Mónica B. Wagner's Blog, page 3

Pitch Wars 2015 Mentor Bios and Wish List! :)

Pitch Wars is finally here and I’m so excited! I’ll be a mentor for the fourth (!!) time. Can you believe how time flies?? =)
So! This year I’m co-mentoring with Susan Gray Foster! I couldn’t be happier. We’ll be looking for YA and NA manuscripts, and we’re going to polish one to take it with a tuxedo and a tie to the agents’ round in November. And hopefully, this writer will get MANY offers of representation! *wink* 
Now our bios and wish list!
Mónica’s bio : I’m a mother of three boys and owner of eleven hens. When I’m not collecting laundry or eggs, I write YA fiction. I’m represented by Lauren MacLeod of the Strothman Agency, and I’ve worked with many published YA authors, such as Francisco Stork, Gretchen McNeil, Debra Driza, Kasie West, Krista Van Dolzer, Stacey Lee—among many others. Some of the entries I've picked in contests from slush have had nice deals and one even sold for a six-figure deal. I freelance, too, and I absolutely love helping writers hone their manuscripts. (Some days I even prefer to edit than to write!) My NA romance, FROSH, is coming from The Studio/ Paper Lantern Lit on Oct 20th 2015. 


Susan’s bio : I’m the mom of two young adults, and I write young adult novels, represented by Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates. I’m happiest when I’m playing around with words (and occasionally music)—whether the words belong to me or someone else. And I’m especially happy doing this while cuddling with my dogs and a cup of tea. I have a BA in English Lit and taught Creative Writing at an alternative high school. Last year I was fortunate to be chosen as Mónica’s Pitch Wars mentee, and she helped me immensely, pushing my manuscript way above and beyond where it was to the point of being truly agent-ready. This year, I’m excited for the opportunity to pay it forward by helping Mónica help another writer reach the next level.
Let us tell you what we want to read this year, but first, here’s what we DO NOT WANT (this is not a criticism to any genre, just our own preferences for PW this year): -         Dystopian. -         Post-apocalyptic.-         A novel written in verse (unless it's done sparingly, like in WE WERE LIARS).-         A quiet novel, such as a teen losing someone they love and coping with this death. -         A novel that’s over 100,000 words. -         Historicals (unless it’s historical fantasy). Yeah. Sorry. Last year Mónica was looking for historicals, but since this year we’re taking YA AND NA, we needed to narrow down the list. -         No zombies, vampires, or werewolves. -         Zoomed-out 3rd person POV. If it’s written in 3rd, we like it when it reads zoomed in the character’s head/emotions/etc, and it feels almost as if it’s written in 1st person POV (like Rainbow Rowell’s books).

What we would LOVE to read in YA and NA:
Fantasy and Urban Fantasy YA/NA
We really love fantasy! But please don’t send us something like Eragon (with its own language) or Lord of the Rings. We’re interested in fantasy/UF more like: DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor, THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Steifvater, SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo, CRACKED by Eliza Crewe… Or something like Mónica’s CP just sold: HEARTS MADE OF BLACK. Now, THAT kind of fantasy? Absolute crazy love!

Contemporary YA/NA
We love this genre. In fact, the first MS Mónica picked in Pitch Wars was a contemp. YA that did more than well in the agents’ round.We want an original contemporary with a hook—nothing that is too quiet (like we said above). Give us something fresh, and if it has romance, even better. We love girl POVs and guy POVs, love flawed characters that make you feel. We love Rainbow Rowell (although who doesn’t, right?) and Stephanie Perkins. (BTW, Mónica has been so lucky to beta some awesome contemporary YAs, like THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Kasie West /Harper Teen 2012 and THE MEMORY OF LIGHT by Francisco X. Stork /Scholastic 2016.) Seriously, if you have a contemporary YA/NA, we’re your gals!
NA romance
If you have something original, with a twist, a mystery or something that intrigues us, and characters that feel real, we’d love to see it! For example: Mónica just picked this NA romance for The Writer’s Voice 2015 that did well in the agents’ round—see how it has a twist? We also loved the voice in this entry. Voice in NA is very important. NA authors we like: Jennifer L. Armentrout, Tammara Webber, Katie Cotugno, Colleen Hoover, etc. If you have a NA with multiple POVs, like Mónica’s FROSH, then we’d love to read it too (if it has more than 2 POV characters, only send it our way if it’s written in 3rd person POV).

