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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mystery Agent: March

UPDATE: CLOSED!! Thanks for all the awesome entries!!


Well, our favorite time on the OA has come once again. I know it's hard to believe because February flew by with oodles of agent events and book giveaways. Oliver, our owl, is especially excited about this particular contest. Even though he can't "hoot" in this one, he appreciates a good "tweet" now and then. 

We are graced with another fantastic mystery agent, one you won't want to miss. So get those tweet-sized pitches ready to roll, for the contest is NOW OPEN!

Here are the rules.


1) Entry limit: 75 entrants.

2) Pitch length: 140 characters. Think Tweet. Since we're talking 140 characters, Title and Genre don't have to be part of the pitch -- add them on to the comment somewhere.

3) Genres: YA (especially thriller, cyberpunk, horror, historical romance); MG; women's fiction; romance (especially with a strong, female heroine). 



4) Novels pitched must be complete. 


5) You may only enter once. If you entered a previous contest, you may also enter this one.

Are you ready to share your fabulous pitch? We're so ready to read them. The first 75 pitches (posted in the comments) will be considered. Last month, we had to disqualify a few for not following the rules. So don't get caught in that situation!

Good luck! May the best pitch win.

Ready...


Set...


Tweet....






91 comments:

  1. Working Title: Stuck
    Genre: YA paranormal

    Young soul collector finds herself stuck in rich, blonde teen girl. With the help of a wannabe angel she needs to figure out how to unstick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Title: Shadow Embraced
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    To control the creature threatening to take over her, 16-year-old Scar joins an underground fight club of witches, werewolves and vampires.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks so much for this fun contest!

    My novel is a paranormal YA complete at 78,000 words. Title is MAGNETIC.

    PITCH:
    For Carly Reynolds, being a hero doesn’t automatically get you a gold star. Particularly when the person you need to save is already dead.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for this contest!

    Title: Dreaming Isis
    Genre: Contemporary YA Fantasy

    Pitch:
    Seventeen-year-old Isis must choose between acceptance and embracing who she truly is as she learns to control her newfound magical powers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Title: Nefarious
    Genre: Romantic Suspense

    Harlie's whirlwind romance with a rock star pisses off a jealous stalker determined to have one of them all to himself.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Title: Mishca
    Genre: YA Speculative Fiction (Horror, Science-Fiction, Paranormal and Mystery combined)

    Pitch: Stalked while she's awake and haunted in her dreams as she sleeps, Mishca is about to discover finding her birthparents is no fairytale.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Title: Riding on the Tail of the Devil
    Genre: YA Fantasy

    Pitch: A homeless teen, turned vampire, must fight for his "unlife" when the reigning Queen decides to kill him because he's a threat to her rule.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yay for the contest! Thanks guys!

    Working Title: Cupcake Melody
    Genre: Romance

    Pitch: Being left at the alter sucks. Melody would know. Swearing off men isn't easy either in a new town with several available bachelors.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Title: The Blues
    Genre: Contemporary YA Mystery

    Pitch: Sixteen-year-old Blake uncovers a secret high school drug scene when his pill pushing best friend turns up dead.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Title: Olympus Gate
    Genre: YA Fantasy

    Pitch: A girl from a broken future travels back to ancient Rome to stop her sister's murder, confront the gods, and prevent the coming apocalypse.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Title: The Shifting Summer of Eleanor Olive
    Genre: Middle grade

    Ten-year-old Eleanor and her bunkmates are in for an unforgettable summer camp experience, complete with swimming, s’mores, and … shapeshifting?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks y'all!

    The Happy Kind
    Upper MG - 54K

    2 Moms in Atlanta -normal. 2 Moms in Appalachia -not so normal. Can a horse, a country boy, and a new BFF give Tully the strength to be?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Title: The Matter of Souls
    Genre: YA paranormal

    When Riley dies and refuses to go into the light, she must let go of her grieving family…or she’ll find there are worse things than death.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Title: Waiting For Augusta
    Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade

    A runaway Alabama boy takes his dad’s cremation urn on an adventurous father-son trip to scatter the ashes in a special (& illegal) spot.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Title: WAITING FOR APRIL
    Genre: Paranormal Romance

    Twenty-one-year-old April is unaware she is living her 15th life, and that her best friend, Scott, has been trying to save her since 1730.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Title: BLACKBIRD
    Genre: YA Fantasy Technothriller

    Spy chick bypasses a top-of-the line security system to steal an object before the sorcerers do in this "Mission:Impossible w/ magic" tale.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Title: The Demons You Know
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    Pitch: When demons kidnap her mom, Fire Mage Miranda partners with a young Holy Knight to battle a seductive ancient knowledge & rescue the Mages.

