Pitch Wars- MG Alternates Showcase!

Alternates Showcase!

The agent round for PITCH WARS brought to you by Brenda Drake is happening now over at the YAMisfits blog. Hop over there and follow them and view the agent round January 23-24 pitches. The talented panel of agented/published authors, industry interns, and editors have worked for over a month with their teammates to help get their pitches and manuscripts ready for some fabulous agents. To view the teams go here, and for a list of the awesome participating agents go here.

ALTERNATES SHOWCASE! As a special reward for waiting in the wings, we are putting the alternates on a few host blogs and inviting agents to stop by and make requests. ALL AGENTS ARE WELCOMED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS EVENT.

Here are the blogs hosting the alternates' pitches:

Adult: Summer Heacock's blog

MIDDLE GRADE:  Deanna Romito's blog

YOUNG ADULT: Brenda Drake's blog

YOUNG ADULT: Kimberly P. Chase's blog

YOUNG ADULT:  Monica B.W.'s blog

TWITTER PITCH PARTY! For those of you who didn't make it into Pitch Wars, there will be a twitter pitch party on the hashtag #PitMad on January 25 from 8AM to 8PM EST. So get your twitter pitches ready and make sure to include the hashtag in your 140 character count. The rules are: be polite, any genre can be pitched, and pitch each time you see an agent on the hashtag (pitch continuously throughout the day). ALL AGENTS ARE WELCOMED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS EVENT.

Scroll down to view the pitches!

(Comments welcome on this post, but please only agent comments on the alternates' entry posts!)

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ALT D-1: The Lost Figurehead

NAME:  Samantha Farkas
MENTOR:  Deanna Romito
TITLE:  THE LOST FIGUREHEAD
GENRE:  MG Adventure
WORD COUNT:  56,000

PITCH: 

Tough-talking twelve-year-old Finn Rackham figures he can handle anything, even pirates.  But these aren't the treasure-hunting rapscallions he expects; they're time travelers, and they just commandeered a ferry in New York Harbor.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Trust Finn Rackham to make a mess of things.

Not that he regretted it.  Not that it was even his fault, really.  What was he supposed to do?  Bobby Leland, the pompous brat, had opened that big ugly mouth of his, and Finn had reacted accordingly: with a few well-aimed punches, straight to the jaw.  Sure showed him who was “good-for-nothing,” all right.

“—ungrateful twerp.  We take you in and this is how you thank us.  Disgusting!”

From the driver's side, Mr. Leland was still yelling, but Finn wasn't listening.  Instead he stared out the window.  There wasn't much to see: it was late, and this part of Brooklyn was dark.

“I should have known.  That's what you get when good, law-abiding citizens try to clean up the streets.  No wonder the jails are overcrowded.  There's no helping you people, is there?”

All right, so maybe he was listening.  Finn balled his hands into fists.  Shut up, shut up, shut up.

The car jerked to a stop in front of a little brick building.  Mr. Leland leapt out, moving awfully fast for a man his size, and threw open the passenger door.  Finn tried to duck under his arm, but Mr. Leland caught him by the ear, only to drag him up the path to St. Magnus's Home for Children.

“I can walk.  Geez.”  Finn pulled away, darting inside before Mr. Leland could give him a shove.

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ALT D-2: The Transparents

NAME: Vicki Tremper
MENTOR: Deanna Romito
TITLE: The Transparents
GENRE: MG Magical Mystery
WORD COUNT: 37,000

PITCH:

When eleven-year-old Daniel’s sneeze ignites his invisibility, he accepts the role of super sleuth to clear his annoyingly popular brother in a string of burglaries. But there’s a dark family secret even Daniel can’t see.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Sometimes I wish I could disappear like my hero, Houdini. You know, get myself out of dangerous situations and tight spots. Today is one of those days.

I’m slumped down so low, my nose practically touches my desk. I try to mentally convince Ms. Lopez I’m not here and to pick someone else.

You do not see me. You will walk right past me. I am not the volunteer you seek.

Her piercing black eyes pin me to my spot. Don’t get me wrong. Normally, I like Ms. Lopez’s eyes. Normally, I love when she says my name. Just not when she’s looking for volunteers.