Literary YA
If your MS is beautifully written with a lovely cadence and rhythm and characters that are complex and flawed and loveable at the same time, AND it has a commercial aspect, like an intriguing and hooking premise, please send it our way! An example of lovely literary prose would be Lauren DeStephano’s WITHER. Or Nova Ren Suma’s IMAGINARY GIRLS.

Sci-fi
Sci-fi isn’t our favorite genre. But Susan has written a YA with a light sci-fi angle (which is the ms that caught her amazing agent) and Mónica has picked sci-fi in contests before. Like one of the mss she picked for The Writer’s Voice 2012 was a great YA sci-fi that later sold to Disney Hyperion. What we’re trying to say here—we read sci-fi. We’re just VERY picky when it comes to it. But again, if we love it, we will definitely take it.What would make us pick it? First, the voice. Second, if the sci-fi part in your book is just a small element—say, the setting is contemporary and there’s only one scientific thing on the MS… then, that would be nice. Think the TV series Heroes. There’s a lot of superhero fantasy stuff, but there’s also a little sci-fi thread in there, too. And the series isn’t 100% sci-fi. And third, if your book has a nice romantic plot, or if it feels like an adventure (even if it’s set in outer space), then, we’ll probably like it. Oh, and take a look at this sci-fi to see what we mean—which did awesome at The Writer’s voice 2015…. if you have something unique like that, we want to see it!

Magical Realism YA/NA
SURE!!! As we mentioned above, Mónica loves IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma, and that is totally magical realism. Seriously. We love magical Realism.
Thriller YA/NA
Mónica loves the nature of this genre—that it makes you flip pages because you really want to know what the heck is going on! And then there’s always a twist that you hopefully didn’t see coming and you’re like, WOW! Yeah. We want that. That said, if it’s a thriller, we want a romantic subplot (it doesn’t have to be a huge romantic thing, just that there’s a love interest). And we want the plot to focus on teens. Let’s explain: Sometimes YA thrillers include institutions like the FBA, CIA, whatever, and those are filled with grownups. Teens want to read about teens. So if your YA thriller has romance and focuses on teens, with an original plot and loveable characters (even villains have to be interesting!), then send it our way, please!
Paranormal YA/NA
It needs to be something reeeeally exceptional and unique to stand out. That said, there are cool paranormal premises that we’ve seen over the years. Like last year, one mentee had a YA paranormal about the memory of objects. We’d love to see unique paranormals that aren’t the typical ghost/vampire falls for a human girl.

Horror YA (Not NA)
Hard-core horror? No, thanks! But something with a little creepy vibe, we’re all for that! Mónica has betaed this kind of mss, too—she’s even in the acknowledgements of a YA light Horror published by Balzer & Bray, and she loved that book.

YA/NA Memoir
It has to be something original and that reads like fiction. We may fall in love with a YA or NA Memoir!

LGBT and WNDB YA/NA
As an example: Mónica picked a LGBT MG for The Writer’s Voice last year that got 10 agent requests. Why did she pick it? It had a fresh twist on a premise. If your ms has a VERY original twist, and it’s well written, and we love the voice, it’s very likely that we’ll pick it. One diverse book we liked is SHINE by Lauren Myracle. It had a crime, a mystery, and the writing was lovely. Susan is a huge fan of Matt de la Pena’s writing, and Mónica recently hosted an agent-judged contest for diverse books. So yes! If you are a writer sharing the unique POV of an under-represented segment of the population, please send your diverse MS our way!

If you can think of any other YA or NA genre that we didn’t mention, then SURPRISE US, and send it our way—unless of course, it’s something we specifically said we don’t want to read. ;)  If we love your voice and writing, then we probably won’t care about the genre. If your sample pages  show instead of tell  and pull us into your story, and if you’re looking for honest, constructive feedback and willing to work hard to make your writing the very best it can be, we want to work with you! Let us know if you have questions for us in the comments section of this post. 

