Mónica B. Wagner's Blog, page 4

Team FTW #7 THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESIS (NA)

THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESISNA Contemporary Romance65,000 Words

QUERY:
Audra is only alive because Emily isn't. After the heart transplant, Audra vowed to make good use of her gift. Go to college. Declare a major. Give dating a try. (You know, live.) When Emily’s unfinished bucket list winds up in her hands, she sees it as a perfect way to repay her debt and adopts it as her own.
Completing the list leads to piano lessons from Emily’s brother, Jake, the unobtrusive art major with a fondness for the color black. As their lessons continue, he offers to help with the rest of the list, but rainbow-chasing and pie-smashing are easy compared to falling for her heart donor’s brother.
Then he finally admits why he won’t talk about his sister. He doesn't believe the bullshit story about how she died. Unraveling the mystery behind Emily’s death could bring Jake the peace he so desperately needs, but he wants nothing to do with uncovering the painful truth. When Audra starts pushing his trust and collecting her own secrets, it’s clear she overestimated her detective skills and underestimated her knowledge of Jake. One wrong move and she’ll push him out of her life for good.

FIRST PAGE:
Halfway between campus and the coffee shop, my lungs burned, every breath a conscious task. I’d hoped walking the few short blocks would clear my head. Big mistake.I placed a sweaty hand on my chest and ran a finger over the scar beneath my shirt. Breathe and relax. At this rate, I’d be covered in sweat, huffing and puffing, ready to pass out on the floor for a nap by the time I arrived. That wasn’t the kind of impression I wanted to give Jake.Maybe he wouldn’t show. Or worse, maybe he wouldn’t agree to help me.Needing a distraction from my racing thoughts, I tried singing in my head, reciting poetry—even sung through the alphabet. A light breeze tickled my skin, blew the scent of freshly-cut grass past my nose, and I breathed in, steadying my twitchy fingers. Any sense of calm evaporated the moment I saw the sign for Pete’s Coffee Shop. My quick pace became a measured shuffle, the soles of my shoes clinging to the pavement.             Holy fucking shit. I couldn’t do this.Calm down. Jake’s just an ordinary guy. No big deal. Such lies. His sister’s heart beat furiously beneath my ribcage, and all the pep talks in the world wouldn’t change that she was dead—and I was not.I stopped in front of the door, which was an ugly shade of yellow, featuring an artistic rendition of a coffee mug, and mouthed silently, “Hey, happy to meet you.” No, happy wasn’t appropriate, and hey was too casual.

Team FTW #8 THE FAKELORE GIRL (YA)

THE FAKELORE GIRLYA Fantasy81,000 words
QUERY:
Island girl Fenella is a masterful liar.  Her fakelore and skills of persuasion conceal her people’s source of forbidden magic from outsiders.  But the sixteen-year-old’s tales of dragons and krakens can’t prevent a royal visit: the king and his sons are heading to the island as part of his coronation tour.  Or so they say.
Then a shipwrecked young lad washes up on the beach.  He claims amnesia.  Fenella names the ogle-worthy stranger ‘Drake’ and feigns interest in him to investigate further, determined to protect the island at all costs.  Puckering up her lying lips, she kisses her way into his confidences.  But she’s no longer sure how to fake her interest when he flirts back.  As his memory returns, he tells her he’s on the run for practicing forbidden magic.  Magic nearly destroyed the kingdom years ago, and the new monarch will hang anyone caught using it.  Fenella will keep Drake hidden, but won’t admit her own magical ability will awaken soon.  Not with the king on his way.
But it takes a liar to spot a liar--and Fenella’s not the only one being economical with the truth.  That signet ring Drake hides on a chain around his neck?  It’s a royal heirloom.  Unless Fenella pulls off her biggest fakelore yet and persuades Drake to join their side, the king will discover her secrets--and she’ll swing from the harbor gallows along with every magic-wielding islander there.


