Mina Vaughn's Blog, page 5

Pitch 21: Where Heather Was Hiding

Name: Karyn Riddle
Title: WHERE HEATHER WAS HIDING
Genre: YA Coming-of-Age 
Word count: 75,000

35-Word Pitch:


As 16y.o Shayna struggles to fit in at her stupid new California high school, she debates revealing a huge secret: her neighbor and new best friend is a beloved teen celebrity, who’s in hiding.


First 250 Words:



What is so special about palm trees anyway?
 
They’re just trees. They have trunks on the bottom and leaves at the top. That’s it, people. When you think about it, they’re just like any other tree, only worse.  You can’t really climb them, for example. And don’t get me started on the lack of shade.
 
I get it, though. They’re symbols of warm weather and tropical locations and vacation and blah blah blah.
 
Just don’t try to tell me I’m gonna enjoy moving to California because of the palm trees, OK? Don’t EVEN try it. Because believe me – I’ve heard quite enough about how wonderful California’s going to be, and it apparently boils down to one amazing feature: palm trees.
 
Unless one of those palm trees is going to sit with me during lunch, or take me to Homecoming, or walk with me in the halls during passing period, or gossip with me on the phone…….they are no good to me.
 
I’m quite happy living where I am right now, thank you very much. Yes, I realize it’s winter for nine months out of the year in Wisconsin, and during the rest of the year, we are infested with mosquitos. I know that California has the ocean and mountains (and as I believe I mentioned, palm trees). I realize that the average daily temperature where we’re moving will be something like 70 degrees.
 
Year round.
 
And so I admit that most objective observers would think I’m getting an upgrade.

Pitch 20: Have Mercy

Name: Siobhan B.
Title: HAVE MERCY
Genre: Multicultural Women’s Fiction
Word Count: 113,000 

Pitch: If you want Mercy, you’re going to have to pay for her. $400 gets a date. $2000 earns you a night of pleasure. Picture this. #GoldenGirls with smartphones, Skype, and Craigslist. Don’t forget Craigslist.


Excerpt:
If you saw me standing here in this little blue apron with my name, Ms. Higgins, pinned to my chest, you’d never guess that I was named Teacher of the Year four times during my 30-year teaching career. No. You’ll recognize me as that lady who welcomes shoppers as they enter Family Universe.

It amazes me how often I’ve been at a restaurant when some random individual asks me if I work at Family Universe. I guess people remember you if you’re the only thing standing between them and sinking further into debt. It must soften the blow if that obstacle comes with a kind, elderly face. That is the marketing strategy for Family Universe. 

Here in this shopping hell, you buy your cold cuts three aisles away from your anti-freeze, and the managers want you to feel like this super shopping center is just an extension of your family. The greeters are your perfect grandparents; the kind that don’t require constant visitation or medical attention. The department leaders are your well-meaning uncles who talk a lot of shit but really have no clue what they are doing. Then there are the bakery and deli clerks who are supposed to remind you of your aunts - those bossy bitches who stand in the kitchen, consuming more food than they produce. Let’s not forget the checkout clerks who are your parents - they’re there to get you the fuck out of the joint in as smooth of a transition as possible.

Pitch 19: The Conch Shell of Doom

Name: Ryan Hill
Title: The Conch Shell of Doom
Genre: YA Paranormal

Word Count: 60,000

A teen confronts his anxiety when he tries to stop a mysterious figure
from awakening a powerful oceanic army

Franklin Maroney was a man on a mission. The Awakening would happen in
a matter of days, and here he was standing in the House of the Rising
Sun in Raleigh, NC, tapping his fingers on the glass counter while he
waited for some nitwit with an albino eye to find his package in the
back.

His brown leather jacket had a slightly musky smell to it. Franklin
had owned it for thirty years. Sniffing the stale leather, he thought
it might be time for a new one. Franklin thought like this when people
wasted his time. He hated it.

“Any luck?” he called into the back. He heard a few boxes being thrown around.

“Hang on,” the moron said. “We got a lot of shipments in the last few days.”

Franklin looked at his watch and ground his teeth. Seventeen minutes
behind schedule. Might be trouble. “I’m kind of in a rush here.”

A box flew out from the back into the storefront. “Got it,” the man
said, emerging from the back holding a cardboard box. Along with an
Albino eye, the African-American had a patchy beard. “It was at the
bottom of the pile.”

“Let me see it.”The man, who said his name was Marlon, pulled out a
box cutter and sliced open the package. After pulling out some straw,
he cradled the order in his hands. It was a dagger sheathed in cracked
leather that looked like it would crumble if touched.

Pitch 18: No Place for Black Sheep

Name: Mike Saunders
Title: No Place for Black Sheep
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 78,000

 

Pitch: All fifteen-year old Max Protega wants is to keep her face off the government’s Wanted List. But to do so, she must destroy the one thing her race can’t survive without: magic.

Exerpt: 

 

Maxine Protega had a ritual for March 9th. In dishonor of the day she murdered her brother, she tormented herself to the verge of suicide. Never less, never more. 

Living was part of her punishment. 

“You ready?” Cara asked as she held out the hand that would punish Max enough to last another year. Max focused on it as she stoned her resolve. Her eyes locked on the glowing yellow ring that signaled Cara was using her manipulating ability: hypnosis. Max thought the color of her charm was mesmerizing, but every March 9thfor the last four years, her fear outweighed its beauty. She grew afraid of what it meant; afraid to remember.

Max exhaled sharply as she placed a trembling hand in Cara’s. There was a pause. There was always a pause. Max wasn’t sure if it was her friend having second thoughts or if it took a moment for Cara to draw on her ability. She never questioned it. She already had the guilt of murdering her brother, she didn’t need Cara’s guilt too. Either way, when her ability struck, it struck like a hammer.

