CONTEST CLOSED!! Thanks and good luck to all our entrants!
Let the pitches flow! The Mystery Agent contest is here and officially open!!
Okay. Without further ado, LE RULES:
1) THIS IS NOT A ONE-LINE PITCH CONTEST! Sorry for yelling. Just wanted to be sure I had your attention. :) Pitches can be 2-4 sentences long. Entries must be left in the comment section of today's post. (Please do not email us your entry.)
1) THIS IS NOT A ONE-LINE PITCH CONTEST! Sorry for yelling. Just wanted to be sure I had your attention. :) Pitches can be 2-4 sentences long. Entries must be left in the comment section of today's post. (Please do not email us your entry.)
2) You must have a completed manuscript and be ready to send it upon request.
3) You can only pitch once per contest. So if you participated in any of our previous M.A. contests, no worries--you can submit your pitch today, too.
4) Please include TITLE and GENRE along with your pitch.
NOW FOR THE DETAILS:
Our agent will choose one winner out of maximum 50 entries, and that person will get a 50-PAGE PARTIAL REQUEST!! And guys, this agent is amazing! (I'd elaborate, but I don't want to give anything away. Just trust me on this.)
The Mystery Agent's requested genres:
Single Title Romance
- all subgenres in the 100,000 word range
- no inspirational
Young Adult and Middle Grade
- all subgenres
Fantasy and Science Fiction
- all subgenres
- for Adult or Young Adult readers
Commercial Fiction
- including women's fiction, chick lit, historical fiction and high concept mainstream commercial fiction
Good luck, everyone!
Note: For those of you who entered September's M.A. contest, results are coming VERY SOON, either Sunday or Monday.
53 comments:
YAY! (I love it when you all list my genre's ^_^)
Title: Rhamiel's Fall
Genre: Fantasy
Pitch: Ronnie was created to collect stray penumbra (shadows made of raw emotion). It's an easy job until the shadows start whispering in her head. Everyone - her boss, the gods, the creepy guy at the diner - seems to know more about her affliction than she does and no one's filing her in. If she takes too long to decipher the voices' message, her descent into madness will be a one-way trip.
Title: Swimming With Tchaikovsky
Genre: YA Suspense/Magical Realism
Consummate rule-follower Sally Hotchkiss arrives in Saint Petersburg prepared for the biggest cello competition of her life. But when her host father is kidnapped, she starts seeing visions with clues about how to rescue him every time she plays music from Russia’s past. She teams up with her host sister, and when the clues lead them to the upper echelons of the police department and various thugs-for-hire appear on their tail, following the rules is no longer an option.
Thanks so much!
Title: Loop
Genre: YA Sci-fi
When sixteen year-old time traveler Bree Bennis flubs a History midterm to the distant past, she inadvertently transports a cute but exasperating boy home to the 23rd century. He claims he’s in love with her, or rather, a future version of her that doesn’t think he’s a pain in the arse. But after she overhears a hushed conversation at her school insinuating a recent rash of time travel accidents are no accidents, her temporal tagalong drops to the bottom of her worries. And when those closest to Bree become the next victims, he may be the only person she can trust--her future self included.
Thanks, you guys!
Title - TRUSTING TRINITY
Genre - middle grade science fiction
Pitch - Thirteen-year-old Trinity Bishop lied about getting abducted by aliens to avoid punishment, so when she runs into real ones on a family vacation, she’s unable to convince her parents she’s telling the truth. Together with her best friends Maya and Nick, Trinity sets out to stop the aliens from attacking her cruise ship and stealing the diamonds they need to power their busted UFO. But when they grab Nick and demand an exchange of the human for the diamonds, Trinity must find a way to comply that doesn’t involve grand theft, jail time, or Nick’s abduction.