A sneeze begins to build in my nose, which would be the absolute worst. Ms. Lopez needs to forget my existence until she finds her victim—I mean, volunteer. She won’t be able to ignore me if I sneeze. I might as well stand up and wave my arms around.

I’m not here. I’m a speck of dust in the corner of your vision. Choose someone else.

I really don’t want to solve the math problem she wrote on the whiteboard. I’m okay at math. Just like I’m okay at English, and okay at Social Studies, and okay at Science. Which is better than being sucky at Gym.

If only I were more like Houdini. They’d call me Daniel-dini. Or Daniel-ini. Or something. He could escape any situation, thrill a crowd, and stroll into and out of danger without messing a single strand of hair.

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ALT D-3: Dorkboy

NAME: Nicola Call
MENTOR: Jennifer Malone
TITLE: DORKBOY
GENRE: MG contemporary
WORD COUNT: 56,000 words

PITCH:

DorkBoy’s given himself the Ultimate Makeover.  He’s now The Boss.  Epic. Until his pain-in-the-butt little brother trashes the head-jock’s skateboard and infects him with Pinworm Plague.  This demands a plot of Machiavellian genius.  Game on.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Today: Sixth Grade Graduation. And I’m not gonna let the door hit my butt on the way out.

Tomorrow: Junior High Orientation Day. Where I’m going to reinvent myself. Like, the Ultimate Extreme Makeover.

I’m gonna be so cool, nobody will recognize me. Plan A, the makeover. Plan B, the new nickname. A cool skateboarding nickname, to be precise. Tomorrow is going to be The First Day of the Rest of my Life.

Ten minutes, and sixth grade will be over. Thank God.

Some of the kids are laughing. Maybe the principal actually said something funny. Cosmic.

Bam! Someone’s yearbook hits the back of my head.

“DorkBoy – look!” My best friend, Sarjit, shoves me in the back and points at the window.

The kids are hanging over one another to look. Everyone’s laughing now, including the parents at the back.

At the podium, the principal gives up talking. Nobody’s listening, anyway.

The girls at the front start shrieking. “O.M.G! It’s
Cromwell McCleary’s little brother!”

It is my brother.

At the window.

With a pickle up his nose.

There’s a clatter at the back of the room as my mom runs out the door.

Hysterical screams erupt again. The girls are shrieking, the boys fist-bumping and laughing. My brother has reappeared, this time with two pickles. One protruding from each nostril. I pick up my yearbook, shove it into my backpack, and leave. Nobody even notices.

They’re all too busy watching Pickle-Boy dancing his pickle dance outside the window.

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ALT D-4: The Last Boy at St. Edith’s

NAME: Lee Gjertsen Malone
MENTOR: Jennifer Malone
TITLE: THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH’S
GENRE: MG Contemporary
WORD COUNT: 38,000

PITCH:

Twelve-year-old Jeremy faces his worst nightmare when he’s left as the only boy at St. Edith's school. Getting expelled through a series of escalating pranks seems like the perfect solution ­until everything goes
horribly awry.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

“See that house over there?” Claudia whispered to Jeremy. The two seventh graders were standing on a street Jeremy had never been down before. It was chilly and the sky was dark, but the streetlamps cut paths of light through the gloom. Some of the houses were already decorated for Halloween.

”Sure,” Jeremy said, peering into the dimness. This part of Lower Falls was nicer than his neighborhood, with ranch houses and small colonials set close
together on quarter-acre plots. The houses were well cared-for, and people paid a lot of attention to their gardens.

”See the gnome?” Claudia asked.

”The what?”

“The lawn gnome, Jeremy, the little man,” she said impatiently.

He could almost make out a little statue in the shadow of the front hedges. He nodded. “Okay, what about it?”

“Do I have to spell every thing out for you?” she said. “We’re going to take it. Come on.”

Claudia began walking slowly down the sidewalk in front of the house with her head down like she was looking for something on the ground. Then she
darted across the lawn, grabbed the ceramic creature under one arm, ran back to the street and tossed it into the back of her brother Ian’s Jeep, idling
by the curb. He had reluctantly agreed to be their driver for this clandestine mission.

