Pitch Wars Mentor Wishlist Bio 2017

Welcome to Pitch Wars!!!!

I am so excited to be participating in Pitch Wars again! I’m a seasoned Pitch Wars alum, having spent time as a mentee and a mentor. In 2013, I decided to throw my finished manuscript into the PW fray and hold my breath, not expecting much to happen. Lo and behold, my manuscript was chosen. Whoa! Seriously, life changing! In 2016, I returned as a mentor! I had a wonderful mentee last year. Although, we didn’t win Pitch Wars, my mentee worked incredibly hard and had a beautiful story and a polished manuscript as a result of all of her hard work.

If you choose me as your mentor, I will take the publishing knowledge I’ve gained in the last four years and pass it along to you. Pitch Wars (and publishing in general) isn’t for the faint of heart. If your desire is to be a published author, to share your stories with others, then be prepared to work hard, make sacrifices, be open minded and ready to learn. I want to help you take the files on your computer and hopefully start them on the path toward a bookstore shelf!

All About Me…

All of the Pitch Wars mentors are FANTASTIC, but I hope this mini bio will lead you to choose ME!!!

As you read above, I’m a Pitch Wars alum. I’ve been where you are. I know what you’re feeling right now: excited, nervous, scared, OMG-what-am-I-getting-myself-into. No worries, I’ve got your back, we’ll get through this together!

Besides my Pitch Wars experience, I’ve published five new adult contemporary romance novels with Grand Central Publishing’s Forever Yours imprint. I’m familiar with the extensive editing process that is required to prepare a manuscript for publication.

Along with my writing career, I am a middle school science and Spanish teacher, and have a degree in teaching language arts and music. This fall, I will begin my seventeenth year of teaching (Holy cow, where did the time go?!). I enjoy teaching, I love the kids! I love reading out loud to my students, sharing great stories, and fostering a lifelong passion for books!

Outside of school and publishing, I’m a wife and mother. I have two beautiful daughters (fourteen and ten years old). Teen Darling is a gold medal winning Special Olympics gymnast and Lil Darling is a fierce middle defender on her select soccer team. My family keeps me hopping! In my free time (Yeah, right! What’s that?), I love to read, play my piano to destress, have an incurable addiction to Starbucks and chocolate, binge-watch Arrow, Grey’s Anatomy, Buffy, and Supernatural (can’t get enough of those Winchester boys 😍) and occasionally, I may sleep…but not often!

So, that’s me, in a nutshell. If you have other questions, you can find me on social media, or leave a comment on this post. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, it’s my job to help you!

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What I’m looking for in a YA or NA manuscript…

My grabby hands will be all over CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE. It’s my favorite genre! I want a love story that makes my heart skip a beat, gives me that wonderful pinchy feeling in my chest, and extra points if you bring me to tears.

Some specific tropes I’d love to see are:

May/December Romance
Enemies to Lovers Romance

Bring on the sexual tension, well developed characters and plots, and sex (although, I’ll pass on erotica and BDSM)!

Some of my favorite CRs are:

YA: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson, Just One Day by Gayle Forman, Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) by Sarah Mlynowski, Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

NA: Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover, Faking It by Cora Carmack, Written on My Heart by Cole Gibsen, Rule by Jay Crownover, Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

FANTASY. I love a good fantasy! Whisk me away to your well developed world, send me on an epic quest, mix it all up with a heart-thumping romance, and I’m yours! Although, I will pass on high fantasy manuscripts, think Tolkien or George R.R. Martin.

My fav YA fantasies:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Fire by Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, Cinder by Marissa Meyer

PARANORMAL. I am dying to get my hands on a good, spine-tingling, creepy ghost story! And extra kudos if you have worked a in a romantic subplot (I’m a sucker for the romance). If you have a manuscript with a unique twist on a ghost story, PLEEEEEASE choose me! Haunt me, baby!

Above all else, I’m looking for a manuscript that gives me ALL THE FEELS! Contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, they’re all great. Make me fall in love with your characters and your world!

The only genres that will get a hard pass from me are sci-fi and horror. There are so many fantastic sci-fi and horror mentors, but I am not one.

Do you have a manuscript that will give me all the feels? I WANT IT!!! What are you waiting for? Sub to me, now!

What I Expect from a Mentee…

My mentee MUST be prepared to kill darlings, flip scenes, and rewrite. Basically, you will need to take an ax to your work and chip away at the rock in order to reveal the diamond inside. Be prepared for constructive criticism, it’s the only way your story will improve. If you aren’t comfortable with constructive criticism, then this contest isn’t for you. Be sure the manuscript you’re subbing is complete and polished to the best of your ability. Remember, I’m a teacher, there are differences between their, there, and they’re. 😉

What I will do for my Mentee…

Having been through Pitch Wars, I know how grueling the process can be, but it’s so rewarding! I will help you with big-picture issues, typos and grammar problems, we’ll make sure your dialogue flows, your voice is strong, characters are believable, and your story is well paced. We’re a team and we’ll get your story whipped into shape for the agent round, Oliver Queen style (one rung on the salmon ladder at a time)!