And... the contest is closed!! Thanks for everyone that entered. We'll let you know the results as soon as possible.
I can't believe it's December! With the festive season fast approaching isn't it good to know we at Operation Awesome aren't resting on our bottoms. Okay I am, but I write while I'm sat on my bed. :-)
Anyway...
It's Mystery Agent contest time! I'm happy to announce we have another fantastic agent for you who, until the grand reveal, is hidden away in a secret location with my cookies. I can promise that this agent IS fantastic. Seriously!
Here are the details:
All YA and adult subgenres except for Christian fiction, erotica, MG, and picture books. Please include title/genre in the comments.
The first 50 one-line pitches posted will be considered.
Mystery Agent will choose one winner.
The winner will have Mystery Agent's full attention when they send their full MS. Yep, you heard me right -- YOUR FULL MS! So don’t forget, please have your manuscript ready to send before you pitch.
Note: It should go without saying, but please, please, please don't pitch your recently finished Nano novels. Give them the love they deserve and revise them like any book baby should be.
The rules: We won’t have any fancy ‘you must follow us’ rules. Sure, we’d love you all to follow us, but Operation Awesome is about giving back. But in the spirit of sharing please spread the word.
Want some help with your pitch? Here are some handy links:
Query Tracker - the one sentence pitch
QueryTracker Blog - the elevator pitch
Elana Johnson - one-sentence pitching.
Michelle McLean -- how to write a logline
The contest will close when the fifty entries are filled. Even if it looks like we have 50 spots filled, check the comments anyway (we do our best, but some comments could be duplicates/questions). So keep checking back to be sure you don't miss the chance.
Want to know who the agent is? Come back when the winners are announced and we’ll have an interview with the agent extraordinaire.
Good luck.
Now ready, steady, go!
69 comments:
Joey is the best sixteen-year-old demon hunter there is, too bad she doesn’t know she’s also a demon and Daddy Dearest aka the Devil wants to meet her, even if he has to drag her kicking and screaming to hell.
I HEART MOON LAKE, is a YA urban fantasy.
Thanks! and I'm Brandy at branflak@hotmail.com. :)
Being homeless is bad enough for fourteen-year-old Mathias, but when he becomes a vampire and has to fight for his “unlife” because the reigning Queen did not approve his crossing; well, that was bad on a whole other level.
Riding on the Tail of the Devil, is YA fantasy
Danielle
Tanya Reinhart, a sixteen-year-old girl who suffers from uncontrolled out-of-body experiences, needs to do anything to save her mother’s kidnapped soul—even if it means risking her life as an astral projection spy (aka freak-in-training) for the U.S. Government.
OUT OF MY BODY is a YA urban fantasy, completed at 55,000 words. I'm Monica at moni.bw (at) gmailDOTcom
When Lark develops abilities that doom her to life as a magical battery, she must escape her energy-starved city and fight to survive long enough to find others like her, and the key to her own powers.
THE IRON WOOD is a YA dystopian fantasy, complete at 100,000 words.
Title: GORGEOUS BOYFRIEND + KILLER GHOSTS = MY SUMMER VACATION
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Pitch:
Although ghosts -- the friendly kind -- look and feel like normal, living people to everybody but Seers like sixteen-year-old Kayley, there’s now a new, mutant strain of killer ghosts on the loose who look and feel alive even to Seers and maybe, just maybe, Kayley’s gorgeous new British boyfriend Evan is really a homicidal mutant ghost out to murder her.
Thanks so much,
Tessa (tessadevan at hotmail dot com)
In a time when people are born with the knowledge of who they are and what they will be, sixteen year-old Angelyn Bowmoore is destined to become the first female knight--If only finding her place among the boys was the worst of her problems.
FATE CREST, YA fantasy.
Title: Still
Genre: YA romantic suspense
After a stalker assaults seventeen-year-old Calleigh, she struggles to feel normal again, but her new love interest just may be a direct link to the very thing she wants to forget.
Cass & Gabby’s to-do list: figure out where the heck we are; discover why our real mother wants us dead; reunite our idiotic parents; save the world.
At ~ 80k, EQUILIBRIUM is a contemporary fairytale (fantasy).
Thanks, as always, for this opportunity.
Former cyber-bully Daniel Clements starts senior year at a new school under a new name, hoping to escape the consequences of the stupid act that led to a classmate's suicide, only to fall for a girl he does not realize is his victim's sister... but she does.