”Now your turn,” she said.

Jeremy wasn’t sure what the point of all this was, but if he knew Claudia, there definitely was one.

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ALT D-5: Gilded

Name: Jenilyn Collings
Mentor: Heidi Schulz
Title: GILDED
Genre: MG Science Fiction
Word Count:  55,000

PITCH:

When twelve princesses run away and accidentally rip a hole into hyperspace, Zuku, engineering genius and the Emperor’s son, is their only hope. Unfortunately, he’s also the reason they ran away in the first place.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Zuku turned the magnetron over in his hands, thinking hard. If his calculations were correct, it would only take a little tweaking and the teleporter could transmit living objects, not just inanimate ones. It would revolutionize travel and—

The door to his room slid open.

Zuku set the magnetron down and pressed the heels of his hands to his temples. “Doesn’t anyone remember how to use a door chime anymore?”

“Marzuku.”

Zuku’s annoyance fled, replaced by a cold sense of being caught by a quasar. He spun around and rose to his feet. “Father.” His voice cracked.

The Sovereign Emperor of the Unified Planetary Empire folded his arms and his public mask shifted into a frown. “What do you think you are doing?”

Zuku gestured at the table behind him and muttered something about a teleporter.

The Emperor stepped forward and looked at the pieces strewn about. “Is that by any chance the very expensive, top-of-the-line teleporter I gave you as a birthday gift? The one you begged for and promised you wouldn’t break?”

Zuku swallowed and nodded.

“I see. And I suppose this destruction of property explains why you’ve been unable to come down, and to your thirteenth birthday celebration, no less.”

Zuku smacked his forehead. “Blast it all. I completely forgot.”

The Emperor’s eyebrows lifted. “You forgot that you were officially a man now? Not exactly a good beginning, my son.”

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ALT D-6 : Phoebe Fogg and the Lost Library

Name: Gayleen Rabakukk
Mentor: Heidi Schultz
Title: PHOEBE FOGG AND THE LOST LIBRARY
Genre: MG Steampunk
Word count: 35,000

PITCH:

When eleven-year-old Phoebe Fogg stows away on her father's airship expedition to discover the Lost Library of Alexandria, she comes face to face with a villain who has sinister plans for the Library's secrets.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Phoebe ran her fingers over the dusty shelves, searching for excitement. She’d finished the latest edition of The Strand and it would be weeks before the next one made it across the Atlantic. She had instructed Minnick, the butler, to fetch her the instant the magazine arrived by post, instead of including it with the mail presented to Aunt Catherine. Phoebe hoped he would comply, instead of “forgetting” again. Were the gears and springs spinning inside his head capable of forgetting?

Phoebe returned her attention to the bookshelf. Surely H.G. Wells would write another novel soon. Her hand lingered on Around the World in 80 Days, but she’d read it again just last month. Better to explore new territory.

A dark leather volume caught her eye and Phoebe pulled the book out to look at its cover. She recognized the design from the sign outside the Lodge Hall: an open compass positioned atop a carpenters’ square ruler turned on at angle like the letter v. Her fingers tingled as she touched the embossed surface of the famous Freemason symbol and wondered about the secrets hidden within the pages.

How had she missed this before? In the year since she’d come to Aunt Catherine’s Boston townhome, she had scoured the drawing room shelves hundreds of times. She smoothed her pesky petticoats, sat on the floor, and carefully opened the cover. Phoebe gasped at the inscription on the fly leaf: Personal Journal of Benjamin Franklin.

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ALT D-7: Toenail Pie

NAME: Marianne Sheldon
MENTOR: Krista Van Dolzer
TITLE: Toenail Pie
GENRE: MG Contemporary Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 52,000

PITCH: 

Semi-orphaned Oliver’s plot for revenge against his housekeeper goes awry, transforming her into a powerful demon. Now, to save his father and sister’s lives, Oliver must find the courage to battle Mrs. Grimm alone.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Claire’s good mood bugged Oliver. He leaned in the kitchen doorway, sneering as she pulled ingredients from cupboards. When she didn’t notice, he made a scoffing noise. He still got no reaction, so Oliver sauntered to the table. He picked up a small plastic container and gave it a shake.