TITLE: The Forces of Heaven and Hell Alike
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PITCH: The demon Liam gathers human souls on contract, but neither Heaven nor Hell know about his romantic relationship with the angel Mikael. When archangel Gabriel seeks to use Mikael against Liam in a battle for Heaven, the demon may lose the one being who has taught him that good and evil aren't easily defined.
Title - THE NOCTURNIAN
Genre - YA Science Fiction
Pitch - Amity Hager has spent her life hunting Damien Faust, the bloodthirsty, immortal pirate captain that killed her friends. But when the Government tells her she has a power that makes her the only person on Earth who can kill him, Amity discovers everything she knew about Faust is a lie--and she might just end up trying to save the life she swore to destroy.
Title: The Silver Strand
Genre: MG Fantasy
Pitch: Mastermind Academy’s latest recruit, twelve year old Isabelle Tresdon doesn’t have a magical bone in her body - but she does have a freaky, magical, silver strand of hair. It’s too bad her strand is dying, along with her, and she has five days to revive it. What’s worse is she trusts two tricksters ordered to help her, not knowing they have other plans for her entirely.
Title - Dreaming Isis
Genre - YA Contemporary Fantasy
Pitch - Seventeen-year-old Isis has been called crazy, psychotic and a liar and forced into a serious counseling program by her mother, who is terrified of the strange things Isis can do. When Isis learns her powers are real and discovers she is the dreamer--someone with power to control people through their dreams—she must choose between two warring magical societies and between saving her cousin or following theboy who understands it all.
Title: CLOAKED IN FUR
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Animal behaviorist Daciana has the next five days all planned out. Track a deadly beast, say goodbye to her pack, chose humanity at the transformation ceremony, and settle down with her inspector boyfriend. But betrayal runs thick in her family, and when her human lover is kidnapped, her inner monster may just be her greatest ally.
TITLE: LIFE BEFORE DEATH
GENRE: CF/PARANORMAL ROMANCE
When newly dead Rebecca learns she must play matchmaker for her entry ticket to Heaven, she's totally up for the challenge. Armed with a handful of enviable abilities and charged with finding true love for a pretty college student, Alexis Beckman, Rebecca assumes her task will be fun and easy - until she finds the one for Alexis and falls for him herself, leading her to suspect she's been set up to fail.
Title: THE TRAVELERS
Genre: YA Science Fiction
On Nik's eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is a time traveler. Only one other boy, Davis, shares her skill of traveling without the help of computers or coordinates - the stuff of legend. It's a dangerous job, one that killed the powerful Director of Traveler's City's husband. Nik and Davis soon learn that, together, they're the only ones who can stop the Director from Traveling back in time to save her husband, ruining the future, and killing the two of them in the process.
Title: Tripplehorn Parker, Hesitant Heroine Extraordinaire
Genre: Upper MG Adventure
Adventure-phobic 12-year-old Tripplehorn Parker is certain she’ll be dead by next week, and it’s a definite possibility when leaving behind her debate club trophies to study 8,000-pound hippos in Uganda. It’s an even bigger possibility when she receives a message the night before leaving—something about an ancient tale, unimaginable power, and not failing. And though protecting African idols that control destiny is definitely not her strong suit, Tripp is about to team up with a Ugandan boy to solve clues and attempt to do the last thing she ever expected: survive beasties, outwit bad guys, and save the day. Her family’s survival and the fate of the world depend on it.
Title: TRANSCEND
Genre: YA Psychological Thriller/Historical
When a horrible accident leaves seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery abandoned and left for dead, his only link to sanity is his love for his muse. But as a series of betrayals rips away the last shreds of his humanity, Ien is forced to confront parts of himself that were better left buried in this Phantom of the Opera inspired journey through madness.
Title: Riding on the Tail of the Devil
Genre: YA Fantasy
Like many homeless kids, fifteen-year-old Mathias Drvar died on the streets; unlike the rest, he came back-- as a vampire. If that wasn’t proof that his life was in the shitter, finding out that he is a reincarnated vampire king just made things a whole lot worse. When the reigning queen discovers that Mathias knows about his past, she demands a duel because she considers him a threat to her rule.