My YA contemporary novel, SEND is complete at 76,000 words. Thank you for considering my work.
Death of the Rabid Blogger
Cozy (mystery) - 63,000 words
When amateur sleuth Peter begins investigating the death of the rabid blogger, his goal is twofold: to solve a potential hate crime and establish himself as a legitimate detective. But, as the clues add up, dead pigeons start appearing on his doorstep and Peter worries that he’ll end up just as dead as the blogger and, well, the pigeons if he doesn’t solve the case . . . soon.
Title: ANGEL OF THE WATERS
Genre: YA urban fantasy
A fight with a demon gets Feng Huang, monster assassin extraordinaire, thrown into Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, and she lands in an alternate Manhattan with something more intimidating than blood-thirsty creatures: the parents she never knew existed.
Thanks! holly loiseau @ hotmail dot com
Title: EVER
Genre: YA Paranormal
Word Count: 70,000
Sixteen-year-old Everly Blue thinks waking up in a coffin hungry for blood is bad, until she finds out she has to kill 100 vampires to save her soul.
Thanks for the contest!
Jamie
jmanni32@yahoo.com
Title: LOOP
Genre: YA Sci-fi, 70K
After jaded time-traveler Bree encounters a boy from the distant past who claims to be both crazy for her and sworn to protect her, she dismisses him as bonkers; but when corrupt powers-that-be suck them back to the 23rd century, her hot souvenir ends up needing protection…and Bree realizes her worst enemy may be her future self.
Title: Embrol
Genre: YA Science Fiction
To stop the renegade alien sent to Earth to control her and use her dormant power to take over the universe, eighteen-year-old Olivia Ryan must embrace her alien abilities and join forces with the boy responsible for her mother’s death.
A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.
Three Parts Dead, Fantasy w/ Steam, 102,000 words
Title: WANTS
Genre: Contemporary YA
When Alicia and Savannah find out that their boyfriends are lovers, school cliques are thrown out the window as this love square unravels.
Title: Spirits from the Vasty Deep
Genre: YA Paranormal/historical (1850s)
Olivia Herald set a ship afire while escaping the same fate as her murdered friends; her attackers went down with their ship, but now the spectral crew wants retribution, forcing a final reckoning with Olivia's haunted past.
Thanks for giving us the chance to flex our logline muscles once again!
Title: Emma's Heaven
Genre: Women's Fiction
Megan has one goal – to find her missing daughter, so when she takes a picture of Emma in a crowd and no one believes her, Megan takes it upon herself to find her daughter and bring her home.
As if accidentally releasing an imprisoned necromancer weren't bad enough, sixteen-year-old Denton is also the only person who can defeat the self-named God of Death – if he can avoid the penalty for freeing the madman in the first place.
Anchoring the Rain, Fantasy, 97,000 words
Thank you for holding this contest!
While enjoying a dazzling and captivating new social life during the summer of 1929, 15-year-old Dorothy Brooks must contend with anti-semitism and bootlegging, two evils poisoning her New England resort town.
Snakes in Paradise, YA historical, 55,000 words
elizabethpenney@ymail.com
Title: Falling to Normal
Genre: YA Contemporary, 70,000 words
When fifteen-year-old Cheyenne Butler is released from juvie, she fabricates her own background in order to fit in with her high school classmates. But, when the truth comes out, she must embrace it or risk losing control and going back to juvie.
Title: In Limbo
Genre: Historical YA
Syl thinks life sucks when his older brother goes off to fight in World War I and he's left with unstable parents, a bully, an absent best friend, and a budding interracial romance, but he soon finds his high school woes are nothing compared to the Spanish Influenza.
Thanks for doing this :)
Title: Blackbird
Genre: YA Fantasy/Thriller
When a team of elfin spy-school recruiters dies saving 16-year-old witch Taylor Keaton's life, she decides to take on their final mission, so with only the project name to go on and a few short months to find the truth, Taylor must use her new training to discover what a team of dark sorcerers are trying to steal and get it before they use it to gain even more power, further unbalancing the rift between themselves and the rest of the magical world... and if she could do it before they kill her, that would help, too.
Title: Alexia's Pen
Genre: Fantasy YA, 80,000 words
When fifteen-year-old aspiring novelist Alexia is given a mysterious pen that writes of its own accord, she discovers the mystical Land of Imagining, a land only she can save from demons.
