We Have A Winner!!!

Month9Books editor, Courtney Koschel, has picked a winner! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, and keep you in suspense just a tad longer (yes, I am evil), here are some balloons.

And now... 

The winner is...

Joan He

YA light scifi: INGENICIDE
65k

In the year 2089, education has been reinvented; prodigies run rampant in every imaginable work field. Before the "Genocide," a violent movement designed by Normals to topple the meritocracy, sparked in the US, 16 year old Sibyl Kenschild only wanted to be a Space Manipulator and design rooms that evoked the deepest stirrings of human emotion. But when the the bullets go off at the post-graduation dance, she realizes that it'll take not a Space Manipulator, nor a prodigy, but a traitor to survive.

Please send the query, first 50 pages, and a one page synopsis (ending included) to Courtney Koschel with the words "Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest Winner" in the subject of the email.

CONGRATULATIONS!

And thank you to all that participated! I am always impressed with the quality of work we get here when we run these contests. You guys are awesome. Really.

Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest: We Have Winners!

Good morning, Ladies and Gents! As many of you know, we ran a little contest a few days ago called the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest (read more about it here). We had some really great entries and I'm happy to announce that our guest agent judge, Lindsay Ribar, has picked her winners. And not only that, she gave us a little feedback as to WHY she picked what she did. How awesome is that? 

So, here are her choices, in Lindsay's own words:

First of all, thanks for having me as the judge for the Three Two One Pitch contest! It was incredibly fun to read all of these, and actually pretty hard to narrow it down.  In the end, though, these are the pitches that really stuck with me.

1

Kate Larkindale

STUMPED

YA Contemporary

75,000 words

After losing his legs in an accident, Ozzy knows he’s a hideous freak. Determined to prove he can still be a man despite his disability, he throws himself into dumping the burden of his virginity, but finds there’s a limited number of people willing to touch legless dudes in wheelchairs. Ozzy’s obsession takes him into the seedy underworld of brothels and escort services where he discovers the difference between sex and intimacy, and that sometimes the price you pay for getting what you want is much higher than a sex worker’s fee.

Talk about edgy, right? Not only does our protagonist have a disability that clearly screws with his own self-perception, but his coping mechanism is paying for sex.  But if the phrase “the difference between sex and intimacy” didn’t hook me (spoiler: it did), that last line sure did. I want to know what the price is.

2

Molly Pinto Madigan

OF BLOOD AND ROSES

YA UF/PR

70,000 words

Maggie Mae Carter is sick of living life timidly, adrift in a sucky sea of collegiate drudgery, so when she hears a voice on the radio that makes her feel more alive than she has in years, she knows she has to meet the singer – the mysterious Thomas Lynn. Armed with a penchant for folk music, Maggie steals away to The Hall – a labyrinthine rock club teeming with secrets – to meet the man who spins ballads into rock ‘n’ roll perfection, but when she wakes up alone on the greenroom couch, petals in her curls and her arms raked with thorns, Maggie is plunged into the strange world behind the shadows of The Hall, where words bind, where music manipulates, and where mortality hints at something more. As she struggles to unravel the mystery behind the music, will Maggie be able to save Thomas Lynn from the fey forces that threaten him, and, more importantly, will she be able to save him from himself?

Full disclosure: I did receive this as a query a few months ago, and because I’m horribly behind on my non-client reading, it’s still in my “Look At This When You Have Time, Because It Might Be Awesome” folder. Full disclosure part two: I’m 300% more likely to read anything that has to do with music and musicians. Those things aside, though, this is just a particularly well-written pitch… and I’m intrigued by the hints of magic, which feel far more otherworldly than most things you find in YA nowadays.

3

Joanna Ahleen

SHADOWS

YA PR

78,000 words

Samantha Bell is falling hard for her best friend Mark, but he’s in love with a ghost who has been dead over a century. Sam’s budding feelings for Mark are tested immediately as she is literally haunted by ghost girl-Kate who, according to a stupid prophesy, thinks Mark is destined to die and join her spirit-state very soon. To make matters worse, when Sam learns Kate isn’t the only ghost keeping an eye on her, Sam’s world shifts into something she isn’t sure she wants to be a part of: a world where ghosts aren’t merely harmless specters who slam doors and throw dishes.

It’s the viewpoint that sold me on this one – a viewpoint that reminds me of Team Human in the best possible way. And if that wasn’t enough, this Samantha person seems to think about as highly of prophecies as I do!  

Congratulations to all of the winners! And the prizes? Lindsay would like to see your full manuscripts! Yippee! Please send the material to lribar (at) sjga (dot) com. Be sure to mention you are a winner of the Three, Two, One, Pitch Contest in the subject line of your email.

Thank you, Lindsay, for being so awesome and for taking the time to judge this contest. You seriously ROCK!

Pitch Contest Winners!

Yes, that's right! Winners with an 's' at the end! Here's the message Tricia sent me:

The winners! I would like to see the first 50 pages of each and have them email me with a full query in the email and the first 50 pages as a .doc attachment.

Thank you to all who participated. Great pitching. I am so impressed!

Best,
Tricia L.