Title: Where Are Boys From, Uranus?
Genre: YA Romantic Comedy
After a streak of horrible dates and zero attention from Camryn's ogle-worthy crush, Beckham, Camryn makes up a boyfriend (aka Imaginary Beckham) and writes letters to herself to prove his "existence" to her boy crazy friends. But when her friend beats her to it and admits to liking the real Beckham, Cam lies about her fake boyfriend's identity. When Real Beckham finally returns Cam's interest, she would rather pour Tabasco sauce in her eyes than tell her friend the truth. There has to be a way for Camryn to keep dating (not to mention kissing) the only decent guy she's ever met and save her friendship too, without Beckham finding out about the letters he supposedly wrote.
Thanks!
TITLE: Blackbird
GENRE: YA Fantasy Thriller
PITCH:
In this "Mission:Impossible with magic" tale, 16-year-old witch Taylor Keaton decides to take on the final mission of the elfin spy-school recruiters that died saving her life. With only the project name to go on and a few short months to find the truth, Taylor must first discover what a team of dark sorcerers are trying to steal and then retrieve it before they use it to gain even more power, further unbalancing the rift between themselves and the rest of the magical world. Oh, and if she could do it before they kill her, that would help, too.
Title: Angel Sight
Genre: YA Paranormal
Pitch:
When sixteen-year-old Rayna “Ray” Evans spots two angels—one with midnight black wings—shortly after her release from the Sunflower Sanitarium, she thinks she’s going crazy again, until she discovers her classmate dead from a supposed suicide. With all signs pointing to the angels, Ray must uncover the truth to save the rest of her school from the same fate. But protecting her friends—and enemies—means not only working with the angels but also trusting them; jeopardizing her heart and her sanity.
Title: ALTERNATE
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Sixteen year old Sara Morgan is thrust into a war between parallel universes when she meets Elira Black, an alternate version of herself from another dimension. The two girls have the same DNA, but couldn't be more different -- Sara is more comfortable hacking into unsecured networks than making friends, while Elira leads a resistance against an empire determined to conquer all the worlds of the multiverse. But when Elira dies, Sara must give up her old life and pretend to be Elira to stop the empire from conquering their next target -- Earth.
title: The Tweed Coat Mystery
genre: MG paranormal
When Maggie McConnell buys an old-fashioned second-hand coat from a thrift shop an onslaught of haunting dreams, unrelenting hallucinations, and eerie physical changes force her to discover the identity of the original owner of the coat in order to "send the ghost to the light" and return Maggie's life back to normal. But is the identity of the spirit closer to Maggie than she could have ever imagined? Is reincarnation even possible? Maggie's journey is one of self discovery that changes her life forever.
Title: CHASTE
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
When he steps into his physics class on the first day of senior year, Quinn Walker is too exhausted from staying up all night with his three-month-old nephew to deal with moral dilemmas. As a devout Mormon who has vowed to wait until marriage for sex, the last thing he needs is a very hot and very sexy Katrina Jackson as his physics partner. Kat feels invisible in her mansion of a home six months after losing her older brother in a fatal car crash and will do anything to get her parents’ attention. Even if it means making an impulsive bet with friends to seduce her holier-than-thou lab partner by Christmas.
TITLE: Jack's Back - The Unknown World
GENRE: MG Fantasy
Swept into an unfamiliar world by a vicious wind and almost eaten by a hungry plant, Jack and his best friend struggle to survive before being rescued by an old gnome. Travelling through a land that has been cast into shadow and on the verge of dying, they must survive the perils of the journey and find a way home.