    ReplyDelete
  19. SOME KIND OF TROUBLE
    YA Contemporary

    When Arianna decides to accept tutoring from bad-boy Marcus falling in love was the easy part, keeping him alive will take more than just love.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Title: Happily Never After
    Genre: YA fantasy

    Sixteen-year-old Kate is trapped in a fairy tale, and if she doesn’t escape soon, she’ll lose all her memories. Or worse, she’ll get killed.

    ReplyDelete
  21. New York Karma
    Romance 70K


    24 hours, a 52 block trek, 2 struggling artists, 2 muggings, 2 states, 2 exs, and a 1 secret poker game = Nick and Norah for grown ups.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Title: A Crack In The Dam
    Genre: Upper MG speculative

    When a rich boy is exposed as an illegal mixed-breed he must flee The Rulers who want him dead because he disproves their oppressive lies.

    ReplyDelete
  23. A Demon's Redemption
    Paranormal Romance

    Lorelei is your typical college student - who happens to have a talent for sniffing out demons and sending them back to hell, kind of like a psychic bloodhound. But once a year, she is charged with the task of helping one of the fallen on their quest to earn their way back into heaven. How do they do that? By atoning for their sins. And so far, everything is working out for her - until she meets Az, son of Azazel. Does the demon fall far from the seed?

    ReplyDelete
  24. TITLE: Amber and the Whispering Willows

    Genre: M/G Fantasy

    A plague threatens Amber's willow grove. Her unique power is the key to stop an evil force from destroying both the human and fairy realms. 



    ReplyDelete
  25. Title: Starsong
    Genre: YA Contemporary

    Being an all American girl has its perks for Wynonna Pinks, but falling in love with the Muslim kid from down the street will put her in an awkward situation. She’ll have to choose between facing her parents’ wrath by staying with him, or enduring the heartbreak of separation from the one guy who really gets her

    ReplyDelete
  26. Title: Siege of the Heart
    Historical Romance

    Pitch:
    English-born but Norman-blooded, Isobel struggles to keep her home and heart intact when Sir Alexandre must claim what's his after Hastings

    ReplyDelete
  27. @Margay and PkHrezo: Your pitches should be 140 characters long, like the messages you'd publish on Twitter. If you'd like to participate in the contest, please submit shorter versions. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Title: Soul Without a Boy
    Genre: YA urban fantasy

    To save his dad from magi, London must uncover the truth about his family and the odd girl claiming he created her before it's too late.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Title: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Friendship
    Genre: MG Contemporary

    When selling her appendix on e-bay doesn’t work, ten-year-old Annie seeks other ways to save her best friend’s house from foreclosure.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Working title: The Missing Bedouin Necklace
    Genre: MG mystery

    Accused of stealing a valuable Bedouin necklace, a U.S. diplomat's kid and his Egyptian best friend set out to find the real thief.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Title: The Last Onset
    Genre: YA Dystopia

    This time Armageddon was planned - a form of Eugenics, where only the government's elected survive.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Christine Arnold
    YA fantasy
    Cloudburst

    16-year-old Jemma Stone must harness her water-manipulating talents to defeat the Cardinal Keepers’ Cult before they kill the man she loves.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Title: Slipperage
    Genre: YA retold fairytale

    Zuku (a boy-king who can talk to machines, but not to girls) has to save 12 princesses from an endless ball after they rip a hole in space.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Title - JOSHUA FALLEN AND THE MATTER OF DARKNESS
    Genre - MG Science Fiction

    13-year-old Joshua Fallen awoke with the ability to wield dark matter, and then found out only he could save the universe from destruction.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Background Vocals
    Contemporary YA
    by Chelsey Blair


    Cousins, amputations, Paris, guitars, Drag queens, Harvard Square,--not in that order--and a girl named Meridian who wants to escape it all

    ReplyDelete
  36. Deb A. Marshall
    Middle Grade, Short Story Collection
    Mixed Up Ever Afters

    Wonder what comes after "The End"? Little Red Hen chasing Gingerbread. Goldi in a hillside rumble with Troll. And more. It's OOPS Upon a time!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Title: FLORA
    Genre: YA urban fantasy

    16 y.o. Dahlia can't tell anyone about the guy she loves, even when he disappears and her own family might be next if she doesn't find him.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Resub:

    A Demon's Redemption
    Paranormal Romance

    Lorelei sniffs out demons and sends them back to hell. Azazel is sent to stop her. But will they be able to do their jobs once they meet?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Title - VEX
    Genre - YA Fantasy with a techie twist

    Virtual Environment Ten—VEX—turns deadly when Tana, 16, discovers something wants to download itself into her body and take over her life.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Title: The Education of Thia
    Genre: YA Contemporary

    Thia loves a boy online. She is shown evidence of who he really is, but she doesn’t believe it, until he shows up on her doorstep. He's 45.

    www.margokelly.net

    ReplyDelete
  41. Title: The Whip-Slip
    Genre: YA Fantasy

    A teen whose touch heals or infects struggles to unearth her past before the forces of Life and Death deploy her as a weapon.