Why should you pick us?
Susan is very nitpicky and thorough with her edits. After being Mónica’s mentee in 2014, Susan betaed for her, and Mónica realized what a GREAT editor Susan was, and begged her to become her CP. So now we’re CPs and BFFs!
Mónica’s former mentees, Missy Mitchell and Rachel Coleman, left testimonials, too:
“Monica is the mentor YOU need. First, she knows her stuff, which is totally important. She has a great eye for "big picture" and line-edits. She also helped brainstorm ideas with me to help bring my MS to the next level. And availability?? I have to tell you, Monica was available at a moment's notice. She was super fast with her edits and responses, even if I would send a regular old email to just talk about a MS idea. << This is super important during #pitchwars. Most important, I received offers from agentS and am now talking with publishers. 'Tis true!! So you should choose her. She's the one!”--Missy Mitchell
"Working with Monica was sort of like earning a mini MFA in creative writing, she's that good! She worked on big picture things like cutting out an entire POV character; changing the "telly" parts of my MS to sound more like the internal monologue of my protagonist; as well as the minute details like word choice, grammar, and punctuation. When she finds something that doesn't work, she not only tells you why but also offers brilliant suggestions for fixing it. She has a knack for understanding the kind of story you are trying to tell, and then making your MS shine. She's also incredibly nurturing, finding ways to make every critique feel like a compliment. If you're looking for someone to cheer you on, and be super tough at the same time, you've found her. She's quick to respond (like supernaturally quick. I don't know how she does it!) and continues to keep in touch and mentor me long after the PitchWars contest is over. After working with her, I've had full requests from every agent I've queried. If you don't get chosen to be her mentee, you should totally hire her as a freelance editor!"--Rachel Coleman
Also, you may want to check out Mónica’s Editorial Services page, because there are other testimonials there. And you can read the Love YA success stories, too.And you should pick us because we’re going to make you work so hard, you’ll fall off the grid while revising your MS we have lots of experience editing mss, and we can help you take your manuscript to the next level, with everything from brainstorming to line-edits. And because we’ll have fun in the process!
Summing up, PICK US! ;)
<3 Susan and Mónica
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#WNDB Contest with Agent Carrie Pestritto of the Prospect Agency—the WINNERS!

I’m SUPER happy to announce that Carrie has picked the winners ALREADY! (She’s so fast, isn’t she?!)
Carrie Pestritto wants to read the first 100 pages of:
HOW MINERVA MAY CHRISTOPOULOS SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT by Lyn Hawks
STRONG WOMEN GROW HERE by Mona Alvarado Frazier
THE HUSTLE by Elizabeth Roderick
THE LOVE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND LILY by Laura Creedle
THE SIGNS WE MISSED by Marisa Urgo
And also the first 50 pages of:
30 DAYS WITH DR. DEATH by Colleen Oefelein
I will be emailing you soon with the submission guidelines. I see that not all the winners gave their emails on the posts, though, so if you didn’t put your email, please email me at moniDOTbwATgmailDOTcom with your title on the subject line, so I can give you your submission guidelines.
And the query critique winner is:
THE STAR HOST, by F.T. Lukens(I’ll send the query crit your way soon!)
Thank you guys for participating! <3M

Contest with Agent Carrie Pestritto of the Prospect Agency!

The Agent-Judged Contest starts NOW!Rules:
1) This contest is ONLY OPEN for Diverse YA and NA manuscripts #WNDB. (Only FINISHED manuscripts.) For more information, click HERE.
2) This is for unagented writers only.
3) You should post your query pitch (not the whole query) and the 1st page on the comment of THIS post. The entry should read like this:
-Your Name-Title of your book-Genre-Word-count of your manuscript-Your email-The pitch (just the meat of the query)-The first 250-ish words of your ms. 
- Bonus: link to Twitter (optional--explained below) 
4) Please, spread the word. I’m not going to haunt you if you don’t, but it’d make me REALLY happy if lots of people came to participate.
5) The contest will close tomorrow at 8 AM EDT (7/8/15). 

ALSO, as a BONUS!! If you read NA fiction and are considering reading my debut FROSH (Oct 20, 2015), you can win a random query critique from Carrie.  
All you have to do is tweet saying why you'd like to read FROSH. 

Sample tweet: I want to read @Monica_BW 's FROSH because [ _reason + link to Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...] 

Then, copy/paste the link to your tweet at the bottom of your entry. And that's it! I'll choose a random winner and Carrie will critique your query for you!
GOOD LUCK! 

The Writer's Voice 2015 Contest Entries! Go Team FTW!