TITLE: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE CYBORG
GENRE: YA light sci-fi
PITCH: When seventeen-year-old Maggie Lyons learns she's a cyborg—and that her parents had everything to do with it—she runs away, accidentally kidnapping her nerdy neighbor in the process. Terrified of what could happen if the wrong people discover her condition, she launches a cross-country hunt for her Maker—the only one who can make her human again. But when she meets others like her, she finds out there's a lot more to be afraid of than winding up under a microscope.
Title: Sendek
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Pitch:
In a world that tried to crush all forms of magic in favor of science, an astronomer is caught between her job and her hidden magical nature. She struggles to warn her people about an invasion by scaled humanoids without revealing her source of information—prophetic dreams. She must also prove to a handsome Major in the Royalist army that she is not a traitor to the crown.
The arrival of the invading force makes one thing desperately clear--science cannot save them and magic is now their only hope.
Title: Slipperage
Genre: YA science fiction
Pitch: In a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” Rana’s sisters accidentally rip a hole through space, and the twelve of them are forced to dance every evening with mysterious princes as the lines between dimensions blur. The fate of the princesses rests with their father’s enemy—a young king who doesn’t want to have anything do to with them.
Title: Moral Compass
Genre: YA Fantasy
Tobin wakes up in a desert with no memory and only a compass tattooed on his palm to guide him, which directs him to Graceville—a town where the citizens are controlled by moral compasses and straying from the moral path means pain and imprisonment. Tobin realizes how oppressive the compass is when he starts falling for Isobel, who has already been assigned a mate. Tobin ends up in prison for violating his compass, and in order to be together, Isobel and Tobin plan both their escapes—Tobin from his desolate imprisonment and Isobel from her betrothal.
Title: OPEN EYES
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy
The knights of Orkeia are determined to kill every magic holder in the kingdom, but Kenna has a knack for survival. The mark that betrays her true identity as a witch is hidden on her thigh, allowing her to pass herself off as one of the ungifted. But when she's brought to the castle and catches the king's eye, her secret becomes almost impossible to keep.
Maybe it would be better if she were dead.
Title: COVETED
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
In an ancient war being waged on modern streets, Caleb is an unwitting warrior and invaluable weapon that will guarantee victory for whichever side can catch him first. As one of The Seven he wields a portion of the power holding the cosmos together, and all attempts to keep off the supernatural radar have grown a little, well…choice words starting with the letter F come to mind. Like futile, feeble or fricken ridiculous. He can’t run forever, and that means picking a side, which means making the decision to either save the ones he loves, or watch humanity fall.
Title: BEING THE QUEEN
Genre: Contemporary MG
When thirteen-year-old Sabrina Tate finds out she can compete to be the queen of her school’s medieval feast, she thinks this might be her chance to show her parents she’s as talented as her big sister, stand up to the local mean girl, and, maybe, talk to the cute boy in her English class. But Sabrina didn’t count on cheaters in the competition, revenge, or detention. As she learns more about the Arthurian legends that inspired the feast, she starts questioning herself, her friends, even her enemies. Maybe winning her crown won’t be as easy as she thought.
Title: Arrow of the Mist
Genre: YA Fantasy
Fifteen-year-old Lia treks into a forbidden land to find a cure for the poisonous barbed roots that attacked her father. But a demon shade is tracking Lia, as his devious plan to ensnare her soul and claim her newly discovered tree magic unfolds. Lia relies on the memorized pages of her late grandma’s book for guidance, but when she learns her grandma serves the shade and that she enchanted the murderous roots, everything Lia reveres begins to crumble. Only she can decide if life in a flawed kingdom is worth fighting for, or if the shade’s promise of power is the better choice.
Title: UNDYING
Genre: Upmarket Women's Fiction
Cameron wife, Adrienne, should not be cooking breakfast when he wakes up. After all, he buried her yesterday. Cam doesn't know what this woman is: hallucination, con-woman, or bona fide miracle. When their families discover Cameron isn't alone in his house, the couple learns coming back from the dead has its own set of trials: angry surviving family members, confused insurance companies, and a media storm that simultaneously wants to build the couple up and tear them down. Thrust into the spotlight, Cameron and Adrienne have to decide whether
living under a microscope is a fair trade for a miracle, and to reconcile their need for privacy with the desire for answers.