Title- Alamandine's Song
Genre- Adult Urban Fantasy- 80,000 words
When half-fae Mandi finds out her father was murdered by a supernatural creature she goes hunting for the bitch, unwittingly throwing herself into a tangle of fae political intrigue.
Title: My Boyfriend, My Spy
Genre: Contemporary YA
Shiloh, a quirky seventeen year old design student at New Orleans School of Creative Arts, just learned her first love is being paid to spy on her by her overbearing and uncaring parents; now she has to figure out who her true family is and what to do about her boyfriend.
Title: Arrow of the Mist
Genre: YA Fantasy 59,000 words
When the enchanted roots of a Striaf tree attack woodsmen in the Celtic inspired kingdom of Nemetona, Lia—a 15-year-old tree mage—must decipher a 13-part elixir and defeat the demon shade causing the tree’s attacks.
English born but Norman blooded, Isobel Dumont struggles to keep her home and heart intact when William the Conqueror sends his knights to her father's holding after the Battle of Hastings -- a task made more difficult when she learns of her father’s death.
Siege of the Heart is a Historical Romance complete at 93k...
Thanks to Operation Awesome for hosting this contest!
Title: The Fall of the Tunetellers
YA Fantasy 80,000 words
17-year-old Princess Galatrin Lofstra must flee the destruction of her kingdom, battling danger, her own doubts and face the man who betrayed her people.
Title: VITILIGO
Genre: Adult Commercial
James Pratchett, born in Balmer, Alabama as a black boy, returns to the town sixteen years later as a white man to enact his revenge on the men who killed his mother and made his life a living hell, only to discover that his childhood friend and first love is still there.
Thank you Mystery Agent!
Whoopsie-- forgot to add, it's 77,500 words.
Oops 100,000 words.
Sweet ♥
Title: The Whispering City
Genre: YA paranormal
When sixteen-year-old London Howell inadvertently "creates" a person, drawing the attention of the city's ruling mage family, he must decide if the answers to newly raised questions about himself and his family are worth the price of a human soul.
Love these contests--I think I like reading everyone else's more than entering :)
Title: Colors Like Memories
Genre: YA paranormal
Julia killed the guy she loved; it was an accident—sort of—but to save her best friend’s life she’s going to have to face what she did, and some memories are better left buried.
Title: DELUSIONS
Genre: Thriller
Author: EEG
She can't save them—instead, over and over she relives their deaths; emergency doctor Celine Bent is haunted by the patients she couldn't resuscitate, until she realizes they really weren't patients; they were murder victims.
Anonymous, we need a name, in case you win. :) It can be a screen name, if you'd like to remain anonymous.
Thanks for having this contest again! You guys are the best!
Genre: YA Historical Romance
WISTFUL, after her extravagant Ton wedding, 15 year old Julie Haynesworth runs away from her ancient husband to live with a poor commoner family only to fall in love with the eldest son; too bad he thinks she’s a boy.
Will try this out for the first time.
Genre: YA Paranormal Adventure:
Gifts, with her parents murdered, Alex, her clairvoyant brother kidnapped, 16 year old Rebecca Stevens must outmaneuver a lethal agent, learn how to control her telekinesis, and find Alex before his gift is harnessed and he becomes her worst enemy
Anonymous-- sorry, I just realized you did include author initials. Ignore my comment. Good luck!
Title: FLORA
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Sixteen year-old Dahlia Kennedy never thought the deserted forest she went to in her dreams could be real until she meets the mysterious Rowan Rochfort and discovers she's been going to his world; but when he disappears, Dahlia must find him before his country of Ambrosia falls into the wrong hands, or everything she holds dear in both his and her worlds could be lost forever.
Planning her artist career is the only thing on seventeen-year-old Ivy's mind, after all, perfectly planning everything is the only way to stay perched on top of her parent's pedestal, but when she falls for a roguish baseball player who sails into town behind his own reputation, he dashes all of her plans like waves against the shore.
BAY SHORES is a YA contemporary romance complete at 40,000 words
Title: The Cabin at Lost Creek
Genre: Adult Paranormal
A woman, falsely suspected of kidnapping a boy when she was only seven years old, must face all her past demons when she visits the scene of the crime twenty-five-years later and finds the boy there - and he's still only seven.
Title: The Best of You
Genre: Single Title Contemporary,
90,000 words
The NFL meets "The Biggest Loser".