“The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Brenda Drake, Mónica Bustamante Wagner, Elizabeth Briggs, and Krista Van Dolzer.We based the contest on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us selected projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages and coached the talented writers who wrote them as they polished their entries.

And TODAY we get to post our team members’ finished entries on our blogs!

Twelve amazing agents are going to read these queries and first pages, then vote for their favorites on Tuesday, June 23. Each vote will count as a partial or full request depending on how many votes the entry receives. If an entry receives 1 or 2 votes, those votes will count as partial requests. If an entry receives 3 or more votes, those votes will count as full requests.
Voting will stay open until noon EDT on June 24, at which point we’ll determine which coach’s team received the most votes (and let this year’s ninja agents take a crack at the entries). That coach will win bragging rights for time immemorial, and everyone who received requests will be able to submit their materials to all the agents who voted for them. These votes represent serious interest in your project, so PLEASE DON’T ACCEPT AN OFFER OF REPRESENTATION BEFORE GIVING “THE WRITER’S VOICE” AGENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A COMPETING OFFER.

Our twelve amazing agents:
Caitie Flum of Liza Dawson Associates
Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + MediaErin Harris of Folio Literary ManagementLauren MacLeod of The Strothman AgencySara Megibow and Renee Nyen of kt literaryAmmi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary AgencyCarrie Pestritto of Prospect AgencyKathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary AgencyAndrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger, Inc.Courtney Stevenson of Pippin PropertiesCaryn Wiseman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Without further ado, I present to you, MY AMAZING TEAM: 
Team FTW #1 A HALF-RISEN SUN (YA)Team FTW #2 ROBOT BILLIONAIRE BOYFRIEND (YA)Team FTW #3 GEEK CAMP (MG) Team FTW #4 SUN AND IRON (YA) Team FTW #5 HEARTBREAKER FOR HIRE (Adult) Team FTW #6 THE WICKED AND THE DARK (YA) Team FTW #7 THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESIS (NA)Team FTW #8 THE FAKELORE GIRL (YA)

To read the other teams' entries, please use the following links:
#TeamCoffeehouse
#TeamFTW#TeamTRex#TeamMaries
Lastly, cheerleading is allowed, but only until Monday! We want to leave the comments free for the agents to vote on Tuesday. (Also, we will only allow, well, cheerleading and/or positive feedback. Please don’t critique the entries before the agents vote. On the flip side, please don’t try to convince the agents that they want to vote for one of your favorites or, you know, threaten to douse the agents in silly string if they don’t vote for your critique partner. This is a silly-string-free site.)

Happy reading!

Team FTW #1 A HALF-RISEN SUN (YA)

A HALF-RISEN SUNYA sci-fi71,000 words
PITCH
Sixteen-year-old Kittilyn Kite never expected the girl on her doorstep to be an interplanetary fugitive. As the heiress of a large—but crumbling—estate on the planet of Salome, Kittilyn was happy to oblige when a friend of a friend needed a place to stay. But once seventeen-year-old Lennox arrives, Kittilyn discovers she may have just invited someone very dangerous into her home.
Chipper Kittilyn and gruff Lennox do not mesh well, and at first Kittilyn can't think of a reason not to hand Lennox over to the police. If Kittilyn doesn't turn her in, she risks becoming a wanted criminal herself. But if she does give Lennox up, she could be putting an innocent girl in the hands of a corrupt government that has so often wronged Kittilyn's own family. What Kittilyn doesn't know is that Lennox may hold answers to questions about her family's past and the key to finally saving her estate from financial ruin.
A cross between Downton Abbeyand Firefly, A HALF-RISEN SUN is the story of a debutante, a teenage hacker, and a dog named Milward who take on pretentious socialites, aggravating boyfriends, and the galactic government.

