PitchWars 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 :) 

Bio: I'm a YA/NA author represented by the amazing Jamie Bodnar-Drowley from Inklings Literary Agency for my YA Paranormal Romance novel entitled Judges and my NA Contemporary Romance novel Edge of Chaos. I'm a military spouse who married her best friend and have a beautiful baby girl named Lexi, a precious baby boy named Lincoln, and 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, the SOUL SCREAMERS series by Rachel Vincent, and THE FLIGHT & GLORY series by Rebecca Yarros.

I’m BEYOND excited to have the honor of being a mentor since 2012! Seriously I don’t know how I’ve gotten so lucky :) 

What I'm looking for: 

YA: I’m looking for ANY genre! I love anything with a supernatural twist, the fantastical, and yes contemporary too! 

NA: ANY genre! I’ve really fallen in love with this genre over the past few years and would love to see it branch out...Fantasy, Supernatural, etc. 

I really love a strong romance aspect to any story, so that is a really strong selling point for me. What can I say? I enjoy the kissing!

There is just something so powerful about two characters who come together under special circumstances and end up bringing the best out of each other. I like the relationships to have meaning, not just be convenient, and for the actions within it to act as a driving factor in moving the story forward. 

That being said, I don’t need romance in the story to enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed many books that aren’t romance driven, like thrillers that focus more on the suspense than a romantic relationship. 

I’m open to a variety of stories, what I’m really looking for is good writing. I know, shocker right? 

This competition is about helping aspiring authors with a nearly-there manuscript to get it polished and ready for agent’s/editor’s eyes. This isn’t about submitting a 300k manuscript you wrote three days ago and hoping I can sharpen it in a month. 

And this leads into the kind of mentor I am. 

I am NEVER malicious in my critiques. I will never PERSONALLY attack your writing. I do my absolute best to separate personal preference from a broad spectrum market appeal and if I ever do mark something that is from a place of personal taste, then I will state that fact. BUT, I will critique your work. 

I will not sugar coat the critique. And honestly, you really don’t want me to. 

The only way we learn in our craft besides practice is through trusted and respected critique. One of the best pieces of advice I can ever give any aspiring author is to be able to take constructive criticism and learn from it. Is every critique you ever receive going to be spot on? No. Will each critique you receive offer you a learning experience? Yes. Even a critique you absolutely don’t agree with can offer a line of perspective  you never thought of before and that is a good thing. Every reader is different and it would be good to know right now that you’ll never be able to please each and every one of them. The best you can do, is write the best book possible. And you do that by taking critique and using the information to enhance the quality of your work. Notice I said enhance not change. 

Yes, yes, I know, Leo, writing changes us. But what I’m talking about, from my mentor’s perspective, is enhancement. I’m never going to look at your work and say “let’s change everything!” That is not my intention. My critique will always be for what I believe is good for the book. I will never try to turn it into something it’s not meant to be. I only want to help you polish and sharpen the beautiful gem that you’ve spent months working on in order to have it sparkle so much the agent’s won’t be able to NOT look at it! 

I understand the hardships of querying and being rejected (a number of times) and I know how subjective this business is. Some agents will hate the query + pages and others will absolutely fight for it! 

The key is to never giving up.

Now that you know I’ll give you an honest critique I’d like to take this time to talk about my past mentees. I’ve been a part of this competition since 2012 and I absolutely love doing it! I’ve met some of the most amazing people throughout the years and honestly, we’ve had a lot of fun! 

We work hard together, but we also have moments of complete hilarity when trying to figure something out...like, for instance, a certain word to use in place of a naughty one that wasn’t originally working...(you know who you are and just...yeah...lol)

I will place a disclaimer here: The mentees I’m about to brag on were all incredible writers when they came to me and I take no responsibility for their success in any way....I just like to talk about them because they’re some of my favorite authors!

Mindy Ruiz: Her novel ENCHANTED HEART is incredible and I'm salivating for the next one! Check her out here!

 

Rebecca Yarros: Author of the FLIGHT & GLORY series. These books make you laugh, cry, swoon, and pant! Be sure to check out her site here and watch for the third installment coming out in September! 

Samantha Joyce: Keep watch for this author's upcoming contemporary, FLIRTING WITH FAME, soon! This book is off the charts amazing with all the feels and the perspective from a unique and fresh character. Check out all her amazingness here!

Emily Wheeler: Wheeler's debut novel, THE HAUNTING OF SPRINGETT HALL, just released last month! An intriguing ghost story with a historical twist! Check it out here! 

Barbara Britton: My latest mentee, Britton signed a deal for the novel we worked on, PROVIDENCE. I was blown away by this story with a biblical twist and ancient setting and can't wait to see it out in the world! Keep watch for its release here!

I can’t even begin to explain the joy I’ve had working with everyone who has been a part of PitchWars and I hope you check out their work! 

And if any of the above has appealed to you I hope you give me a chance at being your mentor. And if not, that is totally fine! Check out the links below this post, or on Brenda's site, to check out all the other mentors to find your perfect fit! 

It’s hard being a writer, it’s hard finishing a novel, and it’s even harder to allow other people to actually read it, but you should be very proud of yourself for coming this far! Can’t wait to see what you’re made of!

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