1. Sarah G Marsh
AthenaDreaming [at] gmail [dot] com
NO SUCH THING
YA Southern Gothic
60,000 Words

Dare Cleaster doesn’t believe in ghosts any more than she believes in the Tooth Fairy. But on a sweaty summer night, the seventeen-year-old unintentionally wakes a sinister spirit that’s been dormant in the crumbling Waters residence for years, and it refuses to be ignored. Now Dare must figure out how to lay the ghost of Atheleen Waters to rest before she can add to the body count she began over a hundred and fifty years ago.

2. Jennifer Moore
jennycmoore@hotmail.com
AGENT SPARROW AND THE GREAT ROMAN ESCAPADE
MG
18,000 words

An imported stash of nappy pins and surplus baked beans might seem harmless enough, but in the wrong hands and the wrong millennium they can do a surprising amount of damage. With only a photo-booth time machine, a handful of Roman coins and a pocket history guide at their disposal, 10-year old Oliver Sparrow and the bungling Agent Wolf are sent back to Roman Britain to stop the world’s premier evil genius changing the course of British history forever. What starts as a normal school day soon becomes a whirlwind of exciting captures and desperate escapes, of underwear calamities, disgusting Roman food and a very close encounter with a hungry lion.

3. Joan He
joanart6 (at) gmail (dot) com
YA light scifi: INGENICIDE
65k

In the year 2089, education has been reinvented; prodigies run rampant in every imaginable work field. Before the Normals started the "Genocide", a violent movement designed to topple the meritocracy, 16 year old Sibyl Kenschild only wanted to be a Space Manipulator and to design rooms that evoked the deepest stirrings of human emotion. But when the the bullets go off at the post-graduation dance, she realizes that it'll take not a Space Manipulator, nor a prodigy, but a traitor to survive.

Woohoo, congrats to the winners! And great pitching, everyone!

Winners, please email me at dorothyanndreyer [at] gmail [dot] com for details on how to send your materials to Tricia. And for everyone else, get those manuscripts polished, because our next pitch contest takes place in July!

Winner of the Three Two One Pitch Contest!

Finally, the winner of our Three Two One Pitch contest has been decided. I know you've been waiting for this announcement, so I'll cut right to the chase.

Here's what Natalie Lakosil had to say:

This was a tough call! So many good entries! But, after careful review, my winner is:

Triona Murphy

triona.b.murphy(@)gmail.com

THE LONG-TIMERS

YA sci-fi thriller

77,000 words

I would, however, love to see 10 pages from these too:

Laurie Dennison, dennison2969 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Title: TRESPASSERS

YA fantasy

83,000 words

Amanda Hartley

amandawritesya(at)gmail(dot)com

DEAD SISTER DAYS

YA contemporary

57,500 words

Stephanie Haefner

haefner919 at yahoo dot com

Try Me On For Size

Contemporary Romance

80,000

Nazarea Andrews

nazareanandrews@gmail.com 

Across the Stars

YA sci-fi

88,000

Christina Ferko

christinaferko(at)gmail(dot)com

VERITAS

YA Sci-fi

81,000 words

Congratulations, Triona! And congratulations to the bonus winners! How exciting!

Send your emails to Natalie at queries@bradfordlit.com, and please include the words "Requested Material" in the subject line with your title. Also mention in the body of the email that you were chosen to submit from this contest (Agents get lots of submissions, so it helps if you remind her where she "found" you).

Good luck with your submissions, winners!

I'd also like to thank everyone for participating in the contest. It was a lot of fun, and I'm in the process of organizing another contest. I'll keep you posted!

Winners!

That's right, winners! D4EO literary agent Mandy Hubbard has made her decision, and here's what she has to say:

*****

Hi All!

Thanks so much for entering. So many great concepts and pitches! I’m choosing just one winner for a full manuscript, and highlighting several that I particularly gravitated toward—I’d like to see queries + 10 pages for those. And for everyone, please do feel free to query! 140 character pitches can be hard to nail, particularly if your work is more about voice and character than plot. So don’t think this is a “rejection” in any way. You can still query!

And as an aside, the last time I did a contest like this, I signed one of the “honorable mentions”. So you don’t even have to win to be a potential winner. J

So without further ado, the winning pitch, by Merliniana:

Charlie’s alone on a spaceship, pursued by villains who want its cargo, and haunted by the memory of a small child he abandoned back on Earth

Please send your full as an attached doc, with your full-sized query pitch in the first page of the doc! Put "Pitch Contest Winner" in the subject line.

Honorable mentions (and requests for a full query + 10 page sample)

Jenn: 16-year-old con artist, Megan Benson scores a place in the Keller mansion before realizing too late this is the one family she can't fool.



Rachel: Told in non-linear chronology, a little bit Hate List, a little bit Heathers, 17-year-old Jenna tries to figure out how she ended up with a dead boyfriend, the murder of her history teacher on her hands and her parents divorced

Susan: 16-yr old Mary O’Conner is a good girl. 19-yr old Robert Marchioni is a good boy. But now that she’s pregnant, no one in their town sees them that way, so it’s time to split.

Danielle Dreger : Falling in love is easy but falling out of love may destroy you-Eleanor learns this after Jake breaks up w/her &she spirals out of control.

Kathryn Holmes:  15-year-old Cordelia just learned that NYC's subway trains are alive. Now, the creatures are in danger—and it's up to her to save them.

Thanks, All!


*****


Mandy's email address for queries is Mandy.Hubbard.Queries@Gmail.com


I would like to thank all the participants of this contest for entering, and of course Mandy for so generously offering her time. Good luck to the winners and everyone querying!