FIRST PAGE
I had sixteen empty rooms but nowhere to put the rain-soaked girl who stood at my front door.            Over the past year, I had been forced to gradually sell off most of the furnishings and décor within Cherishbough Hall. The few remaining pieces included a small wrought-iron bed for myself, one piece of a sheersilk sofa set in the parlor, and a rickety wooden table in the kitchen.            But despite my predicament, my genteel breeding did not fail me. I would figure out somewhere for my off-planet guest to sleep. Members of the Kite family were nothing if not resourceful.            “Hello! You must be Lennox,” I said cheerily to the girl, who had yet to change her expression from anything other than a scowl. Her hair—a yellow I guessed was as bright as Salome's sun when dry but was a dour mustard color wet—clung to her face. A black stripe about two fingers thick on the right side of her hair ran from root to tip, like an outer reflection of an inner dark streak.            “I'm Kittilyn. Of course, you probably guessed that.” I waited for Lennox to laugh, but she didn't even crack a smile. I swallowed a nervous giggle. “Please, come in and we'll get you dry in no time.”            Lennox's shin-high boots squeaked as she entered the foyer. Her hair and clothes dripped puddles of rainwater onto the priceless, centuries-old marboleum floor.            Inside I was cringing with each splash, but I didn't bat an eye.

Team FTW #2 ROBOT BILLIONAIRE BOYFRIEND (YA)

ROBOT BILLIONAIRE BOYFRIENDYA Sci-fi62,000 words
QUERY:
Eighteen-year-old Lucca Mach is the go-to genius of Scrapyard City. Inventing spray-on bodysuits and swarms of housekeeping nanobots is routine for a prodigy like her. So when her older sister, Eden, calls Lucca an anomaly for not dating like everyone else, the logic does not compute. Relationships are a waste of brainpower when there’s the impossible to invent into reality.
To shut Eden up, Lucca engineers the perfect solution: she builds Robb out of scavenged parts. A boyfriend who doesn’t talk back and exists only to please her? He’s flawless.
But dating a tin can isn't good for business. No one wants to hire a mastermind crazy enough to make out with scrap metal, so Robb decodes the financial market to provide for her. Becoming the newest billionaire on the block takes Robb from scourge to savior, the solution to a city starving for resources. Now everyone wants a piece of the perfect man.
Selling Robb off means handing over her greatest invention and losing the only companion she’s ever allowed herself to depend on. But refusing to sell means never getting hired again, defending Robb from the increasingly violent masses, and worst of all—admitting she’s fallen for a bunch of 0's and 1's.

FIRST PAGE:
Flying a quadcopter with your brain was no easy task. When it came to reading those ever-so-faint electrical signals blipping from neuron to neuron, seven millimeters of solid skull had an impressive damping effect. And then there were all those pesky invasive thoughts to deal with. Decoding one brainwave as “fly straight,” versus “do a loop-de-loop,” compared to “where’s that damn screwdriver? Oh, sorry, fire the missile” was a technological problem of the highest complexity.I’d say that type of neutral interface was completely impossible to create—for anyone besides me, of course. Because I had just invented it.A headset mounted my scalp like a parasite. It pressed electrodes to my temple, the base of my neck, and the peak of my eyebrow, begging for commands. All it needed was a gentle wave of electromagnetic signals to come to life.I stilled my mind. The chorus of fans and motors whirring in my shop quieted.The quadcopter woke. Batteries fed life to the gears, the juice warming its blades as they whirred faster and faster. The copter teetered back and forth on its landers like a drunk rediscovering his limbs.I bid my baby to fly.A tiny shudder rolled through the copter’s frame as it rose above the worktable and accelerated forward…And tried to take my sister’s head off.Eden screeched and dodged left, the whirling blades claiming a chunk of hair instead of her face. Impressive reaction time. Eight years of shacking up together in this shed-turned-home-turned-workshop had some benefit.“Lucca! What the Scrap are you doing?”

Team FTW #3 GEEK CAMP (MG)

GEEK CAMPUpper middle grade mystery53,000 words
QUERY:
Thirteen-year-old Jared lives for video games, so he’s pumped for the chance to design his own at summer camp. When star-teen programmer, Brent Kagon, shows up too, Jared figures he’ll learn exactly what he needs to top the iTunes Apps chart. After all, Brent may be just Jared’s age, but he’s already made it big.
But Brent is too busy finishing his latest killer app to waste time with “noob” programmers. Noob? Jared’s determined to show his idol he has skill by making his app the Best. Game. Ever. But his plans crash when he finds Brent unconscious, slumped on his MacBook. Brent’s game code is missing!
Chaos descends as cops and the media arrive, then levels up as accusations fly.  Everyone’s freaking — Brent because the thief stole his best ideas, the camp director because Brent’s threatening to sue, and Jared because his name’s at the top of Brent’s suspect list. Things can’t get any worse. But then Jared’s mystery-loving twin sister, Maxine, gets her “Nancy Drew” look. The last thing Jared wants is his flirty sister’s “help” solving a high-tech mystery. Jared needs Aaron, his best friend and gaming bud, to help find the real thief and clear his name. Maxine’s “help” is more likely to scramble Aaron’s brain and leave Jared headed to juvie.