FIRST PAGE:

Lying spread-eagled on an altar wasn’t an experience for the faint-hearted: the knife the priestess sharpened mere inches from me looked evil.  And the smile on her lips showed just how much she relished that task.  Barbarian.The evening tide ebbed from the open-air temple dedicated to the goddess Drina.  Waves lapped against the two stone columns standing as a gateway to the sea and the krakens haunting its depths.  Things could have been worse.  I could’ve been chained to those columns, awaiting my death one kraken mouthful at a time.I wiggled my fingers and toes.  Whenever I dreamed up new fakelore to tell, I liked to throw myself into character, and this was no exception.  My fingertips and the heels of my feet touched the four corners of the granite slab.  Grains of sand rubbed against my skin.  If I were truly about to be sacrificed by a zealous priestess, this temple wasn’t a bad place to die.My thoughts turned in an irreverent direction as the sea breeze wafted over my generous curves on the altar.  In this fakelore of mine, would Drina want her human sacrifice unhindered by clothes?I frowned.  “Should I be naked?”“What, right now?”  The knife stilled in Cressey’s hand.  “Fenella, nobody wants to see that.”Oops.  I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.“Will you stop messing about?”  She huffed in exasperation.  “Get off the altar.”My fakelore fizzled and died in my mind, and I was brought back to reality.  My sister Cressey was merely a novitiate, not a priestess (zealous or otherwise), and the prospect of a long thanksgiving service (not a sacrifice) to Drina loomed before me. 

AGENT-JUDGED contest announcement!! =D

So. YAY! Another contest. Guess that by now you already know how much I love these, huh? Anyway. I’m going to host a contest with agent Carrie Pestritto of the Prospect Agency on 7/7/15. Click here to read her interview.
This will be a VERY selective contest—not every manuscript can participate. Now Carrie is actively looking for Diverse YA books. If your manuscript fits that description, then you can participate. If not, then stay tuned for other contests in the future.
Rules:
1) As I said above, this contest is ONLY OPEN for #WNDB. (Only FINISHED manuscripts.)
2) This is for unagented writers only.
3) On July 7, you should post your query pitch (not the whole query) on the comment section of the contest post (not this post). The entry should read like this: -Your Name-Title of your book-Genre (i.e. Magical Realism YA with diverse characters, OR Contemporary YA with diversity, etc...) -Word-count of your manuscript-Your email-The pitch (just the meat of the query)-The first 250-ish words (don’t stop in the middle of a sentence).
4) Please, help me 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 open at 8:00 a.m. EST on July 7, and will be open for 24 hours. 
Carrie Pestritto will request the mss she’d like to read.
Let me know if you have questions on the comment section of this post. ;)<3Mónica

The Writer's Voice 2015 BLOGFEST is LIVE!! =)

#TheWVoice Blogfest is live! Over the next two weeks, the coaches will review your queries and first pages on the blogs listed below, and if one of the coaches wants you on her team, she’ll leave a comment on your post that says something like, “I want you!” (Please note that the coaches won’t post any comments until Monday, June 1, so don’t fret when you don’t get an instant “I want you!”) If more than one coach wants you, you’ll have to pick which coach you want to work with. (We’ll give you more instructions on this next week, depending on how things pan out…)
For more information, including a timeline of events and a list of this year’s participating agents, check out this post. In the meantime, feel free to hop around and play along with these not-quite-blind auditions!

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The Writer's Voice 2015 begins NOW!

Welcome to #TheWVoice 2015! To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the following genres:
MG fiction (all genres)YA fiction (all genres)NA fiction (all genres except erotica)
Adult genre fiction (excluding erotica)Adult literary fiction (including women’s fiction but excluding erotica)Adult commercial fiction (including women’s fiction but excluding erotica)            Also, YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST, as the coaches will be building their teams via #TheWVoice Blogfest (which starts tomorrow). You don’t have to have a blog at this moment to enter, but you will need to create one ASAP if you win a spot in the blogfest (which is what today’s Rafflecopter lottery will determine).
For more information, including a timeline of events and a list of this year’s participating agents, check out this post. Then feel free to enter the Rafflecopter lottery anytime between now and 9:00 p.m. EDT!

We strongly recommend you enter the Rafflecopter lottery with your current e-mail address, NOT your Facebook account. Most people no longer use the e-mail addresses tied to those accounts, so if you use it to sign up, you probably won't get our notification e-mail if you make it into the blogfest. Also, leave your EMAIL and your NAME. 
 
And remember, we must be able to leave comments on your blog. 
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Writer's Voice 2015-- THE DEETS!!

