Son of a Pitch Round Two is In SESSION!

Here we are, in the week of madness! Below I will update links to all the entries as the day goes by. Don't forget; you can comment ONLY on your own entry, and yes, you can post updated queries etc in the comments based on your feedback.

Good luck everyone!

My Blog:

Counting Perfect

Derek Hyde Knows Spooky When He Sees It

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Reruns of My Life

Fountains, Wishes, and Dead Things

White Soul

Stars in a Bucket

Liked
Ultramarinus

Jinxx Relinkerys is a Liar and a Thief

Elizabeth:

Entry 1: Accounting for it All

Entry 2: Biting Secrets

Entry 3: Hunting Legends

Entry 4: Fearless

Entry 5: Infinity Line

Entry 6: Let the Canyons Weep

Entry 7: Gracey

Entry 8: Nightmare Beauty

Entry 9: Death of a Bachelor

Entry 10: Power Surge
Entry 11: Mixey

Kathleen:
Two Tails of Amaya
The manhattan Swindle
Hanging
Scrapetown
Hazelwood
Homegrown
When the Past Knocks
Salvation
Tales of the Rasha La
Rules of the Dragos

Rena:

From Smokeless Fire

Senestre

Unbroken

Flesh and Ink

Immunity Hunter

Odriels Heirs

Girl in Mans Armor

Silver Gate

Elise and Seer

Magic Within

Samantha:
One Forward Remorse
The Camp
Conduit
Fear Factory
Savage
Damaged Goods
Recycled
Robot Dreams
Merged
Long Lost

Son of a Pitch Entry: Jinxx Relinkerys is a Liar and a Thief

Title: Jinxx Relinkerys is a Liar and a Thief
Category and Genre: YA Fantasy
Word Count: 79,000

Query:
A girl on crutches doesn’t look like a hero, especially when everybody is convinced she’s a liar and a thief. Fourteen-year-old math genius Jinxx must prove them wrong.
Jinxx works as an apprentice mage to keep her family from starving, but can’t tell anyone without being accused of witchcraft. The demands of her powerful mentor make it hard for her to spend time at choir, her connection to a community full song, dance, and duende—the sometimes dark soul of flamenco.
When she’s kicked out of choir after she’s framed for stealing an expensive hymnal, she can’t risk losing her job by telling her mentor. The only clue she has is a cypher that even when decoded makes little sense. As she’s framed for even worse crimes, she and her scandal-loving best friend must discover whose behind the cypher and stop them. Even as they find more evidence, nobody will believe a thief. If she can’t convince them, the next crime she “commits” will send her whole family to the gallows…and that might not be the worst of it.

First 250 Words:
If one of the choir girls was around, I’d beg her to go fetch my brothers for me, but the only thing about is the heat and a flock of misguided pelicans who don’t realize it’s siesta. The temple bells struck at least twenty minutes ago. I need to get home and can’t without my brothers. When I told my them I needed to talk to Lady Sesedo, I meant just a few minutes. It’s my first solo, so I wanted to make sure I knew what part to practice. They knew there wasn’t time for the beach.
I put my math text in my satchel, pick up my crutches, and walk down the street towards the beach path. It feels like all the white walls make the siesta-time sun even more unbearable. I wish those pelicans would fly over me for a few moments of shade. At the least the trail to the beach has that, even if I can’t walk it without tripping. The stupid path cuts through a thicket of scrub bushes, wild olive trees, and thistles.
The temple bells aren’t a clock. They haven’t changed since I last looked at them. That doesn’t make me any less late. Mom needs me to help with the dress we’re making for Doñita Promysed. Mom told Doña Daskeryna we’d finish it by next prayer day. She’s paying us a big bonus to deliver it before Day Su Maligu. To get it done, we’re working through the heat of siesta and burning candles at night.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Ultramarinus

Title: ULTRAMARINUS
Genre: YA Fantasy
Word count: 76000

Query:
17-year-old nonbinary Py hunts for a cure long after everyone else has given up. Undines have the magical power to heal and create new life from water, but no one in their underwater city can heal Py’s beloved elder. Py’s last hope for a cure is to find the Spring, the mythical source of all undine life. Few undines know the Spring’s location, but everyone has heard about the dangerous journey to find it. Risking death, Py sets off across the ocean to find the mysterious Spring.

Woven through Py’s tale is the story of Catalpa, seventy years before. After an attack on their tribe, a young Catalpa goes to find the rebel headquarters and discovers Makar, the mythical fire god and rebellion leader. Catalpa poses as a rebel to learn more about Makar’s mysterious experiments. When they discover that Makar is stealing undines’ souls, Catalpa must rescue them all from the malicious fire god.

When Makar comes back for vengeance seventy years later and disrupts Py’s journey, Py discovers the source of their elder’s illness: the wound from a failed attempt by Makar to steal the elder’s soul. While Makar and a band of soul-stealing monsters scour the ocean looking for Py’s elder, Py will have to finish the mission to find the Spring and defeat Makar before their elder’s soul is gone forever.

