PITCH WARS Mentors and My Bio + Wish List!!!

Below is my Bio and Interests for PITCH WARS! After that you'll find the information on how to submit to me :) ***Be sure to read this all the way to the bottom because there is a secret word that when combined with the words from the other mentor's blogs can give you a chance to win a cool prize*** 

Bio: I'm a YA author represented by the amazing Jamie Bodnar-Drowley from Inklings Literary Agency for my YA Paranormal Romance novel entitled Judges. I'm a military spouse who married her best friend and we recently just had our first baby girl Lexi, and we have a spoiled english bulldog named Whiskey.

I love falling into books and losing track of time. Some of my favorite books (I say some because there is NO way to list them all) are--THE BODY FINDER and THE PLEDGE series by Kimberly Derting, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS and THE INFERNAL DEVICES series by Cassandra Clare, and the SOUL SCREAMERS series by Rachel Vincent. 

What I'm looking for: YA Paranormal Romance--Even though this genre is saturated right now a fresh concept and plenty of twists can catch my eye (please no vampire falls for the clumsy girl next door) Also the romance has to be strong and the hotter the better :) 

YA with Biblical Themes--I enjoy everything from taking inspiration from the Bible to retellings to fallen angel stories! As long as it is believable and has a purpose in the story I'm ready to read it!

YA Fantasy--This genre needs strong world building and believable character motivations for me. I'd rather it be in the smaller scale verses epic and if there is a romance that is swoon worthy I'll be hooked! 

I’m pretty much open to anything YA with a supernatural/fantastical twist! 

Qualifications: I have a Bachelors degree in Creative Writing and read thoroughly in the YA genre. I firmly believe that reading in the genre you write improves the strength of your skills immensely. 

My agent and I are currently undergoing another round of edits on my YA novel and so my eye is in the editorial mode. Especially on cutting unnecessary scenes that only slow the plot down :) To stand out in the heavily crowded YA market your MS has to be fast paced and full of sharp scenes. I'm honest but never malicious and my comments are always geared to making the story as strong as possible. I understand the hardships of querying and being rejected (a number of times) and I know how subjective this buisness is. Some agents will hate the query + pages and others will absolutely fight for it! The key is to never giving up and to be able to take constructive criticism--especially if you’re getting the same remarks/comments over and over again. I’ll never say something out of personal taste (and if I have to I’ll let you know it is only because of my tastes that I’m commenting). I’ll look at the MS with an objective eye and try to see it as my agent (or agents I’ve worked with in the past) would see it. I want to help writers realize their dreams of landing an agent and the way to do that is make the story as sharp as possible :) 

For submission guidelines, go to www.brenda-drake.com

Here are the awesome agents participating and below is a list of all the amazing mentors!!!

Louise Fury – Bent Agency 

Suzie Townsend – New Leaf Literary 

Nicole Resciniti - The Seymour Agency  

John M. Cusick – The Greenhouse Agency   

Sarah LaPolla – Bradford Literary Agency   

Victoria Marini - Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency   

Jessica Sinsheimer - Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency 

Pam van Hylckama Vlieg - Foreword Literary

Quinlan Lee - Adams Literary

Jen Udden – Donald Maass Agency

Emily Keyes – Foreward Literary

Brianne Johnson – Writers House

Carly Watters – P.S. Literary

Molly Jaffa – Folio Literary Management

Evan Gregorgy - Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency

Stefanie Lieberman - Janklow & Nesbit Associates

Rena Rossner - The Deborah Harris Agency

Zachary Shuster Harmsworth - Lana Popovic and Natasha Alexis

My secret word is: I (as in "I want that word")  :) 

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