If you’re unfamiliar with Pitch Wars, check out the Pitch Wars website for an explanation and a breakdown of the submission guidelines, dates, and other rules. Quick summary: I am co-mentoring adult with Laura Elizabeth this year. Please see her blog post here. We’ll be taking contemporary romance and fantasy romance. Scroll down for more details. Download a text-only pdf…
We’re going to play a game about subjectivity. Let’s imagine that instead of choosing a single book to work on, Pitch Wars was about cookies. Object: sample a variety of cookies sent in by hopefuls and choose ONE that you think you can improve sufficiently to merit your particular mentorship. My wish list might look like this: WHAT I…
Anyone want to do homework along with my mentee? Here was the first assignment. To start off, we dive into character to lay the groundwork for what your MCs want, what they fear, and what is standing in their way. This comes from Michael Hauge’s Identity and Essence which I think works great for romance arcs. There’s a really lovely…
The Pitch Wars submission window will be upon us before long, and many authors will be gearing up to enter this not-a-contest. So many, in fact, that the chances of getting in will be long. Your odds are better straight querying than to get picked as a mentee, so why should anyone bother? I’m not here to answer the…
The book that would become SOME KIND OF MAGIC was the third MS I queried. From 54 queries, I received 15 partial or full requests, followed by an offer from Dystel and Goderich. The title of my book has been changed, and you can see how much the back cover copy retained elements of my query on the Goodreads page….
I never sleep well the night before Pitch Wars reveals. Will my mentee be happy with me? Will the people I didn’t pick be devastated? I toss and turn because I can’t stop thinking of all the very kind people who trusted me with their words, who sent me their hopes along with their hearts, and who are going…
WELCOME to the Pitch Wars family!! It is no mean feat to beat the odds and rise to the top of so much talent. So for one night, squeal and dance and do pointy poses of victory. For one night. For the day after, reality will come knocking. So party while you can. But drink a lot of water…
On August 27, the sub window will open and suddenly the vibe on the #PitchWars feed will change dramatically. Mentees will freak out about pulling the trigger, as everyone seems to be sending in their subs, but you’re not ready yet, and the mentors have suddenly gone dark. Panic sets in. First of all RELAX. You don’t have to submit…
With the Pitch Wars submission window opening soon, it’s *probably* too late to be drafting your MS, but those of you twiddling your thumbs might be wondering what you can do now to prepare for Pitch Wars. Well, I’m glad you asked because there is a LOT you can be doing to be as ready as possible. Polish your…
Pitch Wars is a contest started by Brenda Drake. You can read about it on the official site: pitchwars.org. This isn’t your average contest. You don’t just submit a query/250, get selected from the slush and then hosted for an agent round. You don’t just get a little feedback on your query/250 during a short window between selection and…
One of the first things I do before revising is a bit dastardly: Map the book on a spreadsheet. If you’re a plotter, you may laugh at the necessity of doing this in reverse. But pantsers curl into fetal position at the mere thought of mapping our scenes out in any kind of organized fashion. However, fear not. You can…
Yesterday, I posted a little glimpse into a spreadsheet I’ve been using to track my thoughts on various subs. We get a lot of them, so it’s important to jot down some notes as we go — our intial reaction to the premise and the writing, and a log line that will jog our memory. My log lines include…
I’ve collected a few of the blog posts I’ve put up over the past year to help with submitting to Pitch Wars, getting your query letters ready, spiffing up that first page/chapter, and a bonus on commas. If there are any questions/topics that would be helpful to add, let me know! Good luck! (You’ve totally got this.) How Does…
I am so excited to share Brenda Drake’s Thief of Lies which is due to release on January 5. Check out the gorgeous cover and see below for more info about the book, plus an excerpt. Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly…
Brenda has posted an interview with me and my mentee Laura E. Adams here.
One of my critique partners asked me if I’d go to the big RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in the summer if she went. While it sounded like a lot of fun, I’m tight on travel money and didn’t think it would be possible. I told her I’d go — if I had an agent by then. That…
Brenda Drake, who hosts a number of noteworthy online contests – Pitch Wars being the most noteworthy, has posted an interview with me and my mentor, Jaime Loren. You can read it here.
Pitch Wars came along at the perfect time. I was in that sweet spot between thinking there was nothing wrong with my brand new MS and knowing everything was wrong with it. If I’d had any more or any less faith in my novel, I probably wouldn’t have entered it. It’s that delusional place you get to where if…
This post is part of a blog hop for #PitchWars and will be hosted by the fearless C.M. Franklin on her blog. Follow the links at the bottom of this post to visit the other authors in this blog hop. The first time someone asked me why I wrote Calamity, I answered without thinking, “Because it pleased me to…
Bear with me. This might sound like everyone else in the whole authorverse… I started writing novels last year. That’s not to say I started writing last year, but until Nanowrimo, I had never attempted a full-length, plot-arced, voice-dripping, character-driven ms. I finished one (Yay!) and revised that sucker and edited that sucker and didn’t have the first clue…