First 250:
The Spring Culters forbid me from warning my elder about the attack. I did it anyway.
It didn’t matter. My first betrayal was enough that my elder didn’t believe me this time. They didn’t believe me even as the magma came rolling down the mountain, hissing and blackening in the cold water. It overtook the houses at the edge of the city before anyone knew what was happening.
They didn’t believe me when the fish fled the city in a thick wave, and the undines abandoned all unity, screaming and swimming for their lives through the roiling water. They didn’t believe me that I saw a Rebel watching us from the top of the mountain. I’m sure it was a Rebel, though their skin looked strangely blue in the darkness.
They didn’t believe me, choking on the ash in the water, even though there were no volcanoes near our city. A natural disaster, they had called it. Our beautiful coral city, hundreds of years old, destroyed in minutes. Not natural. They didn’t believe me about the Rebels and their violence, even as that violence boiled through their city.
There are three sides in this fight, and I’m still not sure if I am on the right side. I know which one is the wrong side. But my other two choices are less clear. The Spring Culters, the antithesis of the Rebels. Or my elder, the chief of our tribe, trying to be gray in a fight that seemed black and white to me.
But I knew what they both wanted, and I would do whatever it took. I would find the leader of the Rebellion, drag them back here if I had to, if that’s what it took to win back my elder’s trust.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Liked

TITLE: LIKED
Category and Genre: Adult Contemporary
Word Count: 75,000

Query:
I killed him. My three-ton Range Rover embedded his paper-thin jogger body into the concrete Jersey wall on Highway 71. I stared at his closed casket. An open one wasn’t an option. They say don’t text and drive. They were right. People on social media used every opportunity to remind me daily. I’ve learned many new words. Few are kind.

Probation, suspended license, community service, and a marathon. My lawyers sold the judge on a progressive sentence that included my out-of-shape middle-aged body running a local marathon dedicated to my victim. His family insisted I carry his ashes while competing in the race. If I don’t finish the race, I go to jail on a parole violation. No pressure.

I stole his running journal while apologizing to his niece about the accident. Petty theft was nothing compared to manslaughter. I wanted tips on running, not to find my soul mate.

Six months is all I have to fall out of love with a dead man, fall back in love with my husband, and get my body into shape so I can run a marathon and quiet the mean girls on social media who I once thought of as friends.


First 250 Words:
This is my first funeral.
Glass half-full, it’s not mine.
Glass half-empty, I killed the guy nestled inside the closed casket.
Obliterated may be a better description than killed.
But here I stand.
Thirty-six.
Two kids even Satan wouldn’t admit to fathering.
Squeezed into size twelve skinny pants riding so far up my ass they should have a canary to make sure the air is breathable. The sweat rolling off my body like a high-speed assembly line isn’t helping.
My hips beg for a fourteen.
Who am I kidding? Sixteen.
Who has their wake catered in the funeral home? Judging by the size of this spread, these pants are probably going to burst before I leave. With any luck, someone’s gonna stroll through those doors wearing sweat pants ready to tackle the giant seafood platter. I can only hope.
Anything to help me vanish.
I shimmy between two tables displaying flowered condolence baskets. The pink and white roses shield me from all the eyes entering the room. I’d hide here until the end of the wake if the smell of roses didn’t fill the back of my throat with the shrimp cocktail already testing my 12s.
Even on the wrong side of thirty, this wouldn’t be the worst place in the world if I hadn’t killed the guy eternally sleeping under the closed mahogany casket.
Involuntary Vehicular Manslaughter. Court’s words. Not mine.
“Stupid woman reading a text while driving a Range Rover”— would’ve been more accurate.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Stars in a Bucket

Title:Stars in a bucket
Category and Genre: NA CR
Word Count: 92,000


Query:
Life teaches 18-yr old Shana Matthews from small-town Mistyview Falls a few things: falling in love can be overwhelming; being a good person is negligible; repayment for kindness is often painful wrath. But her toughest lesson will be trying to stay afloat after she’s hurled into the deep end, and that with weights attached to both feet.

Shana's settled into taking care of her father and three half-brothers, when-almost overnight-she finds herself at extreme, opposite spectrums. She's happy and head over heels for Casey, and crippled with fear as Lonnie's (her brother) aggressive outbursts towards her increases. Soon Shana is torn between love and her familial responsibilities; and when she chooses her heart, she pays the ultimate and most brutal price for the decision. It drives her to abscond from Mistyview Falls... away from everything she'd ever known and cherished.
Almost 7 years later, Casey happens to cross her path. Despite the enduring love, Shana considers her demons too profound and resists his advances. Despite her obvious desperation to have him leave, Casey is determined to win her back. And in staying, he uncovers the harrowing truths which haunt her, and it's unfathomable. Both their worlds are once more upended as they're faced with the most daunting decisions of their lives... all in the name of love.


First 250 words:
Changes…

I remember that I once read something I had thought so beautiful at the time.
Things change, people don’t.
I am now unable to recall where exactly I had seen it, but the four little words had offered such a dedicated promise that it had etched itself upon my hopeful heart, that unforgettable summer I turned 19. I had held onto that assurance, no… I had clung to it with such desperation like a drowning person would a life-raft, just waiting for the day that my circumstances would change.
I was my mother’s daughter; always-doing-something-good-for-someone-else-Shana. I was altruistic and everybody knew it. And I suppose for me, having too good a heart turned out to be a bad thing. I had believed that in reward for my kind nature, my life would turn around for the better. Rather foolishly, I had settled my faith in Karma. I was too young and innocent back then. So ridiculously naïve. Harsh reality was standing on the side-lines, just out of view, waiting for its’ chance to give me a wake-up call.
Things change… people don’t?
What a crock. Soon I would know better-I learned that the hard way. The worst way possible, which you would never even want to imagine! The one day I had stood on the jetty, overlooking the lake and I thought that I had never seen a sight more spectacularly beautiful. The grass and trees were lush and green, the blue sky clear and the water sparkling.

