Category: 2021 NaNowrimo

TEMPESTUOUS by Saanvi Agarwal

Ishanee Dalaal learns that she has a stomach tumor at 11 am alone in a white hospital. It takes her exactly fifty seconds to decide upon two rules. Don’t tell anyone and don’t die. 

Considering that she breaks rule one fifteen minutes later, she might need to rework those. Seriously reworking those because her incompetence at understanding her own illness leaves her to turn to Daya, a gaddāra and once a sister, who is determined to bring all Ishanee’s problems to light and rescue her.

And with that, Ishanee’s life is turned upside down. From her dutiful role as the Indian American daughter following her family’s guidance and the best friend who literally lives to be helpful, she finds estranged relations and secrets everywhere she looks. Suddenly her tumor seems to be the least of her concerns compared to her parent’s sudden interest in her life after years of ignoring her and stalking her best friend to check if he attempting to commit suicide again. 

Not that Daya will let her forget about her conditions, because with every panic attack and bloody washing session, she’s closer to breaking rule two. And hiding is only working for so long before Ishanee has to decide just how much she’s willing to help the people she loves with her own life dangling in the air. 

TEMPESTUOUS is a 95000 multicultural young adult novel where WHO PUT THIS SONG ON meets DUMPLING DAYS.

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Something In-Between by Sofia Lourdette Santamaria-Micher

After a protest at City Hall goes wrong, Luna, a Mexican-American high school senior, is saved from being pushed into traffic by a boy named Briar. Sparks fly, bad humor is exchanged, and something about a zombie… But more than sparks ignite when she realizes Briar is the son of the racist, white-supremacist candidate for mayor.  Briar’s father is against her and her people and she despises his father with every ounce of her saucy Latina blood. 

The last thing Luna needs is a tumultuous romance. She’s already juggling the emotional warfare of her parents’ divorce and the painful confusion of being biracial in a world bent on forcing her into one box or another. Yet Briar has brought both new laughter and hope into her life. She doesn’t believe in love, but she does believe in going against the current. And maybe–just maybe–she’s willing to try.

But playing with fire always burns.

Caught between love and hate, marriage and divorce, Mexican and American, Luna struggles to understand who she is when the love in her life is distorted. Will hate decide who she is and who she loves?

SOMETHING IN-BETWEEN is a YA novel about questioning one’s identity during adolescence and being in love despite having everything against you. Told through both humorous and defiant narrations, and a collection of honest poems, SOMETHING IN-BETWEEN is THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR meets ROMEO & JULIET. The manuscript is complete at around 45,800 words.

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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).

Class of ’79 by Holly L. Dutton

There are few places more dangerous than a high school parking lot ten minutes before the bell rings. But at Mountain Vista High School, the danger doesn’t end with fender benders in the student lot.  

When Kari  starts her first year of teaching, she expects a steep learning curve, maybe a few difficult students. She does not expect to be starting her new career in a crime scene. But the murder of the school’s winning football coach the first week of school is just the beginning.

Kari’s classroom is broken into, her overzealous journalism students are on the trail of the murderer, the vice principal hates her and one of her co-workers just may be the guilty party. Unless it’s one of the students.

As Kari gets to know her fellow teachers, she starts to have a few ideas about who might be responsible for the school’s crime spree. But she’s not the only one with crime solving instincts. The home economics teacher, source of school lore, random gossip, and fabulous baked goods, Grace Billingsly, has other ideas. She thinks it’s Kari. Now Kari has to solve the crime to prove her innocence. 

Set against the end of an era, Class of 79, is  rollicking trip to the past, complete with rock and roll music, muscle cars and murder.

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A SCARLET THREAD by A. S. Bondi

Medieval Córdoba is the jewel of Al-Andalus, a thriving, interfaith city that once ruled an empire. But while men govern Córdoba in the daylight, magical female assassins known as “Sisters” roam the night, controlling the city in the shadows.

Sabah has spent two years guarding a local brothel to prove her worth to the Sisters. Raised on the edge of poverty in Córdoba’s Jewish quarter, she can hardly believe her luck when the Sisters accept her into their ranks and assign her to the palace as their spy. She soon uncovers a conspiracy against the city within its own walls, a mysterious brotherhood that wants to topple Córdoba’s Muslim ruler and burn the Judería—her childhood home—to the ground.

Sabah assassinates one of the ringleaders, hoping to cut the head off the snake. But her plan backfires, and instead of weakening her enemies, she creates a martyr for their cause. As anger at the man’s death explodes into violence, Sabah must choose between following the Sisters’ strict, secretive code or protecting her family—and no one who disobeys the Sisterhood lives to tell about it.

Spinning Silver meets Assassin’s Creed in A SCARLET THREAD, a 100,000-word adult historical fantasy with series potential that will appeal to fans of Rati Mehrotra’s Markswoman (Asiana series) and Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season.