There were no pendulate clocks or counting down from five. No soothing voice or guiding words. Cara’s ability took hold completely and immediately.

Max didn’t remember closing her eyes, but when she opened them, thick pillows of smoke enveloped her like the cloak of death. She breathed it in and gagged. Smoke littered her mouth and throat with soot. She collapsed against the bedroom door.

Pitch 17: Becoming

Name: Karen Y. Bynum
Title: BECOMING
Genre: NA paranormal
Word Count: 70k

Pitch: After a transplant gives Zoe a dragon shifter’s heart, she learns that her online boyfriend is her donor and…a girl.

Excerpt:

Impatience gnawed at the edges of Zoe Moore’s sanity. She clicked her phone on. Again. Why hadn’t he texted?

She’d tried to play it cool, but he was always so sympathetic she ended up telling him everything. Well, practically everything. She’d almost spilled about the surgery. No time had felt quite right though.

Annoyed, she switched off the screen and dropped the phone in her lap. Was he really standing her up? No explanation or anything? She casually crossed her arms—an L-shape to take her pulse. Her heart raced faster than Seabiscuit. She couldn’t keep working herself up. Damn. This was ridiculous. How neurotic could she get?

If he didn’t want to meet her, that was fine. Totally fine. She didn’t need this shit. Looking up at the professor, she shoved the phone back into her bag.

Focus. On something. Anything.

Professor Flemming adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses and began a slow pace in front of the screen, talking about Jung and types of…what had he just said? Her fingers itched to grab her cell.

No. Pay attention.

“…on Friday.”

What was happening on Friday? Oh God, did he say there would be a quiz?

“…make sure to review the section—”

Her bag vibrated. Crap. It was him. It had to be him. She scooped her phone out, fingers trembling, pushed the on button and swiped her code. The icon at the top smiled at her. A text. She had a text. No big deal.

Pitch 16: Bound

Name: Janet Wrenn
Title: BOUND
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 68,000


Pitch: Finn is seducing Janelle. The problem—he’s a fictional character. A book, a storm and longing to find a man who doesn’t exist alter her reality. She must break a curse before it breaks her.


Excerpt:

Janelle vowed she would make the girls pay for this. Nothing short of indentured servitude would suffice. Revenge tactics barraged her mind with each jabbing elbow and purse smacked into her abdomen. 

She scanned the lobby of the movie theater, which resembled a screaming fan-girl convention, looking for any sign of them. Her annoyance grew as she mulled over how she even let herself get roped into this.


Bound, your typical book turned big-screen movie, blew up out of nowhere. Janelle had never even heard of the book until the promos for the movie came out. She wasn’t much of an avid reader like her friends Dara and Cecily; being a marine biologist, her free time was spent with her dolphins. But every now and then she craved human companionship and would get coerced into movie nights with the girls. 


She merged in with the rest of the hormone-surged women as chatter about the book and movie clogged the air. There was not one conversation that didn’t correspond to some character in the story. 


Grateful that at least one of them had towering Amazonian height, she easily caught sight of Cecily, whom she affectionately referred to as “Go-Go Gadget Legs” because she was just that, all legs. Dara was on the shorter side, like Janelle, and for that she was also thankful. It was nice to be able to look into someone’s eyes when having a conversation with them. Compared to Cecily they were like hobbits. Once she had a visual on the girls she had to all but army-crawl to where they were in line.

Pitch 15: Ghost Farm

Name: Wendy Parris
Title: GHOST FARM
Genre: MG Mystery


Word Count: 35,000

Pitch: Twelve-year-old Rebecca is convinced she’ll be totally bored spending summer break with family in Iowa. Then she follows a one-eyed cat to an abandoned farm, and an eerie ghost starts stalking her every move


EXCERPT: 

Car trips were the worst.

Rebecca winced as she shifted position, and her sweaty legs peeled away from the hot leather seat. Out the windshield stretched an endless two-lane-road and rolling green cornfields. The eighties music her mom insisted on playing pulsed from the speakers. The smell of french fires lingered in the air.

“There in one minute!” her mom chirped from the driver’s seat, blazing July sunlight glinting off her sunglasses.

At least this part’s over, Rebecca thought. She loved her family and everything, but she wasn’t thrilled to spend the rest of her summer in Iowa. She was supposed to be having a blast with her friends at Camp PineBirch. She slumped down in the seat.

The car slowed and turned onto a long gravel driveway. Ahead was a sunny yellow frame house with a wrap-around front porch. Tall trees stood over flourishing flowerbeds, and an old red barn towered in back. The familiar scene was picture-perfect, like something out of a movie, and despite her irritable mood Rebecca began to smile. Then a shadow flickered past the side window, inches from her face. She flinched and turned, expecting to see a bird flying off, but no bird was there. The blue sky was empty, hanging above acres of harmless corn.

Weird. A shiver skittered down Rebecca’s spine.

Her mom stopped the car with a lurch in front of the house and switched off the ignition. “This,” she said, stretching her arms above her head, “is going to be fan-tastic.”

Amazon.com: How to Discipline Your Vampire eBook: Mina Vaughn: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: How to Discipline Your Vampire eBook: Mina Vaughn: Kindle Store:

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Drink Contest Winner: Spank My Cherry by Traci Olsen

Here’s the recipe winner!  Make this cool cocktail when you’re reading How to Discipline Your Vampire when it comes out TOMORROW!  http://amzn.to/1brX1bT

1/2 shot CherryLiquor 1/2 shot Rum, coconut 1/2 shot Vodka, pineapple 1 dash Lemon Juice 1 handful (chopped pieces) Pineapple 1 handful Cherries

How to Discipline Your Vampire playlist by Mina Vaughn | Grooveshark - Free Music Streaming, Online Music

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