Son of a Pitch Entry: White Soul

Title: White Soul
Category and Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 90,000

Query:
Amelia Walker is murdered in a mugging gone wrong.

But before her teenage corpse starts to rot—a Soul Reaper offers a deal. She can have her life back, if she agrees to become a Soul Reaper—living as a mortal, enforcing Death’s rules to maintain the balance between the living and the dead. Breathing again would be reason enough to take the deal, but it also means an eternity of servitude.

Seizing the opportunity to live again, Amy learns that her death was no accident, and that a banished Reaper group is to blame. They have plans to murder more innocent souls, including Amy’s mom, who has apparently always been a talented Reaper. At the same time, the group offers a chance of freedom from Death’s chains.

All Reapers serve Lady Death, blessed with Her mark and ghost powers. Disobeying Her means betrayal, severe banishment, and a painful removal of all Reaper abilities. These rebels seek to change Death’s brutal laws, and no matter what they did to Amy, they have her complete attention.


First 250 Words:
Why was that boy following her?
Why wouldn’t he just leave?
Amy ran with all she had toward the 77th Street station. The plastic bag with her brother’s Christmas gift bounced against her chest, lungs stinging and breath heavy. She dodged people as they watched her.
She turned a street corner, taking a shortcut and running past what she thought was the New York Society Library. After another minute of running, she stopped, bending forward, hands on her knees. Slowly her hammering heart calmed down, and so did the adrenaline in her veins, the snow falling on her face helping to ease the heat in her body.
The subway station was not far, but her tired legs didn’t care. They wouldn’t move. “C’mon.” She huffed, straightening. “Almost there.”
She didn’t find the boy in black. He wasn’t anywhere insight. Minutes earlier, it didn’t matter where she looked at or how much she ran, he would always be there, distant, watching. But not now. Lost him. Good. She had turned left and right countless times while running, randomly following sidewalks on streets full of falling snow.
The street was empty. The wind whistled around her, and the cold clung to her skin as she breathed, fog escaping her lips with every exhale. She sighed.
The street she’d stopped on wasn’t one she recognized—a residential zone, filled with two-story buildings. Lights gleamed from the windows of the homes. Lampposts gave off a smooth, pale illumination in the dark.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Fountains, Wishes, and Dead Things

Title: Fountains, Wishes, and Dead Things
Category and Genre: YA Dark Fantasy/Horror
Word Count: 72,000

Query:
Desperate to save her terminally ill sister, fifteen-year-old Del blindly believes the words of a dying man who speaks of a fountain with the ability to heal. If lore holds true, she can exchange dead bodies for access to the fountain to save her sister and her recently deceased father. Undaunted by its steep price of human sacrifice Del amasses a pile of corpses.

Del and her family travel to the walled city of Eternum, but once inside Del learns it’s a trap. The only sacrifice the townsfolk want is her younger sister, and they expect Del to kill her. When she refuses, the townsfolks banish Del into the nearby forest occupied by Neffers, beastly protectors of the fountain. These imprisoned once-human creatures survive on the blood of sick children like Del’s sister.

To save her family, Del needs the Neffers’ help, but success means freeing the Neffers to feast upon the sick children of the world. Doing nothing means sacrificing the last of her humanity and letting her sister succumb to cancer. In a battle where the line of monsters and men is blurred, Del must determine how many lives the person you love most is worth.


First 250 Words:
The toe tag on the decapitated body read: IF FOUND, CALL (512)576-3038, so Del pulled out her iPhone.

The burning Texas sun played spotlight for the headless body starring center stage.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Del said, circling the shirtless decaying corpse. She maintained a perimeter outside the buzzing flies and fluid soaked ground but breathed easier knowing it wouldn’t answer. “I’ve seen other dead people, you know.”

Seen. Created. Collected. Same difference.

Del spied a turkey vulture gliding in a copycat pattern around the body. “Get the hell outta here! He’s mine!” she fumed. She snatched a piece of gray limestone from the dirt and hurled the rock skyward. The irritated vulture voiced its displeasure before settling into the field’s lone oak tree masquerading as a kickstand for her ten-speed bike. For now, fifteen-year-old Del owned her prize uncontested.

Dead bodies were a one-way ticket to life in jail for most, not a bloody prerequisite to salvation.

Del chewed her last unbroken nail to a jagged nub before dialing. She figured most people would be afraid to call, but they weren’t in her situation. She needed to find a cure for cancer, like yesterday.