“Give me that!” Claire grabbed for the container, but Oliver held it out of her reach as he peeled off the lid.

Toenail clippings. Lots of them. Tiny, translucent crescents mingled with thick, yellowed fragments.

“Jeez, Claire. You got a real collection going.” Impressed in spite of himself, Oliver handed her the container.

She resealed it and pressed it to her chest.

“You do know this is crazy. Right?” he said.

Eleven-year-old Claire sniffed and pushed up her glasses. Behind them her green eyes glowered.

“If she catches on and tells Dad, you’re toast.”

“I don’t care.”  Her tone was defiant.

“Well, I do. Cuz he’s gonna blame me, you know.” Oliver scratched his thumbnail against a lump of old food on the table. “He always does,” he muttered.

“I won’t tell him you knew.”

“He’ll say I should’ve known. Anyway, that’s not the point.” Oliver tried to sound reasonable. “You can’t do this. It’s probably against the law. You might make her sick. You could get us all, even Dad, in big trouble.”

Claire’s expression darkened. She picked at a scraggly eyebrow.

Oliver grabbed her hand. “You gotta stop that habit, Claire. People think you’re weird enough already.”

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ALT D-8: Runaways

NAME: Zach Poulter
MENTOR: Krista Van Dolzer
TITLE: Runaways
GENRE: MG science fiction
WORD COUNT: 54,000

PITCH:

Laura and Dean thought they were normal. Then their parents ran away. Cold War secret agents insist the family is powerful and dangerous. Racing to save their parents, the children discover it may be true.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

When nine year-old Laura came to breakfast that morning, she knew instantly something was wrong. Dean, her older brother, sat alone at the table, staring at a bowl of Rice Krinkles.

Laura wiped the sleep from her eyes and breathed in the sticky-sweet aroma. “Mom said we’re supposed to eat grapefruit, Dean. Every day until juice comes out our ears.”

Dean jabbed his spoon around, sinking sugar-coated Krinkles one by one.

“Where is she anyway?” Laura asked. She eyed the big bowl of grapefruits at the center of the table. In four more days the yucky fruits would finally be gone. Unless Dean didn’t eat his. If Dean didn’t eat his, it meant one more grapefruit breakfast for her. “I’m going to tell Mom that you… I want to tell her something. Why didn’t she wake me up?”

Dean shrugged, but Laura hadn’t really expected a response. Their mother called him a quiet soul. Their dad said he hadn’t found his confidence yet. His teacher sent notes saying he was very bright and she hoped nothing was wrong at home.

“She’s not in bed,” said Laura. “Neither is Dad. I already checked.”

Dean cleared his throat. “You want some?”

Surprised, Laura looked up. “What?”

Dean stood and went to the cupboard.

Without meaning to, Laura stood also. “Dean, you just talked, and no one even made you. What’s going on?”

Bowls clinked together, but Dean didn’t answer.

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ALT D-9: The Worst Villain Ever

NAME: Amy Bearce
MENTOR: Brenda Drake
TITLE: THE WORST VILLAIN EVER
GENRE: MG SF/Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 34,000

PITCH:

Despicable Me meets The Incredibles when a too-nice-villain-in-training challenges the strongest superhero ever to prove his villainousness and discovers superheroes have problems, too, and being good isn’t so bad after all.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

If the Pruwell family villains were a perfectly coiffed head of hair, George Pruwell would be the cowlick that keeps on sticking out no matter how much spit is firmly applied.

The George in question peered out the window wearing his Mastermind Magnifying Goggles. With those bad boys on, he could see the yellow centers of Ms. Wutherford's daisies all the way across the street. But George was far less interested in the daisies than in having a front row cyber-seat to what would hopefully be his first truly successful villainous trick.

He zeroed in on his tripping trick, next door to Ms. Wutherford's house. His stomach twisted when he spied the tripwire stake poking out from between the leaves next to the sidewalk. Obviously, he had not done as good a job as he thought.