    ReplyDelete
  42. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Title: Devolutionaries
    Genre: YA dystopian

    Ash must sacrifice his ability to talk in order to hone the telepathic skills he needs to rescue his grandad from a Government experiment.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Thanks for the opportunity!! Best of luck to all entrants ~ :)

    Title: The Glass Prince
    Genre: YA fantasy

    An immortal prince drives Utah teen, Clara, to spend summer in New York with indifferent Grandmother. A family curse keeps her there.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Title: Shutter
    Genre: YA Horror

    Valkyrie Mina Flynn’s soulchained: she’s got 7 days to exorcise the demon Zamiel, or she’s dead and damned. She’s in for a hell of a week.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Once again into the fray!

    Title: Spirits from the Vasty Deep
    Genre: YA historical/paranormal

    Pitch:
    Ghostly crew wants revenge for a fire Olivia caused, forcing a reckoning with her haunted past. Blossom Culp meets Pirates of the Caribbean.

    Thanks for another contest that makes us think about our books in different ways.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Title: Transmigration
    Genre: YA Paranormal/Mystery

    A murder case turned cold.A reincarnated soul.A second chance for 17-year-old Anna to solve her past,before her killer strikes again.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Title: CONNECTED
    Genre: YA SF Romance

    An alien princess has been cursed to earth with one week to help a hateful boy find true love or she'll die never knowing who framed her.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Title: Blood Bond
    Genre: Paranormal Romance

    Allowing a fallen angel into her life, isn't easy for a loner like Cassie. Yet, to control her powers, she'll have to first open her heart.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Title: Quintessence
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    The estranged Walker sisters are tricked into becoming witches. Now they must decide if they will do a ritual that will kill one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Title: THE CANDLE DARK WICKED
    Genre: YA Fantasy

    To rescue friends from a sister’s comatose dark world, her twin must sacrifice herself, or smother sleeping beauty with love--then a pillow.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Title: Corridors of Ice
    Genre: Contemporary YA Fantasy

    16-year-old Jason, feeling cold, has visions of the world covered in ice & learns his dad's current skirmishes in Afganistan are connected.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Title: Maria de los Muertos
    Genre: MG Fantasy

    A dying lab rat named Guapo becomes a research assistant shadowing Death and discovers the secrets to immortality.

    Thanks!
    Liz Garcia

    ReplyDelete
  54. Title: Among the Shattered Pieces
    Genre: YA Contemporary

    When Isla's dad drowns, she and her mom move to Thailand to escape their grief. A tsunami brings tragedy, forcing Isla to be strong.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Title: Tangled
    Genre: YA Fantasy

    16 yr old Fay is thrust into the world of Spirits, where everyone-- including the living-- want her dead.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Title: Grand Chef's Apprentice
    Genre: MG Dystopian

    When Maya sneaks into a forbidden cooking contest, the unexpected revealing of her hidden disability threatens her dream of overcoming her outcast status.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Title: On His Own
    Genre: YA (Upper Middle Grade)

    What’s worse than landing in a place of safety? Sam finds out through sexual abuse and battling evil that comes from being on his own.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Alexia's Pen
    YA Fantasy

    When fifteen-year-old nerdy Alexia uses a cursed magical pen, her people turn into demons - the very thing she is trying to save them from.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Title: I, NEMESIS
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    By day, demonic teen Sofia Sanchez is confined to a children’s psych-ward, by night, she battles the vicious street gang that killed her mom

    ReplyDelete
  60. Title: Colors Like Memories
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    Julia’s secret: she killed the guy she loved. It was an accident—sorta. Now she must save her best friend, but her ghosts won’t make it easy

    (Thanks for doing this--I love reading all the entries!)

    ReplyDelete
  61. These pitches look awesome, guys! There's room for 20 more, so keep spreading the word!

    ReplyDelete
  62. Working Title: Journey
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    On her first journey to the human world, a girl finds love and find both world in the brink of a war.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Title: IMPRISONED
    Genre: YA Contemporary Psychological Issue

    Call them obsessions. Call them compulsions. Call them sanity-sucking life-killers. Call them what you want, but whatever they are, they’re taking over 19-year-old Keira Steck’s mind. And they suck big time, especially when she has way more important things to worry about. Like the real-live love triangle sabotaging her social life, for example.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Too long for a tweet, Jessica. Please resubmit in 140 characters or less if you want to be counted. Thank you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  65. Title: THE HUNGRY GROUND
    Genre: YA fantasy with an espresso-shot of horror

    When the population of a nearby city vanishes overnight, aspiring detective Kalinda joins the search party. But the city isn't empty.