The option to call the cops had long since passed. They would canvas the field. Talking her way out of one dead body seemed plausible, but not a half-dozen. While her underground fort kept them out of sight, their putrid scent would undoubtedly betray her.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Reruns of My Life

Title: Reruns of My Life
Category and Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Word Count: 100,000

Query:
Seventeen-year-old Agnes is legally dead. After a severe beating from her mother, she faked her own suicide... four years ago. Now, under a new name and with an adopted family, Agnes, now Blaire, returns to her hometown to face her past and the one person who gave her the will to keep living; her best friend Parker.
Her biological father returns when the police inform him that she still lives, but Agnes struggles to reconcile the real him with the lies her mother brainwashed her to believe, especially since he has a "replacement" daughter with his new wife.
But Parker believes she's dead and, after Agnes' significant physical changes, he sees similarities to the girl he once knew, but that's all. Although, other people are starting to piece things together, especially because she bears a strong resemblance to her mother when she was Agnes' age. Each time someone questions her, the trauma from her mother's abuse sets off flashbacks and panic attacks.
Agnes knows she has to tell Parker the truth soon before he realizes or someone else tells him, but the more she falls in love with him, the harder the truth is to reveal. She broke him once, the truth might just make it permanent.

First 250 Words:
Four years. Although the time seemed like an eternity, it didn’t feel long enough. How could these people all be the same when I had changed so dramatically?

Although now at high school, the same girls were the pretty popular girls, the same girls were the cheerleaders, some more loose, others more uptight. The jocks were their same stupid selves, just… more. They still stared at girls’ chests, they still tried to get glimpses up their skirts or down their shirts.

As I passed through the main gate, their gazes followed me, the new girl. The guys assessing how worth their time I might be, the girls trying to decide whether they should be my frenemies or an open foe.

I held my chin up and kept walking. If the past four years taught me nothing else, it taught me how to be tough. They never knew a tough version of me.

With a class list in hand, I headed toward the senior lockers. The same groups remained intact; the nerds, the druggies, the outdated skaters, the arty kids, the wholesome head-in-the-sand kids. I recognized every single one, and none of them had changed their groups. They were all set in their ways, and their ways worked for them. I couldn’t blame them for that. But I’d never been part of any of those groups. I never fit their molds.

A slight twinge of fear struck me as I opened my locker. What if someone did recognize me? What would they say?

Son of a Pitch Entry: Dream a Little Dream of Me

Title: Dream a Little Dream of Me
Category and Genre: YA/Magical Realism/Time-travel
Word Count: 86,000

Query:
It’s been a year since sixteen-year-old Ellie Barrett’s mother died, and she still can’t move on with her life. She’s pulled away from her two best friends and her once-beloved Aunt Jane who’s now her guardian. She only talks to Nate, the loner guy at high school with a mysterious past, and doesn’t see her life ever changing until she wishes on a shooting star to get her mother back. And she does, just not as she imagined.

Now, instead of sleeping, she travels to 1976 when her mother was sixteen-year-old Trix. Being with her mom is a dream-come-true—almost. Ellie loves Trix and adores her aunt at twelve and her grandmother, but Trix isn’t a mom-substitute and time-travel has its downsides. Besides never sleeping, Ellie vanishes when she travels from one time to the other. In the past she’s healthy, but in her present Ellie is physically falling apart.

Time-travel is killing Ellie, so she must choose—if she can—life in the past with her sixteen-year-old mother or life without her mother at all.

First 250 Words:
The breeze here on top of the Empire State Building gusts Mom’s soft hippie skirt behind her, her black and silver hair intertwining with mine. “Can anything be better than this?” she asks.

We pose like figureheads on a ship, arms outstretched, hugging all of Manhattan, the car lights streaming like rivers far below.

I laugh. “When did heights stop bothering you?”

Mom wraps her arm around my shoulder, pulling me close. “When I died, my sweet.”

My alarm went off, the droning buzz erasing Mom’s voice. I hit it, needing to smack something. To break something. My heart pounded, my eyes teary.

Another Mom dream where she leaves me.

It wasn’t even a true dream. Aunt Jane and Joe took Cassie, Serena, and me when we were fourteen to the Empire State Building. Mom’s fear of heights was her excuse not to come with us. Later, she admitted that she was in too much pain and exhausted.

That day, as Aunt Jane told Joe to take pictures of us, Cassie, Serena and I—poising for one of our traditional best-friends photos—pretended we were Jack and Rose from Titantic, laughing like demented witches as the wind blew our hair into each other’s face, our arms open wide.

I took that picture off my bulletin board a year ago; only Mom photos allowed.

I curled into a ball under my comforter. I didn’t know which was worse—these great dreams where Mom is herself or the ones like last night’s

Son of a Pitch Entry: Derek Hyde knows Spooky When He Sees It

Title: DEREK HYDE KNOWS SPOOKY WHEN HE SEES IT
Category and Genre: MG, Paranormal
Word Count: 41,000

Query:

Derek Hyde isn’t tingling with undiluted joy that the spookiest old mansion in town is about to become the Hyde Funeral Home & Used Coffin Outlet. Especially since he has to live there with his adoptive mortician parents, Jack and Formalda.

Of course, being driven in the family hearse to his first day at middle school doesn’t exactly add whipped cream to his broccoli.

As if things couldn't get more horrific, an evil classmate named Nussbaum attacks him in the cafeteria with a plate of beef stroganoff. Seems this kid loved living in the old mansion himself, but got yanked out after accidentally blowing up his own mom and dad. With his chemistry set. Now his dead parents are stuck as ghosts and Nussbaum is a foster kid stuck on revenge, vowing to get even with Derek’s family for taking over his haunted home.