George chewed on a thumbnail and debated whether or not he'd have enough time to run across the street and fix it. Rule Number One of professional High Villainy: Don’t get caught. He turned his gaze to the north. Mike Kahn was coasting down the sidewalk on his skateboard as he did every night. Nope. George was out of time.

It was a sweet board, especially for a Regular Public Citizen, or R.P.C.’s as they were known among villains. George's board was better, with jets in the back for quick escapes if –no, when–he became a Villain-in-Training.

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ALT D-10: The Witness

NAME: Amber Mauldin
MENTOR NAME: Brenda Drake
TITLE: THE WITNESS
GENRE: MG Horror
WORD COUNT: 40,000

PITCH:

Ryder’s premonitions come true. So when he sees visions of his mother’s future murder, he decides to join his family legacy and hunt demons in hopes of stopping the one who will kill her.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

I knelt beside the short, brick wall surrounding the nut house. The full moon hung in the sky, a giant spit wad against a black ceiling. And it wasn’t helping me. There was too much light. Mom always said to stay in on full moons, but there was no way I was leaving her in this place.

The front of the building was lit up like a stage. That’s why I was going around back. As long as I stayed out of the light, I wouldn’t be seen. Hopefully.

I hunched low and rushed to the side of the building, and flattened my back against the brick wall. I’d seen robbers do it in the movies. The stupid Mission Impossible tune played in my head as I inched down the wall, searching for a door or a window. If only I had spy gear instead of a pocket knife.

The wall dipped in behind me and I knew I’d found what I was looking for. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pocket knife and micro flathead. Even with the bright moon, the shadow from my body made it impossible to see what I was doing. It was a good thing picking locks was all about touch and sound. I flipped open the small blade and went to work. Good old Youtube. Thirty minutes of videos followed by thirty minutes practice on my own lock and I was pretty sure I was a genius.

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ALT D-11: Beached

My name: Kim Van Sickler
Mentor's name: Brent Taylor
Title: Beached
Genre: Upper MG fantasy
Word count: 69,000

PITCH:

Fourteen-year-old Ginny's embarrassment of her mermaid-obsessed, bikini-sporting mom is destroying her social life. After discovering she's part merkin, Ginny surprises herself by volunteering for a merkin mission that forces her to re-examine her relationships.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Day number five with Megan as my BFF can’t end soon enough. She’s too much stress. She swooped in like a shark smelling blood after my last best friends decided I was too stuck up and started ignoring me. I put up with nosy Megan because it gets lonely walking to class and eating lunch by myself.

I slip out of school as fast as I can, and catch up to my twin, Kurt. He’s chuckling over a text message, probably from one of the girls who follows him around like he’s a rock star. Somehow he manages to have a full social life while I flounder.

I blame mermaids. I know that's a strange thing to say. They're not even real. They're harmless fish people in silly fairy tales. Not a threat to anyone.

Until you come to my house. They're everywhere.

Mom still has that six-year-old girl fascination with mermaids that everyone else grows out of. That, and the fact that she has some pretty strange habits, are why we don't ever bring anyone home.

Whoo! It's toasty. I push up the arms of my sweatshirt and kick a pebble. It ricochets down the sidewalk and into the grass, next to a gaggle of seventh grade girls. Kurt nods to them and they break into a riot of nervous giggles. It sucks being the sister of the hottest guy in eighth grade.

"Genevieve Ulmer. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were running away from me."

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ALT D-12: Creepy Crawley and the Demon of Despair

NAME: Tracey Jones-Hughes
MENTOR: Brent Taylor
TITLE: Creepy Crawley and the Demon of Despair
GENRE: MG Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 49,000

PITCH:

Armed with only a packet of table salt and the snarky sister he accidentally turned into a ghost, Finn Crawley must defeat the demon of the Ouija board or the human race will self destruct.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Finn squinted at the tatty brown box buried under a pile of discarded children’s games. Unlike its neighbours with their cheesy promises of wholesome family entertainment, this box had no pictures of kids with fake smiles pretending they were having an epic time.