Title: Shadow of Turning
Genre: Suspense / 95,000 words
Lawyer Gianne Noble has landed in the middle of a capital murder trial where her client is willing to die by his decision to keep an unimaginable family secret that would set him free but destroy his daughter's life; now Gianne has to live with hers.
Title: Impossible to Hold
Genre: Paranormal Romance
83,000 words
lawna@lawnamackie.ca
www.lawnamackie.ca
He is the Storm God…devoid of emotion, coming to her as the thick mist that swirls around her mortal ankles, the raindrops that slide over her body, or the snowflakes that tickle her nose on a winter’s day–always together, but never apart, until for a short time he is granted a human body with godly powers allowing him to fight for her life and bear emotions that leave him crippled with fear wondering how he will endure the rest of his existence without her touch.
Anonymous 1:39, we need a name, please.
Keep the pitches coming. You guys look awesome!
Re: Shadow of Turning
Contact information: by R. King Kollman, rkollman @ sbcglobal.net
Sorry!
Title: In the Shadow of Pikes Peak
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Contact: roh.morgon (at) gmail(dot)com
www.rohmorgon.com
No longer human, Sunny Martin’s secretive life is turned upside down when she encounters another of her kind--Nicolas, the enigmatic leader of an underground society--but as they're swept into a whirlwind of passion, betrayal, and murder, she discovers they are nothing alike and faces an agonizing choice: give up everything she believes in for the one she loves, or remain alone…forever.
Title: The Hunt
Genre: YA Thriller
After the body she discovers in the woods disappears, sixteen-year-old Breanna must prove it was not the product of her notorious overactive imagination, but rather the handiwork of a killer who plans to silence her.
Ack, too bad I'm in the middle of a rewrite of my ya dystopian, TALENT'S BLOOD!
I've reworked my pitch too: Seventeen-year-old Justin Talent finds out his blood brings death to immortals. Only problem is--his sister is one.
Good luck to everyone!!!!!
Title: COUNTERS
Genre: MG Sci-fi
Contact: elaineamsmith@hotmail.co.uk
www.notexactlyblogging.blogspot.com
Thursday Child would do anything to stop MI 8 from opening her up to see how she ticks; everything except telling them what she knows about Ethan Sandling.
lbdiamond, did you want us to count you in, or do you need time to revise?
Title: TICK-TOCK
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Word Count: 64,000
Tucked safely away in the heart of America, sixteen-year-old Laney Sola dreams of a life beyond Banesboro, Kansas, but her one-way ticket out might cost more than she's willing to pay.
Question: can one pitch more than one work? (provided they're both ready, of course!)
Sorry, Anon. One book pitch per customer. Thanks for asking. I'll have to remember to post that in the future.
Elaine, Mystery Agent doesn't rep MG (which is what I write too!). Sorry!
Thanks! I thought so but wanted to be sure.
Good catch, Kelly! Sorry, Elaine.
Amateur astronomer Lady Selina Hamilton doesn't want to spend the summer in a London Season, especially after a seductive whisky smuggler kisses her, mistaking her for her twin--and who only has revenge on his mind.
Stars in the Night is a 90,000-word Regency-era romance, inspired by the Gemini constellation.
Sure thing, count me in! ;)
I'm noticing a trend toward multiple-sentence pitches. If you use more than one semicolon, or period, it's not a one-line pitch. Still a logline, but not quite what we were looking for in this contest. Make it easy on the M.A. and please keep it to one sentence. Thanks, guys!
Update: 3 spots left! Tell your friends.
Title:WINDS OF CHANGE
Genre:YA Fantasy
contact: elizafaith13@gmail.com
Seventeen-yr-old Avikar has never forgiven himself for his brother’s death, but when his sister is kidnapped he has no choice but to overcome his fears and save her, before she ends up marrying a reptilian lord.
Title: THE CANDLE DARK WICKED
Genre: Paranormal Romance
89,000 words
Contact DMcWild@Gmail.com
Sixteen-year-old Teagan returns from visiting her twin sister in the hospital with a key she hopes will unlock a mystery where nine years earlier she found her sibling in their grandmother’s study with a puppet on one hand, and the words find me written on the other--lying in a coma.
Title: Duality
Genre: Science Fiction
114,000 words
contact: c.peace@live.com
The recent success of a genetic cross-mutation experiment, Subject 31 attempts to piece together exactly how she ended up with panther DNA -- and why she's falling for the man who made her a monster.
btw, i love that you guys do these contests. so fun!
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