If twelve-year-old Derek can't live in a nice place—preferably without any blood-curdling apparitions that scare the pants off him and a classmate bent on ensuring he doesn't make it to thirteen—he'll have to run away. Far, far away.

First 250 Words:

There are far worse things in life than being raised in a funeral home. For example, you could… um…

Okay, here’s one. You could have your brains eaten alive and slurped down by cranky, overworked zombies who haven’t had their morning coffee.

Or how about this? You could be stuffed into a spin dryer at Leo’s Laundromat & Hideous Stain Removal Service and set to Extra Dry/Huge Load.

But Derek wasn’t eaten and he definitely wasn’t spin dried, either. Just driven to the narcoleptic town of Littleburp in the family car (actually, an old yellow school bus), and then to a really unfortunate and grossly undesirable address: 1313 Slimeytoes Lane. 

As the bus splashed its way through a beautifully timed thunderstorm on the worst day of Derek’s life (so far), his mom and dad worked at keeping his spirits up by singing their favorite, most embarrassing song: Poopy Head, Poopy Head, Don’t You Be a Poopy Head.

It didn’t help.

It was bad enough his adoptive parents dragged Derek out of his seventh grade class and away from all his friends to limp across the country in a broken-down school bus on this Journey to Nowhere. Much worse was the notion that they were about to move him into a spooky old mansion they planned to convert into a funeral home.

You see, his parents were funeral directors. Morticians. Undertakers.

On this appropriately stormy autumn day, noisy brakes slowed them to a squealing stop in front of their new home.

Son of a Pitch Round ONE!

ROUND ONE!

A chance to refine your query and first 250 words. Post your query and 250 words on your blog then leave a direct link in the comments below. Please leave feedback on the author's blog, and for a minimum of three other queries and first 250. 

All feedback left in the comments below will be deleted.

***You don't have to participate in this round to join Round 2, but it is highly recommended to get that extra polish before the voting round.***

GOOD LUCK!

Want to see my query that won me my first book deal? Well, here it is!

To save her younger sisters from being taken to the cruel life of the palace, Naomi intervenes and gives herself to be a wife of the erratic Pharaoh. She is the oldest daughter of the direct line of Israel, and as her father's favorite child, she is well-educated and knows she is the closest thing her people have to a princess.

In the palace, Naomi finds herself thrust into the intrigues of the royal family. She is savvy and bright, so the Great Queen Nefertiti perceives Naomi to be her greatest threat. But Naomi refuses to submit to Nefertiti’s physical and emotional abuse. Naomi becomes beloved by the Pharaoh, who declares that she will bear him his heir. Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Naomi and even brings her fidelity into question, which could cost Naomi her very life.

Naomi must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. And when she does bear an heir, she must fight to protect him as well as herself from Nefertiti who is out for blood.

Son of a Pitch: Author Hosts and Critiquers

Time to introduce your hosts and critiquers! Please welcome and stalk them! These amazing authors will host the entries on their blogs, leave feedback to help you refine your query, and generally explode awesome all over the place. The hosts will decorate their choice of My Little Pony so you can rally behind your team!

With no further ado, here they are!

Blog Hosts:

Kathleen Palm loves the weird, the scary, and the fantastical. She started writing about twelve years ago with no idea of what she was doing or where the road lined with words would take her. She wrote several manuscripts before finally facing the haunting truth. She wanted her words to be a real book! Choosing the best of the bunch, she queried her YA fantasy FAERIE WIND and, well, failed. The following year, she polished her YA fantasy DOORS and decided to query small presses. After receiving two offers to publish DOORS, she chose REUTS Publishing. The making of the books is a slow endeavor, and she waits for her turn to be a debut author. She writes to pass the time…writing new manuscripts and revising old ones…and has found a love of creating short stories. Her stories DARK WOLF and TOGETHER can be found in the anthology FAIRLY TWISTED TALES FOR A HORRIBLY EVER AFTER. Her horror short WHAT LURKS IN THE DARKNESS can be found in the anthology HALLOWEEN NIGHT: TRICK OR TREAT. Of course, she has a few more on sub, because short stories are fun.

She likes to read mostly YA fantasy, the darker the better, and horror. Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Neal Shusterman, Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, and Amy Lukavics are some of her favorite authors. 

HALLOWEEN NIGHT: TRICK OR TREAT Anthology

FAIRLY TWISTED TALES FOR A HORRIBLY EVER AFTER Anthology

DOORS (Goodreads)

Twitter Blog Facebook

Samantha Bryant believes in love, magic, and unexplainable connections between people. Her favorite things are lonely beaches, untamed cliff tops, sunlight through the leaves of trees, summer rains, and children's laughter. She has lived in many places, including rural Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Vermont, England and Spain. She is fierce at heart, though she doesn't look it. 

She's a fan of Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Neil Gaiman, Nicole Perlman, and Joss Whedon, among many others. She would like to be Amy Tan when she grows up, but so far it doesn't look like she'll be growing up any time soon. 

Samantha writes blogs, poems, essays, and novels. Mostly she writes about things that scare or worry her. It's cheaper than therapy. Someday, she hopes to make her living solely as a writer. In the meantime, she also teaches middle school Spanish, which, admittedly, is an odd choice for money-earning, especially in North Carolina. 

When she's not writing or teaching, Samantha enjoys time with her family, watching old movies, baking, reading, and going places. Her favorite gift is tickets (to just about anything).