Glancing over his shoulder, Finn was relieved to see that his mum and twin sister, Mel, were too engrossed in clothes shopping to care what he was up to. He had to be careful, though. Mel would home in on him like a heat seeking missile if she saw something had caught his eye.

Weaving his way through the clutter, Finn headed towards the back of the charity shop. All the games were stacked on top of a folding table which slumped in the middle like a saggy pair of undies. A tingle ran down his spine as he savoured the delicious anticipation of the box’s potential contents. It could be anything; priceless Star Wars trading cards, pristine DC comics, maybe even a vintage tin plate Japanese robot.  He reached over and gently dragged his finger through the thick covering of dust on a Spiderman jigsaw. Nothing here had been touched for months. Hardly surprising. No one he knew would be caught dead playing Kerplunk or Buckaroo, although, Connect 4 wasn’t too bad, if you were about five years old.

Finn nervously looked back again. His mum’s cheeks were flushed as she flicked through hangers of clothes faster than a bargain hunter at the January sales.

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Watch Those Words!

For me, the last four months have been filled with conferences & writing weekends, reading, writing, revising, critiquing, and lots of contests. Which means I’ve had plenty of chances to read not only my work, but the work of other writers. I’m not an expert, but I’m happy to pass along what I’ve learned in the hopes it will help someone along the way.

 
I’ve noticed a few things that pop up again and again, and therefore, really stand out. Here’s a little round-up of some things you should watch for as you write- and that you should check for after you write as well. **Stay tuned for some super helpful writing tools at the bottom of the post!**

Sentence variety. Shorter and longer sentences have their purposes, but there needs to be a mix of the two to get the right effect. This, along with grammar and word choice, is one of the biggest factors in having a smooth flow to your writing.

Overused words. We all have these and once you know what they are, you can search and get rid of words you use too often- or make an effort to leave them out as you write. It doesn't mean you can't use them, just use them sparingly. What are those words? The ones I’ve seen most often are that, had, and just. But you might have your own too.

*Photo by Arkadiusz Szymczak

Adjectives/Adverbs. Agents and editors are always saying they don't want them and writing books suggest you don't use them. It doesn't mean you can't use them some of the time, but it's better to let the dialogue and action speak for itself. You can also find other ways to describe things, rather than using common adjectives and adverbs.

 
Dialogue Tags. Writing advice usually suggests using said and asked most of the time. Of course you can use something else when it’s called for, like whispered, but for the most part, other tags are often distracting and unnecessary. Especially when there are a lot of them. And make sure the tags describe the act of speaking, NOT an action unrelated to speech. You cannot shrug, smile, laugh, or even yawn words. You might do these things AS you speak, but it’s not the same action as speaking them.

*Photo by Milan Jurek

Filter Words. Readers want to experience things as the characters do, not hear about it from outside of the characters. Don’t tell us the mc sees something- show us what she sees. Examples of filter words are see, saw, looked, heard, and felt. These words take the reader out of the story. Plus, you don't really need them and it's stronger without them. Click here for a post on this topic with ways to get rid of filter words.

So, how do you clean up your manuscript?

You can do a search by using function F5 to find each time you use a certain word. You don't have to change them all, but it's a good idea to make sure you take some of them out. *If you use Find & Replace, be careful. You might want to check “find whole words only” –otherwise it will change any words that contain the “replace” word!

Pro Writing Aid has a free program that will check for things like overused words, sentence variety, repeated phrases, adverbs, and even dialogue tags. (A Premium version is available, but the free version is plenty and you can do a chapter at a time.)

The Emotion Thesaurus is a great tool for adding more “showing” into your writing. It can help with issues of overused words, adjectives/adverbs, and filter words. A PDF version is $4.99 and the paperback is $9.77. Also, be sure to browse The Bookshelf Muse website for even more resources! From their website, “this brainstorming tool explores seventy-five emotions and provides a large selection of body language, internal sensations, actions and thoughts associated with each.”

Revising is work, for sure, but it also gets you where you need to go. Have fun with it. You’re making your story clear and easy to read for whoever gets his or her lucky little hands on it. :)

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Happy New Year! And Who to Follow in 2013.