FIRST PAGE: 

I’ve been to plenty of summer camps, but the steep, winding drive to this one made me twitchy. Tree limbs blocked the sun, creating a gloomy twilight that made me think of Frodo leaving The Shire. Like Frodo, I was beginning a dangerous quest into hostile territory: a week at Geek Camp. I peered out the window into the creepy forest, not sure what I might find. A shiver ran up my spine. The bus bumped over a last pot-hole and broke into a clearing at the top of the mountain. It stopped in front of a white building surrounded on three sides by trees – Hartland Mountain Academy. Geek Camp was run by this private school for math and science nerds. This place didn’t do swimming, hiking and crafts. Smart kids came here to learn about robotics, rocketry or the animal life of the forest. Or, like me, to design video games.  My best friend and gaming bud, Aaron, elbowed me. “Dude, this is your best idea ever,” he said with a smirk.Right. Right. Best idea ever. I couldn’t back out now. But the thought of spending a week surrounded by brainiacs made my hands clammy. I had no clue what geniuses talked about. Maybe they never watched anything but Discovery Channel shows. Maybe they wouldn’t waste time playing any game but chess. I wondered if I could hang with a bunch of geniuses without feeling like an idiot. 

Team FTW #4 SUN AND IRON (YA)

SUN AND IRON
YA Fantasy
73,000 words
QUERY:
Seventeen-year-old Aelia remains hidden deep in the forest protecting the only remaining Soul Tree. When the tree grows strong, the magic inside it will help Aelia free her enslaved people. But when a misstep leads to her capture and she’s dragged into a Roman-like gladiator school, it seems the hope for Aelia’s kind is lost.
Eighteen-year-old gladiator Zenon has thirteen more battles before he can finally claim his freedom. Then his master sets him up to fight chained together with Aelia. She’s unpredictable and weak, and Zenon can’t imagine a worse partner. But even though Aelia refuses to kill her own people and stands in his way toward liberty, Zenon finds himself falling for her.
Trapped between the will to survive and the duty to help her kind, Aelia sees only one way to escape: start a slave uprising. But when Zenon finds out about her plan, he’s determined to do anything to stop it and save the many lives a rebellion would cost. If Aelia can get out, she still has a chance of using the tree’s magic. If she can’t, getting killed by her own kind would seem like salvation compared to what the masters have in store for her.

FIRST PAGE:
Sweaty hands catch my wrist, holding me back from getting lost in the crowd. I turn to glare at the merchant and purse my lips to stop them from trembling. This is exactly why I should avoid markets. But damn, I couldn’t resist the sight of so many unattended coin pouches hanging on the shoppers’ belts. The man’s raspy voice makes me jump. “What’s the hurry, girl?” I shoot one last longing look at the trees—safety had been just a few steps away. Pulling the hood of my cape lower over my face, I turn back toward the merchant. He smiles, revealing yellow teeth in a perfectly pale face, but his meaty fingers squeeze me tight. I toy with the idea of kicking him and making a run for it, but I can’t draw more attention to myself. A girl stands behind him with chains on her neck and wrists. Her copper skin—identical to mine—is stained with sweat and dirt. One look at her reminds me why I have to hide day after day. With my free hand, I touch my cheeks to check the state of my disguise. I painted any visible skin white, but with the sun burning through my dark cape, I can only pray I didn’t sweat it off. “Please let me go, sir. My mother is sick. She needs her medicine.” I lie in a small voice trying to look as desperate as I feel.  I hold up the small bag containing the harvest of today’s pickpocket spree and hope for both our sakes that he doesn’t insist on opening it.