Her debut novel, Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel is now for sale by Curiosity Quills as is the sequel, Change of Life. You can find her online on her blog, Twitter, on Facebook, on Amazon, on Goodreads, on the Curiosity Quills page, or on Google+ , and now on Tumblr.

How I Came to Get my Book Deal: 

Getting my first book contract was a matter of lucky timing and paying attention. While I was still writing the book, I began participating in a lot of forums and groups for writers (digitally and in real life). When authors talked about their experiences, I listened for names as well as direct advice. I'd go look up publishers who had worked with writers I liked and keep a list of places I thought might be a good fit for my work. That's how I heard of Curiosity Quills. 

Because I'd just spent a year querying another novel at bigger publishers and it had taken that long just to get two nonspecific and non-helpful refusals, I was looking at small, independent publishers. My theory was that the time frame, at least, would be shorter. 

Because I liked what I saw on their website and couldn't find anything scary about them in the usual places (Preditors and Editors; Writers Beware), I decided to query CQ. I was very lucky in my timing and hit the acquisitions editor at less busy moment. We moved from query to full to contracted book in the space of two weeks, and the book was produced eight months later. That's got to be some kind of speed record!

Three years later, they've published three of the novels in my series, included me in a multi-author anthology, and put out a collection of side stories in my Menopausal Superhero series.

What I Like to Read:

I'm a diverse reader. I like science fiction, fantasy, superhero, cyberpunk, weird, historical, steampunk, comics, post-apocalyptic, literary, women's fiction, fairy tale, ghost, poetry, nonfiction, memoir, horror, comedy, mystery, classic, paranormal, and (some) romance. Really, I'll give just about any sort of book a try. I am drawn in by beautiful language and interesting characters. I love it when a book can surprise me, going a different way than I anticipated, but still going in a way that makes sense to the story as a whole. Since this already feels like a personals ad for books, I'll add: turn-offs include clunky dialogue and stereotypical portrayals.

Like most mad scientists, Rena Rocford has made an art form of living as a muggle. Today the bills, tomorrow the world. From her secret base in California, Rena builds her armies of books, one word at a time. When she isn’t planning for world domination, Rena creates nerdy art and enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She unleashed her first book Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon, on the world in late 2015.

How I got my book deal: 

I had a story that I had queried too early. I'd ambitiously sent it out into the world without as much work as I could have. It came back to me in form rejections, so I kept my chin up and moved on to another project. The second project didn't find a home either, but it did get several revise and resubmits. One of the suggestions in one of those R&Rs seemed like they were talking more about my earlier project, so, for grins and practice (and to keep myself from pulling out my hair), I revised my earlier project. And there just happened to be a contest on the Aussie Owned and Read website. I submitted my pitch and they took me in the contest. Kathleen of Curiosity Quills requested chapters of my manuscript, and the rest happened very quickly. 

Reading preferences: 

Fantasy, Science Fiction, both in YA and Adult. I've been known to pick up a good general fiction, but I really like there to be a taste of the fantastical.

ELIZABETH RODERICK is the author of the LGBT romantic suspense novel, Love or Money, and The Other Place Series, which includes The Hustle, The Other Place, Love and War, and Synchronicity. She has written ten other novels in a wide range of genres, which are in various stages of revision and pitching.

She grew up as a barefoot ruffian on a fruit orchard near Yakima, Washington, and she has recently returned to the family farm, where she lives in an off-grid tiny house she renovated and built herself, and grows most of her own food.

She earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and worked for many years as a paralegal and translator. She is a musician and songwriter, and has played in many bands, rocking some instruments she doesn't even know the real names for, but mostly guitar, bass and keyboards. 

Elizabeth’s stories are about love, death, gang warfare, and madness. Her characters tend to be of the type that society generally shuns: addicts, convicts, and the neurodiverse. She herself is a neurodivergent person. 

Elizabeth believes if people get to know those who live on the fringes of society, both in stories and in real life, they'll find them more likeable than they originally thought.

Find her on:

Amazon Goodreads Twitter Facebook Website

Publication Story:

My publication story, like most, is one of perseverance and the desire to learn and improve.

I got tired of hearing that my novels were well-written, but that they didn’t quite fit agents’/publishers’ expectations with regard to plot, and/or that they had a hard time identifying with my neurodiverse, homeless, addicted and criminal characters. So, I tried to write a more “traditional” novel—Love or Money, a LGBTQ romantic suspense book. It was my first attempt at romance, and I think I did okay…even though my characters still turned out to be criminals and ruffians. I think I sent one regular query, but otherwise I just pitched it on #PitMad. I got several requests, and two offers. It was published by Limitless Publishing. Limitless has now taken on a good chunk of my backlist, and I’m busy revising my other books, and drafting more, in hopes that more of my stories will find a home.

Wish List:

I love pretty much all the books. I write in a stupidly-large range of genres, because I read all those genres.

With regard to what I love most, it would be books of all genres with neurodiverse/mentally ill characters, and/or characters that are down-and-out, especially when those characters aren’t objects of pity or contempt, but just people with their own stories to tell. The book doesn’t have to be about “overcoming” their situation or diagnosis…in fact, I’d prefer it weren’t.