Title: THE ELITE
Genre: YA Thriller
Sixteen-year-old Avery West's newfound family can shut down Prada at the Champs-Elysees when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. They are part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Elite and they need Avery as a pawn--or want her dead.
Her only hope is a race across Europe with the two boys the family sent to kidnap her—beautiful, volatile Stellan and darkly intriguing Jack—to decipher the ancient mystery that’s putting her life and the world in danger.
Title: Hunter & Hunted
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
When seventeen-year-old Huntress Ciera Fulbright saves the mysterious Altair de la Rosa, an old enemy of her parents, she is forced to escape her violent family. Unsure of her abilities as a Huntress, and never able to embrace being supernatural, Ciera is drawn further and further into that world as she falls for the one she saved. But her attraction might not be completely natural; when she finds out he has marked her, which binds them together in a supernatural way, Ciera is left feeling more trapped than ever. On the run and hunted by Altair’s enemies and her own parents, Ciera struggles with an even bigger battle: is their love real, or only a product of the binding mark?
Title: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Friendship
Genre: Contemporary MG
When her best friend's house is threatened with foreclosure, ten-year-old Annie Jenkins is full of ideas to save it: selling her appendix on eBay, winning the lottery, facing down the bankers . . . anything to keep Jason from moving. So when she tracks a lost treasure to Jason's backyard (smack dab in their turkey pen), she's certain it's the answer to all their problems. Now all she has to do is convince Jason to ignore his father's short fuse and overcome her own paralyzing fear of turkeys. But when her plan goes terribly wrong, Annie discovers there are worse things than your best friend moving away.
Title: Savior
Genre: YA fantasy gay romance
Araeli "Trick" Mathis, elven police officer, has spent the last three years of his life searching for a spell to bring his beloved brother back from the dead. He's finally found one, in the last book of banned spells available, but he soon realizes gathering the ingredients won't be as easy as he had hoped. For one thing, the key ingredient--an eyelash from one of the races native to the land of the dead--can only be obtained without drawing unwanted attention by allowing his newest prisoner to kiss him.
Now Trick is faced with a choice: either sacrifice himself for the person he spent his whole life caring for—or accept his feelings for the man who could be the love of his life.
Title: Seven Shades of Luminosity
Genre: MG Adventure
When 12-year-old Ralph and his two friends enter a magical world called Norwaeja, they find themselves on an unexpected quest for seven keys, each of which leads them closer to a dark and dangerous kingdom. Epic battles against Trolls, dangerous treks through kingdoms, and one pesky egotistical meerkat will pit friend against friend while putting their lives at stake.
Title: SWEET AMBROSIA
Genre: YA Fantasy
Ambrosia Wyne: half-nymph, all-nerd...destroyer of Mount Olympus? It was a Really. Bad. Day.
Title: THE GIRL WITH BROWN EYES
Genre: YA Fantasy
The Girl with Brown Eyes, a time-traveler, ruins a classic love story when she saves the hero and he falls for her rather than his destined sweetheart. To really throw the fish in the fire, she lands him in a debtor’s work camp and attracts the attention of a witch who wants her time traveling secrets. She’ll have to meddle one more time, if only to set things right, but are her efforts going to save the world or end it?
Title: Harbinger
Genre: YA cyberpunk fantasy
With her brother scheduled to become a Golem, a cybernetically enhanced soldier, 17-year-old Kai will do whatever it takes to save him, including using the abilities she promised her brother to keep secret--she can see the threads of time and manipulate them.
