4. Pitch Slam: THE MIRAGE SHIFTER, MG Fantasy

Name: Gretchen Kaup Genre: MG/Fantasy Title: The Mirage Shifter Word Count: 56,000 MC’s Favorite Movie Genre: Aiden Flanagan loves action adventure, especially if they involve mutants or zombies. He knows how it feels to be a freak with an uncanny ability. Pitch: Aiden, an overzealous twelve-year-old, crosses into a dreamworld, confronting irate dreamers, unseen beings, and multinational law enforcement as he […]

5. Pitch Slam: THE OTHER SIDE, Women’s Fiction

Title: THE OTHER SIDE Genre: Commercial Women’s Fiction Word Count: 78,000 Movie Genre: Summer’s favorite movie genre is drama because she likes to see she’s not the only person living with pain and tragic mistakes.  Pitch: Mer lost her first son to foster care and is terrified of failing at motherhood again. Pregnant and broke, she […]

6. Pitch Slam: AUTO IN, Adult Romance

Title: AUTO IN Genre: Adult Romance Word Count: 99,000. Genre: Action movies a la Quentin Tarantino, because Dante’s snarky and A.D.D. mind doesn’t have the patience for anything slower. Plus, making himself watch people get blown up or thrown off high-rise buildings helps numb him from the pain of loss after the tragic death of his brother. Pitch: Twenty-three-year-old […]

7. PitchSlam: DEEP, DARK, TRUTHFUL MIRROR, Adult Urban Fantasy

Title: Deep, Dark, Truthful Mirror Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy (with erotic elements) Word Count: 114,000 MC’s Fav. Movie Genre: Growing up, Declan read TV Guide cover to cover and stayed up all hours to watch every classic gangster movie he could find. Though he’d forgotten his special talents, his family hadn’t, and treated him like a […]

8. PitchSlam: NOT QUITE MARKETABLE, YA Contemporary

Title:  NOT QUITE MARKETABLE Genre:  YA Contemporary Word Count:  80,000 Genre:  Alix is flexible and will watch whatever, but he has a weakness for comedies.  Life’s got enough stressors to deal with, so if he can escape for a little while and laugh, he’s game.  Then again, schlocky horror has been growing on him lately…. Pitch:  Chubby […]

Being Awesome, Week 8

I’ve been completely slammed helping to judge two writing contests at once, but I also think that it’s important to remember the good things in life, so I’m taking a moment to be grateful for all the awesome things out there. I am working with some amazing, talented, incredibly selfless writers. These people are donating […]

Being Awesome, Week 7

Another seven days, seven more awesome things: The NestPitch submission window is open! Go enter! I get to read slush! I adore reading slush. I hit 50,000 words on my work in progress! (Just in time for Camp NaNo, which I won’t be doing after writing 50,000 words in March.) My nails are a lovely […]

APRIL CONTESTS ARE COMING!

Spring has utterly failed to….er…. sprung in the northeast (that sentence would make sense if it were warm and/or not snowing…). The weather outside may still be frightful, but inside – the writing contests are almost here! #NestPitch submissions open on Wednesday. I’m reading slush for Team OneBasket, headed by the amazing and talented SC […]

Being Awesome, Week 6

So much awesome this week, this could be a very long blog post. And you know what? GOOD! The fact that I have so many great things to talk about that it could take awhile only shows that my rededication to being awesome is working. My sister had a baby! This is so very exciting. […]

Let’s Talk About Voice, Baby

As some of you may be aware (since I’ve mentioned it roughly 11,000 times), #PitchSlam and #NestPitch are fast approaching (details on Twitter). I’m reading slush for NestPitch and hosting PitchSlam, which means that I’m crazy. I mean… that I’ll be reading a LOT of pitches and first pages in April. A lot, a lot, […]

Being Awesome, Week 5

Another Wednesday, another week of awesome. Don’t forget to take time out to appreciate the good things in life. Against all odds, I managed to come up with another 10k words for my work in progress last week. I can only imagine that this is because I decided to write all the super fun parts […]

When Feedback Collides

PitchSlam is fast approaching, and one of the things that sets this contest apart is that writers can submit their pitch and first page for feedback before final entries are chosen. Feedback is priceless, and the more the better, but at the end of the day, remember to do what feels right for your manuscript. […]