I also love humorous books, or books with humor as a large part of the voice. I’m also a big fan of YA fantasy of all sorts.
Can’t wait to hear about your stories!

Born and raised in Australia, Katie Hamstead's early years of day dreaming in the "bush," and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.
After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughters, and their dogs.
She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing.
When her debut novel, Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh, climbed into bestselling status, she believed she was onto something, and now has a slew of novels available, and is published through Curiosity Quills Press, Soul Mate Publishing, REUTS Publishing, and soon Limitless Publishing as well.
Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports, and be a good wife and mother. She now works as an office lady at an elementary school to help support her family. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.

Publication story:

Back in 2012, I'd just completed writing the Kiya Trilogy and although I'd written other manuscripts and researched into querying, the trilogy was the first thing I felt confident had the potential to get me a deal. At this point, I was introduced to the online writing community and the competition GUTGAA. GUTGAA was a game changer for me which provided my query feedback I so desperately needed.

Immediately after refining my query, I went out and cold queried and ended up with many partial and full requests. Within two months I was offered my contract for the trilogy with Curiosity Quills. The trilogy is now in it's forth year of publication, sold more than 100,000 copies, and is an Amazon bestseller, topping the charts several times.

Wishlist:
I love ROMANCE! The sweeter and more wholesome the better! Give me a real couple that love each other quirks and all, and I'm there! HEA/HFN's are a must for me, I need books that leave me feeling all warm inside at the end, even if I'm dragged through the coals for the rest of the book.
Historical is among my favorite genres, including time travel. But I want unusual history, not the most common Regency etc. History from Asia, Africa, the Americas pre European settlement, including mythology make me all kinds of happy. As a kid, my favorite Disney movie was Mulan. I was a complete sucker for the Chinese culture and still am!
And of course, Magical Realism. There really aren't enough books in this genre around.

Twitter Pitch Critiques Host:

Liana Brooks writes science fiction and sci-fi romance for people who like fast ships, big guns, witty one-liners, and happy endings. She lives in Alaska with her husband, four kids, and giant mastiff puppy. When she isn’t writing she enjoys hiking the Chugach Range, climbing glaciers, and watching whales.

You can find Liana on the web at www.lianabrooks.com or on Twitter as @LianaBrooks.

Published Work: The Day Before, Convergence Point, Decoherence, Even Villains Fall In Love, Even Villains Go To The Movies, Even Villains Have Interns, Seventy, Real Lies, and several short stories featured in several anthologies.

Amazon Author Page Website GoodReads

WISHLIST! 

I love fast paced books with amazing twists. Sci-fi, urban fantasy, contemporary thrillers, fantasy, romance... I'll take them all! Just give me strong female characters (not just muscular but strong willed), honest relationships, and make me laugh, and you'll win me over. I love Enemies-to-Lovers and Found Family tropes.

I'd especially love to see #OwnVoices stories from authors who are disabled, on the asexual/aromantic spectrum, come from a mixed ethnic or racial backgrounds, or are Third Culture Kids. Diversity is the spice of life, so make books spicy! 

Not For Me: Brooding males, alphaholes, angsty characters, dubious consent, rape, dead or injured children, MG, YA, horror, or erotica. There are people who loves those books, but they aren't for me.

Critiquers:

Sara O. Thompson’s first attempt at a book was prepared on a Remington typewriter and bore a suspicious resemblance to a famous novel whose title rhymes with ‘Gourd of the Spies.’ In her spare time, she performs improv comedy, occasionally tells stories on stage, and loves ballroom dancing. Sara lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her family.

How I got my book deal:

I participated in a twitter pitch contest and was "acquired" by Curiosity Quills. My tweet was something like, "Solving crimes. Doing magic. Drinking bourbon."

Wishlist:

I used to be huge into literary fiction, but now it's pretty solidly in the SFF realm. Love anything funny. I want to see Science fiction and fantasy, especially urban fantasy, especially funny stuff. No love triangles, love rectangles, love rhomboids. Pretty much ixnay on the kissy stuff. Love writing that doesn't take itself too seriously. Anything that turns tropes on their heads. 

When she was a child, CC Dowling knew two things. That she would never have kids, and she would be a writer, which makes her right half the time. CC shared her passion for writing with music and science, and still does.

She spent the first half of college singing, and most of the second half in a lab. After twelve years spent chasing a four year degree, and enough college credits to ensure student loan debt well into her nineties, CC graduated in 2009 with a B.S. in Biotechnology and went to work playing with stem cells and neuro pathways.

Now, CC lives in America’s finest city with her preschooler (who plays in the back yard with the faeries), her husband (the financial shaman), her aussie (with mesmerizing blue eyes), her very real pet dragon (who guards the perimeter of her house at night), and an unknown bundle of joy currently taking up residence behind her belly button. When she’s not working or writing (which is still technically working), CC can be found playing a round of disc golf with the boys and the dog, or desperately trying to figure out which pair of sandals are the most appropriate for the harsh Southern California winters.

Her debut novel, Conduit, is the first in a New Adult Paranormal Romance series.

Find her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DowlingMisfits/

She likes to read NA and Adult Urban fantasy, paranormal romance, light sci-fi, especially mixed with fantasy elements, and contemp romance.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Son of a Pitch is MAGIC!

OMG This totally snuck up on me! Did it sneak up on you? AHHH!!! Let's DO this!