Thinking back on 2012 as we start 2013, I know how blessed I am to be surrounded by a wonderful family and amazing friends. (Hi to hubby, Mom, Anne, & Adrienne who I’m pretty sure read this.) The idea of a new year opens up so many possibilities. My kids even agreed on a TV show this morning. What?!

I hit some big writing milestones last year too. I finished my book, headed into the query trenches, got an agent!, and went out on submission. In the meantime, I finished my next book and realized how much I’ve learned along the way.

I also made a lot of new friends. Writer friends. Friends who totally get that the paragraph above is a HUGE deal and who cheered me on every step of the way. While I’m sure I’ll forget to include someone, I’m going to attempt to say thank you to some of you who made 2012 so special.

 

To follow my twitter list of these incredible writers, go here.

 

My twitter adventure began with finding people to chat with. I remember jumping into a conversation between Summer and Rachel, where we ended up exchanging queries. I got to know other writers and learned about contests, as well as the amazing opportunity to stalk other entries. :) I found Triona’s pitch so intriguing and we soon started chatting. When she moved back home to Indiana, I twitter-introduced her to Summer- remember this for later. I also loved Elaine’s entry and I finally have her ms to read! Woo hoo!

When I got my agent- the wonderful Kerry Sparks- Kim gave me a virtual Dr. Pepper toast, which I returned when she got her agent! *foreshadowing* And then that feisty Jess shot off her famous confetti cannon. When I went out on submission, I jumped into a new trench along with Dahlia and Leigh Ann. Over the summer, I also gained a fabulous new CP in Emily and got to know the sweet & spunky Andrea. Sending hugs to all of you. :)

Then came Pitch Madness where I got to know the incredible Brenda and learned what it was like from the other side of the slush. In that slush, I found an entry I absolutely HAD to read more of. That’s when I became TFFs (That’s right, Twitter Friends Forever) with Jen. Summer and I also tracked down Carey, who turned into a giddy schoolgirl when she was nicknamed “The Torg”. Go Team Finn!

The Northern Ohio SCBWI runs a terrific conference every year in September, and this year, we even got to have a Tweetup, where I met some amazing writers and twitter friends in real life. Triona, Lucas, Stephanie, Kellie, Holly, Christina, Lindsay and Heather, as well as other writers attending the conference. And one of my favorite parts- I got to see Jen M. again. :)

Yeah, I know. So much awesome in that paragraph.

And then I ventured into the Hook, Line, & Sinker contest with Summer and Kat. It was a ton of work, but it was also so much fun to work with these amazing ladies. The Trick or Treat with an Agent contest was also a success, especially because I got to work with Kim & Brenda.

And how could I ever forget The Great Fizz Frenzy of 2012 when Fizzygrrl finally got her amazing agent. Phew! And are you ready for this? In December, I got to see Triona again and meet Summer in person! Yes, the Fizz is just as awesome in real life. You might even say she’s amazeballs. (I do speak some Fizzish, you know.) I even got to meet their hubbies and try apple butter for the first time. *waves hello to Drew and Gavin*

 

And then a week later, I got to have lunch with Kim who was in town visiting family. And we had a REAL Dr. Pepper toast.

 

The year brought Grease sing-alongs with Sarah, DB Sweeney swooning with Gail, and more stalking (uh, ms finds) with Laurie and Janet. I ran from risqué conversations with, among others, that crazy, yet totally endearing, gal Feaky. And when the awesome Marieke started asking for MG to read and then gushed over mine, well, that might have made my day.

I loved meeting all the other slush readers in the contests I did- there are so many of you to mention, so I will just say ALL of you! My Pitch Wars team Erin, Samantha, and Vicki are incredible, so be sure to watch their stories. And to those who take the time to chat with me, please forgive me if your name isn’t in here. A quick hello to Jay, Melanie, Megan, Jamie, Sarah, Dale, Abby, Heidi, Angi, and Laura.

So many of you have helped and encouraged me along the way and I am truly grateful. It’s so fun to see writers joining twitter and contest circuits and I’m humbled by those who have asked for my advice. Thank you, for giving me the chance to pay it forward.

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy New Year, full of amazing adventures!

*last photo by mono bustos

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