Team FTW #5 HEARTBREAKER FOR HIRE

HEARTBREAKER FOR HIREAdult Fantasy70,000 Words

QUERY:
Twenty-year-old Kaia Featherfoot is a professional heartbreaker. Turns out, there are plenty of scorned maidens eager to send ex-lovers a taste of their own medicine for a reasonable price.(Some clients even throw in bonuses for public humiliation.) Not that she can complain about steady business, but she doesn’t understand why women bother with love. Men use, abuse, and move on. In fact, imitating them has been her undying key to success.
 After stumbling into the Kingdom of Zagar, she places her ad with the local sewing circle. Almost immediately, she receives a reply from clients unlike any she’s had before: a group of men, led by the local innkeeper, Ronan Greenly. They want her to win the heart of the tyrant King Lance—to lure him from the castle while the rebels search for the key to his undoing. 
Seeing the huge sack of gold they’ve offered, Kaia draws up contracts. But she begins to realize the project is more than she can handle. The king isn’t some self-absorbed flirt like the men she’s played before. He’s a powerful man who’s becoming dangerously obsessed with her. And her secret romance with Ronan only makes the charade more difficult to pull off.
Should the king uncover the conspiracy brewing under his nose, the rebels will hang. Should he catch Kaia kissing Ronan, she’ll beg for death.


FIRST PAGE:

Kaia managed to dodge a flying chair and a pair of patrons toppling over a table as they threw punches. Shards of glass crunched under her boots as she slunk through the tumultuous tavern, searching for a clear path to the backdoor. Despite her hurry, she stopped to take a swig of an abandoned beer before making a beeline for the exit. Mr. Bowman and his brother had sparked the brawl—swinging fists at one another like children—and now bottles of lager sailed through the dim room amid profanities and blood splatter. In truth, it was Kaia who started the fight. But she took comfort in knowing the men were too preoccupied to keep her from escaping. And by the time they noticed she was gone, she would already be on her way to another town, where well-woven secrecy would keep her safe as it always had. Once she made it to the door, she looked over her shoulder one last time. And a wicked smile played on her face before she slipped from the frenzy.Mission accomplished.Part of her knew she could kiss the Kingdom of Kegsley goodbye forever, because there would be no going back. But most of her didn’t care. She was going to miss the harbor where the men tied off heavy shipping lines and the masts bobbed, slow and hypnotic, in the water. She’d miss that kitten that followed her for walks along the emerald green hillside in the morning.

Team FTW #6 THE WICKED AND THE DARK

THE WICKED AND THE DARKYA Fantasy 70,000 words
QUERY:
Sixteen-year-old Caetlin Lovelell and her family are carefree socialites by day and ruthless tunnel guardians by night.
The luxurious city of Dorme is filled with lavish parties, sumptuous banquets, sprawling mansions, but it is under constant attack from Shadeu—flesh-eating shadows that can only lurk in the dark tunnels below their city. It’s a steep price to pay to live in the city that promises wealth and prosperity to all its residents—including Caetlin and her family.
When the Shadeu start to slink out during the day, something that wasn’t thought possible, and kill off leaders of the guards, no one is prepared. The Lovelells’ major rule is: if it doesn’t happen in their territory, it’s not their problem. But when Caetlin’s brother goes missing, she and her sisters will do whatever it takes to find him—even if it means breaking all their rules, revealing their identities, and allying with the potentially dangerous (and attractive) lone guard to do it.

FIRST PAGE: Caetlin adjusted her leather gloves and smoothed her palm over her sword hilt. As she rounded the next corner of the musky tunnel, she braced herself for what would be there. Jax had been missing after his patrol for far too long—even for him. But she wouldn’t think the worst, no matter how much her imagination reeled with images of her brother’s body lying splayed over dusty cobblestones, shredded by fangs and claws.A frown tugged at her mouth. Jax liked to play tricks on his younger sisters, but his pranks had never run for this long, and he would never do anything that would leave their patrons above ground unprotected."Damn you, Jax." Caetlin growled into the tunnel's dark rocky crevices, the words muffled behind her metal half mask that covered her nose down to her neck. Her instincts were going crazy. The air felt electrified with lurking eyes watching her as she crept through the underground corridors. She hadn’t come across a single Shadeu, the flesh eating shadow monsters that lived in the darkness below the city, the whole time she’d been on watch. The scraping of feet crawled through the darkness, over the cracked flagstones and rough walls, right under Caetlin’s skin. No one would make such a ruckus while traveling underground unless they wanted to be eaten. She sprinted around the corner, ready to defend her territory against a Shadeu, or beat her brother over the head for scaring her. But when she came into the corridor, she saw a shadowy human figure, much too short and lean to be her brother.