Guys!! It's going to be The Writer's Voice time again!! 
“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’re basing it on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us will serve as coaches and select projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages.
And this year I get to have a lovely guest coach! So she'll be helping me choose and polish the entries. Give a cyber applause to the awesome and talented: STEPHANIE GARBER!!

Here’s the timeline:

May 20May 21 Everybody enters the Rafflecopter lotteryThe lottery winners sign up on the widget May 21 - June 4 We select our team members from “The Writer’s Voice” Blogfest June 4-18 We coach our team members, helping them polish their entries June 19 We post our team members’ entries on our blogs June 23 Agents vote for their favorites
Submissions

To enter, your manuscript must meet two conditions: First, it must be COMPLETE, POLISHED, AND READY TO QUERY, and second, it must be in one of the following genres:

MG fiction (all genres)YA fiction (all genres)NA fiction (all genres except erotica)Adult genre fiction (excluding erotica)Adult literary fiction (including women’s fiction but excluding erotica)Adult commercial fiction (including women’s fiction but excluding erotica) In other words, we’re accepting pretty much everything this year. :)

To determine who gets to participate in the blogfest, we’ll hold a single-entry Rafflecopter lottery on Wednesday, May 20. The lottery will remain open for 12 hours, from 9:00 a.m. EDT to 9:00 p.m. EDT, at which point the Rafflecopter will select 200 random winners. Those winners will then sign up for the blogfest on one of Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets the next day, May 21. Once you sign up on the widget, you’ll post YOUR QUERY and THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript on your blog.

In summary, you must follow these three steps to enter:

1. Enter the Rafflecopter lottery on May 20 during the submission window listed above.2. Sign up on the widget on May 21 if you win the lottery.
3. Post your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript on your blog.

Selections

We’re building our teams via “The Writer’s Voice” Blogfest, so YOU MUST HAVE A BLOG TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST. We don’t care if you’ve had it for five years or five minutes; we just want to be able to fight over you in public. :)

We coaches will review the entries and leave a comment on your post that says something like, “I want you!” If more than one of us wants you on her team, you’ll have to pick which coach you want to work with.

Coaching

We’ll select our 8 team members by June 4, then spend the next two weeks helping them put a final polish on their entries. You won’t have to take all of our suggestions, of course; we just want to help you make your entry the best that it can be before the agents get a look at it.

Voting

On June 19, we’ll post our team members’ queries and first pages on our blogs so that the agents can review them. Here are the awesome agents who’ll be voting on your entries: (psst, my agent is down there, and I'm proud that she'll be participating this year!)

Caitie Flum of Liza Dawson Associates
Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + Media Erin 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
The agents will vote for their favorites on 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 9:00 a.m. EDT on June 24, at which point we’ll determine which coach’s team received the most votes. 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.

So get those queries and first pages polished up, then meet us back here on Wednesday, May 20, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EDT. We can’t wait to read your entries! (And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.)

FROSH!! I have a book deal!!

Guys!! I'm SO excited to announce that I have a three-book deal! *squeee!*

FROSH, my NA trilogy will be published by The Studio, the digital imprint at Paper Lantern Lit created by editor Lexa Hillyer and bestselling author Lauren Oliver.
FROSH will be out by the end of this year (2015)! And I'll be working with the amazing Rhoda Belleza, a dream editor.

Wanna know what the book is about? 
FROSH is pitched as FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS meets Jennifer Armentrout's WAIT FOR YOU. It twists together the story of a quarterback with a life-altering secret, an unlikely couple, and an ambitious college reporter, whose decision to break the rules for one steamy night lands her in the middle of her university's biggest scandal. 

Oh, and I just added it on Goodreads ! 

Here's the announcement--it looks so pretty, doesn't it? =)


I am incredibly grateful to Rhoda Belleza and my agent Lauren Macleod for making this possible, and to all of my amazing CPs and friends and betas who have been holding my hand all the way. (Yes! I'm looking at you, Bearded Ladies, and Stephanie, and Krista, and Susan, and Elizabeth and so many other friends who always make my day).
<3
M

Query tip! (Who to query)

