for him.
Faced with the oppurtunity to live withing the safety of the City, under the protection of the Commission, Sabah must decide: does she love a monster? Is safety worth the sacrifice of choice?
Email: nazareanandrews@gmail.com
Thanks so much for the oppurtunity!!
Title: Moonstone
Genre: YA paranormal romance
Pitch:
Seventeen-year-old Emily Shaw never thought her dream guy would actually be the guy from her dreams. But prophetic visions and her burgeoning love life are the least of her problems when she stumbles upon family secrets that may have lead to her mother's death nearly a decade earlier. Now she must decide whether unraveling the mystery of her mother's past is worth losing everything - including her life.
Email: jenross@yahoo.com
Thanks!!
Title: Time Warden
YA Dystopian
Kidnapped and brainwashed into believing that he time-traveled to the year 1692, a rebellious teen is taken in by a secluded village of time-traveling misfits and their offspring. Sixteen-year-old Ryan adapts well to his new life and falls in love with the founder’s granddaughter. When Ryan discovers that the town is nothing more than an elaborate modern-day deception, he struggles with how the truth will affect his girlfriend and makes plans to escape. Too bad no one has made it out of Stevenstown alive.
ChristyEvers (at) att (dot) net
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