Follow along with the silliness and discussion under #sonofapitch on Twitter. This time our theme is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic  because who doesn't need more friendship and magic in their life?? Our hosts will be decorating their blogs using the Element of Harmony within them!

It's less than a month until the first round, so although it's short notice, I hope you jump in. Below are all the details, my little ponies.

This comp is for Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult manuscripts of all genres.

Week 1 starts September 11, 2017: A chance to refine your query and first 250 words. Post your query and 250 words on your blog then leave a direct link in the comments of a post I will put up on my blog the week of Sept 11. Please leave feedback on the author's bog, and for a minimum of three other queries and first 250. All feedback left in the comments of the post for links will be deleted.

***You don't have to participate in Round 1 to join Round 2. It is highly recommended to get that extra polish before the voting round.***

Week 2 starts September 18, 2017:
This week, published authors will give you feedback. The September event will be smaller than the February one, but there will still be amazing authors joining in, including some regular and familiar faces. They write a wide range of genres, so don't miss this opportunity. The Son of a Pitch team, who are all published, will post your emailed in queries and 250 words on their blogs. Please use the formatting below and email to:

sonofapitchcomp@yahoo.com.au

Subject line: Son of a Pitch! (Category and Genre of your manuscript)

Formatting:

Title: (Name of Manuscript)
Category and Genre: (YA/NA/Adult then Genre)
Word Count: (to the nearest thousand)
Query:

Insert query here. No bio or comparisons please.
First 250 Words:

I don't care if this is from a prologue or chapter one. That's up to you.

Incorrectly formatted emails will be returned.

The team will vote for their favorites from the fifty who make it through to go onto the final round. They will cast five votes each, anywhere they want, and the top 20 will go onto the next round. Feel free to coax judges your direction! But please, only you and the judges can comment on your entry, or the comments can get confusing for tallying votes at the end. Votes will close on Thursday 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

The first fifty entries will go into this round. So get your clickers ready to email at precisely 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday September 15th.

You will receive a confirmation email once I have checked your formatting. I will let you know if you need to make an adjustment, but EVERYONE will receive an email. Be patient with me and don't send a second email unless I ask for one. IF you have concerns, contact me on Twitter: @HamsteadKatie

But don't be discouraged! You will get good feedback to help you even if you don't make the top twenty. So please go and query elsewhere afterward, and let us know your success story so it can be shared on the blog.

Week 3 starts September 25th, 2017: We are working on a fantastic line up of editors and publishers. They'll swing by the final contestants to try to bribe you into subbing to them. The final Twenty will post right here on this blog, where editors will come and make requests for you. If you make the top twenty, you will be emailed on Friday 22th, and all updated entries sent to the email address by Saturday 23th 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. If you don't make the deadline, the next highest voted entry will be emailed, and will have 24 hrs to get the entry into the inbox.
Feel free to email any requests made whenever you feel like it, but note that the editors are allowed to give feedback on your entry. Also, make sure to include that your query to them is from the comp by putting Son of a Pitch Request in the title.

EXTRA FEEDBACK! One of our authors will be hosting a twitter pitch critique session to help you prepare for the Twitter Pitch Party. The host will set up a blog post at the same time as round 3, and you leave your twitter pitch in the comments. To critique, just hit reply to the comment in the post! Not only will your peers be patrolling, but the published authors will swing by to leave feedback during this time as well.

Twitter Pitch: October 4th, 2017:

And finally, we'll have a free-for-all twitter pitching opp under the hashtag #sonofapitch
Rules: Makes sure to include #sonofapitch and your genre/age category with the tweet. You can tweet any number of manuscripts, but only once every hour each.
It will open all day, but since I have work and kid commitments on Wednesdays, I won't be able to monitor the feed much. The authors from Rd 2 will keep an eye on things, but please behonest with your tweeting, and RT not Like when you see a pitch you love.

So there you have it! Come back on Monday the 28th to meet the hosts and published authors who will be leaving feedback.

I will post participating pubs/agents soon.

Son of a Pitch Round One

ROUND ONE!

A chance to refine your query and first 250 words. Post your query and 250 words on your blog then leave a direct link in the comments below. Please leave feedback on the author's blog, and for a minimum of three other queries and first 250. 

All feedback left in the comments below will be deleted.

Also, for more detail on the editors involved, join the Facebook event.

***You don't have to participate in this round to join Round 2. It is highly recommended to get that extra polish before the voting round.***

GOOD LUCK!

Want to see my query that won me my first book deal? Well, here it is!

To save her younger sisters from being taken to the cruel life of the palace, Naomi intervenes and gives herself to be a wife of the erratic Pharaoh. She is the oldest daughter of the direct line of Israel, and as her father's favorite child, she is well-educated and knows she is the closest thing her people have to a princess.

In the palace, Naomi finds herself thrust into the intrigues of the royal family. She is savvy and bright, so the Great Queen Nefertiti perceives Naomi to be her greatest threat. But Naomi refuses to submit to Nefertiti’s physical and emotional abuse. Naomi becomes beloved by the Pharaoh, who declares that she will bear him his heir. Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Naomi and even brings her fidelity into question, which could cost Naomi her very life.

Naomi must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. And when she does bear an heir, she must fight to protect him as well as herself from Nefertiti who is out for blood.