Hey guys, so it’s been a while since I posted—it’s been summertime here, and it’s been hectic and fun! But I've missed my blog. =D Anyway! I have a few friends who are querying (or about to query) and one of them asked me if I had any advice on who to query .
One of the things I told her was: 
Spend a day or two reading old contest entries with many participating agents (like The Writer’s Voice, Pitch Wars, Baker’s Dozen, etc). And BEFORE going down to the comments to see which agents requested, ask yourself, “If I were an agent WOULD *I* REQUEST this entry?” Only THEN go down and look at the comments to see which agents have a similar taste. Do this over and over again. You’ll be surprised to find that some agents don’t have your same taste (even if their guidelines might imply otherwise). So of course, query agents who have a similar taste and I bet your request ratio will improve. This is particularly helpful when there are many agents in a single agency and you don’t know who to choose.
I did this when I was querying. And you know something that still blows my mind?? Whenever I go and take a look at the contests my agent is participating in, I almost always (like 99% of the times) LOVE the entries she requests. While there are other agents who usually don’t request the entries I love and instead request voices/premises/etc that aren’t up my alley.
Good luck with those queries! And PS!! Looks like there will be a Writer’s Voice this year too! Stay tuned!
<3M

If you’ve been considering my editorial services, you’re going to want to read this!

I’d been traveling for the past few weeks, and when I came back home (in Chile) I realized the U.S. dollar exchange rate has changed dramatically. A few months ago 1 dollar = 520 pesos. But now! 1 dollar = around 600 pesos.
So, since I earn in dollars but spend in pesos, it’s great for me. AND for you, too! That’s why, all this week and the next I’m going to give YOU all that benefit. And until Oct 12th 2014, my fees will be:
-First 30 Pages Edit: $95  $79-Submission Package (query + first 10 pages): $65 $55 -Query Only: $25 $21
-Query + first 30 pages: $115$97-Full Manuscript: fees will vary depending on what the writer needs. (But obviously, with this exchange rate, it’s cheaper, too). -Payments will be accepted via PayPal.
Also, if I happen to receive too many projects, I might have to pass at the opportunity. So hurry! If you want more information about my editing services and read testimonials, go here.
<3Mónica

We have our THIRD #TeamMonicaFTW 2014 SUCCESS STORY!

Guess WHAT??? My team from The Writer's Voice 2014 has had a THIRD success story!! I'm so excited to announce that Claudia Arroyo has signed with RobinMizell of Robin Mizell Ltd! :) 
This is her story in her own words:  
"Hi Monica! Thanks for squeezing me in despite the frenzy surrounding #PitchWars. By the way, good luck to everyone participating. It’s a brave thing to publicly present our work. We face rejection, negative criticism, silent dismissals, and the meanness of our own minds; which personally felt like the most formidable hurdle on my journey toward ultimate representation.
I was nineteen when I started seriously writing. After spending half of university grappling with two okay-ish manuscripts and enumerable no’s, I finally wrote a book that felt special to me on my third year. The result was a self-deprecating boy with the means but unwillingness to be free. And he helped me land the representation of lovely Robin Mizell of Robin Mizell Ltd, who turned a blasé Monday neon pink when she said female readers would “adore” my male protagonist *still beaming.* But I’m going to go back to The Writer’s Voice 2014.
I got really excited when I read that I had made it past the raffle. I was so excited, in fact, that I made the mistake of trying TOO hard; believe me, there is such a thing. I bloated my query with as much fun/quirky/tragic detail as possible and ended up posting a tedious letter. But Monica was interested nonetheless. I spent the rest of the evening internally screaming. Monica, by the way, is the best mentor ever. We shared Spanglish exchanges, she made me laugh, and she was unflinchingly honest. Yes, my query sucked but she helped me polish and make it less dense. I had faith in me.
So how many requests did I get when the agents swooped in, hungrily seeking stellar premises and unique voices? Zip. I didn’t get a single request. For some reason, I wasn’t too heartbroken. The requests were flooding in for my teammates. It was, IS, an exciting experience. Besides, Monica saw something in my story that was worth her efforts. I promised I would keep querying even after Writer’s Voice confetti had been swept away.
I have an agent now. It’s the first step on an unpredictable road to publication but I am celebrating myself and Monica and everyone who believed I could write. It’s all about a good book and patience. I know from personal experience that waiting can drive a person crazy but it’s a graceful thing to finally succeed. We’re writers; we’re in the business of waiting, we create, we have the stories in our heads to keep us busy in the meantime. P.S. It feels so good to not have to refresh my email every thirty minutes."