Title: Dark Trials
Genre: Adult Fantasy
In a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has evolved into the Old World legends of vampires and demons, Talsari Anathiel seeks a quiet life away from the rest of the world that is persecuting her witch kind. Yet a long-ago lover wants to rekindle the fires of passion and a quest where he seeks the mindless destruction of normal mankind.
So much for wanting an ordinary, 500-year-old life. Now Talsari must stop her past lover from destroying those people who would rather see her dead, and find out what happened to a daughter she had left behind.
Title: Wandering Star
Genre: YA sci fi
The universe is hunting for Evee Ciboure, and she has no idea why. As she planet-hops in search of answers, she has to figure out what's so special about her and decide if her pursuers are out to save her--or stop her.
Title: Rivers Underneath
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
16-year-old Emma Hawthorne finds herself at the center of a centuries-old battle between a Soul Eater and the Guardians, a secret order dedicated to protecting mankind from the supernatural. The Soul Eater, a ruthless, conscienceless immortal, can erase her traumatic memories, but only in exchange for her soul. When Emma discovers her childhood friend Gabriel is a Guardian trained to hunt and kill the Soul Eater, she must choose between fragile, fallible love or an immortal yet soulless existence to end the battle once and for all.
Thank you for all the entries so far, and good luck!
THERE ARE NOW 7 SPOTS LEFT. Keep the awesome coming! :)
Title: Chain of Command
Genre: Romantic Suspense
When the President and Vice President of the United States are assassinated simultaneously on opposite sides of the country, New York Herald reporter McKenzie Derrington discovers the unthinkable: the shootings may have been a plot to rocket the very first woman—the Speaker of the House—into the presidency.
Title: SO YOU DON'T WANT TO BE AN EVIL SORCERESS
Genre: YA Fantasy
High school student Mysty Perilous’s only wish for her sixteenth birthday is to date Eric; instead, she accidentally turns him into a frog. She has to learn how to control her new powers and listen to the warnings because her life just turned into a fairy tale and real fairy tales don’t always have happy endings.
5 spots left!
Elena's Pen
MG Fanatsy
Thirteen-year-old Elena lovers her new, magical pen - everything she writes with it comes true. But then the pen writes of its own accord about a mystical fantasy land being overrun by demons. After a demon kidnaps her family and hides them in the land, Elena will do whatever she can to save them, and the land. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as writing a happy ending - whenever Elena uses the pen, someone turns into a demon, and she could be next.
Title: AWAKEN
Genre: YA Fairytale retelling
After getting hit by a drunk driver, seventeen-year-old Tori wakes up in a fairytale world rather than an emergency room. But this isn’t like any normal tale where the prince saves the damsel in distress and everyone lives happily ever after. If Tori is to wake up from her ‘dream’, she must single-handedly slay a dragon, rescue the prince, and bring down her evil stepmother or be trapped in this crazy, twisted fairytale forever.
Thanks for doing this!! I never see chick lot listed! What an opportunity!!
Title: 30 GUYS IN 30 DAYS
Genre: Chick Lit
Pitch: Harper Drake thinks she knows dating inside out, and as a hit radio host, she’s always on the lookout for something to push her sky-high ratings even higher. Now, if Harper can’t find a way to iron out what she really wants, her happily ever after may never make it on air.
Title: Legacy
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
In a family of powerful witches, Danielle is disappointingly ordinary. But when the sorcerer who murdered her mother targets her brother, she's thrust back into a world where death can be bought and souls are the only currency. Danielle must destroy the physical anchor binding the spell, or the approaching sunset will be her brother’s last.
1 spot left!
Hope I'm too late!
Title: Duality
Genre: Science Fiction
The Humani Project’s latest test subject believes she’s human, but her sleek black fur, claws, and tail make that seem impossible. Determined to learn why she was changed, amnesiac Dima tries to piece together the puzzle of her past, but she quickly learns that survival trumps everything, even knowing who you are.
should've been "Hope I'm not too late." Oh dear...
Contest Closed!! Good luck to all our entrants!
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