    ReplyDelete
  66. MELISMA
    YA Contemporary Fantasy

    After a breakdown Tessa gives up singing,but when she enters a world where music is magic she must find her voice if she ever wants to leave

    ReplyDelete
  67. Title: I'm Here to Save Your Day
    Genre: MG Adventure/Fantasy

    A brazen boy faces a playground bully to reclaim the jungle gym, only to discover the bully's mom– the lunch lady— is a far worse enemy.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Title: Alternate
    Genre: YA Sci-fi

    A teen hacker is drawn into a war between parallel universes when she meets an alternate version of herself from another dimension.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Title: A LOVE LIKE AUDREY'S
    Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

    A young artist with a penchant for Audrey Hepburn films falls for the mystifying new guy and ends up with her very own Breakfast at Tiffanys

    ReplyDelete
  70. Title: A Truth I Don't Know
    Genre: YA thriller

    Mali's classmates say she's a ghetto thug, but she doesn't give a sh*t, as long as she can stop her dream coming true & save her bro's life.

    ReplyDelete
  71. How far along in the process should the book be to enter the contest? I have two, one is complete and the other is a WIP at about the halfway point.

    ReplyDelete
  72. tangynt, only pitch completed novels. Thanks for asking!

    ReplyDelete
  73. Title: COVETED
    Genre: YA urban fantasy

    A secret society called Libra has been hunting and killing Sources-human vessels of ancient power-for centuries, and Caleb Dunnelly is next.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Title: Sword & Illusion
    Genre: Epic Fantasy/Strong Female Lead

    The leader of a race of warrior women faces the toughest challenge of her life: finding a husband and starting a family.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Thank you for doing this! Best to everyone.

    Title: Night Visions, Daytime Disasters
    Genre: YA magical realism

    Pitch: Charlotte is ecstatic to find out the guy from her dreams is real. But Micah has a secret that makes him refuse to meet her in daytime.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Title: Parallel Earth Genre: MG SF/ Fantasy
    Pitch: A brother and sister are transported into another dimension only to discover an enthralling race of aliens is hunting them for their human bone cells.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Title: Fulcrum
    Genre: YA sci-fi

    Two boys enter a corrupt interplanetary underworld to seek their missing guardian after their planet is destroyed in a surprise attack.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Title: Still
    Genre: YA contemporary


    If 17-year-old Calleigh’s secret gets out, her BFF is the serial killer’s next target—too bad her new BF is determined to find the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Title: Lady and the Necromancer
    Genre: Urban Fantasy

    Pitch: A young woman becomes apprenticed to a 'reformed' necromancer to stop her dangerous ex-boyfriend, and discovers powers she knew she had.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Title: Heart's Reserve
    Genre: Contemporary romance

    Building a mansion, a hell on wheels masonry artisan finds a home of her own as she chips away her micromanaging foreman's emotional scars.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Title: Pink Tiger
    Genre: Women's Fiction

    Can making one wish on her missing daughter's birthday bring her kidnapped daughter home?

    ReplyDelete
  82. Title: Arrow of the Mist
    Genre: Young Adult Fantasy word count 59,000

    Lia must decipher an elixir and defeat the demon who poisoned her da via enchanted tree roots, before she’s convinced to serve the demon.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Title: Secrets of the Makai
    Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

    A psychic teenager must save a self-proclaimed plant queen and a mythical creature, sealed in emerald, as secret societies plot his demise.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Yay, Emsky! I'm glad you got your pitch in time!

    TWO SPOTS LEFT! Tell your writer friends! :D

    ReplyDelete
  85. As Hurricane Katrina descends, thirteen year old Victor Standish street orphan finds New Orleans brings "mean" to a new level :

    the supernatural level.

    A mysterious Jazz club owner takes him in. The Jazz club is the Crossroads of Worlds ... and the owner has the blood of Death in his veins.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Hi Roland! You need to reduce your pitch to 140 characters to be eligible. It should fit in a tweet, per contest guidelines above. Thanks!

    Still two spots open.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Hurricane Katrina descends. Thirteen year old Victor Standish finds New Orleans brings "mean" to a new level :

    the supernatural level.

    A mysterious Jazz club owner takes him in. The Jazz club is the Crossroads of Worlds ... and the owner has the blood of Death in his veins

    ReplyDelete
  88. Title: KINESTHESIA
    Genre: YA Alternate History

    In an alternate 1961, 17-year-old Meri leaves her fishing town looking for a more exciting life. The chance to fight Nazis? That's a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Roland, that's still 277 characters. You need to shoot for 140 characters including spaces. It should look about the size of the other pitches you see here.

    Nora, you're in!

    One spot left!

    ReplyDelete
  90. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Hurricane Katrina descends. Thirteen year old Victor Standish finds New Orleans brings mean to the supernatural level.

    A mysterious Jazz club owner takes him in. Death ensues.

    ReplyDelete