Bio: I have a medieval studies Ph.D. and recently co-authored a book on medieval history and right-wing extremism (as Amy S. Kaufman).

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Three Ingredients (working title) By Emily Esterson 

Augustin Fortier has magic in his hands. His baguettes taste of love and effort, with an open crumb and crackly crust. Gifted with the “mother” that has been passed down in his family for centuries and the ambition of youth, Augustin is a shoe-in to win the Prix de Baguette. The key to his win? The “mother,” and wheat grown by his farmer friend, Lynette. One summer afternoon, Augustin finds the bakery’s basement door ajar, the lock cut. The “mother,” and his grandmother’s journals of formulas, are gone.

Simon DeNotre, the distant cousin who owns the Paris bakery, thwarts Augustin’s ambition at every turn, forcing him to sell pre-made commercial bread, turning off the ovens, sabotaging Augustin’s efforts to return DeNotre’s into what it had been when his grandmother baked there just after the war—one of the best bakeries in Paris. Was it DeNotre who stole the Mother? Or was it the woman in the yellow raincoat who passes by every day, looks in the window, and sometimes stands across the street just watching?

A combination of Chocolat by Joanne Harris, and Jenny Colgan’s Little Beach Street Bakery, Three Ingredients is about the curse of ambition, the mystery of family, and the magic of bread. The author is a professional writer/editor, holds an MFA in nonfiction, and teaches journalism at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School. She spent two years in France, is an avid baker, and attended the San Francisco Baking Institute.

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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).

BULLETS IN THE WATER by Conor McAnally – contemporary, conspiracy thriller

A senseless murder in his Texas hometown drags disgraced, national journalist MIKE CARSON into the rotting underbelly of historic Taborville and pits him against a powerful group, who know water will soon be more precious than oil. Mike must find the truth behind the murder, face down his failings and beat a murder rap, if he is to make it out of Texas. Taborville is a microcosm of America today, a confluence of venal antagonists, corrupt politicians and corporate greed which threaten the very lifeblood of the city. The truth will be painful for everyone. Can it restore Mike and save the town, or is it much too late?

This book is based on two murders in historic Bastrop, Texas, where we lived for 15 years and on my wife’s experiences as a member of the City Council, during a good ole boy era of casual corruption. This is my first novel. Author Anthony Trevelyan, when reviewing part of the manuscript, placed it somewhere between The Border by Don Winslow and Raylan by Elmore Leonard. I’m an award-winning investigative print journalist, who transitioned to producing television. I have written for TV entertainment in the USA, UK and Ireland. My shows have won 22 major awards including 5 BAFTAs and 5 from the Royal Television Society. I’ve written and performed three one-man shows on Texas history, Irish history and the Mexican American War.

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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).

ESTHER HANADA’S MEGA MANGA MIX-UP by Marianne Robin-Tani

Esther Hanada, 13, will never become a manga artist. 

Not with her strict CFO Japanese mom expecting her to study STEM. And her embarrassing YouTube performance artist Dad, who would make her the laughing-stock of Frida Kahlo High School. If she even gets in. Worse yet, Esther loses a chance to perfect her portfolio—via a mentorship with her favorite manga artist—to her arch-nemesis, Cora Sanchez.

Ready to hang up her drawing tablet for good, Esther discovers her power to magically transport into her own drawings. Which would be an awesome way to meet that hot teen librarian she created. However, Esther finds strange new characters wreaking havoc in her story. And these aren’t her creations—they’re Cora’s.

The mix-up doesn’t end on Esther’s pages. Two of her characters have disappeared into Cora’s manga. The girls have only five days to switch them back and fix their stories before the art school applications are due. As the deadline ticks closer, Esther and Cora must end their rivalry, work together to battle armed guards, scent hunting bots, and Cora’s hypnotizing rock star villain to finish Esther’s story #IRL before it finishes them.

ESTHER HANADA’S MEGA MANGA MIX-UP, a 76K MG fantasy, is SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE meets READY PLAYER ONE.

I’ve published three unauthorized celebrity biographies with St. Martin’s Press, produced and directed an award-winning children’s yoga DVD series. I’m fluent in Japanese and addicted to manga. I’ve never escaped into another world but hope to someday soon.

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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).

Animal Acceptance by Beatrice Vargas

This is not a fairy-tale. She’s no innocent. And there isn’t a big bad wolf.

There are two of them.

Lynne has turned her back on London and a bad marriage, only to be marooned in the Irish countryside by months of torrential rain. Until her cozy isolation is shattered by a long-lost friend, over from the U.S. and keen to saddle her with his companions. Men who barely speak but will calmly install themselves, first in her house and then in her bed. Men who turn out to be exactly what they seem. 

Not the moon-cursed transmutation, obviously. They get mad if you even say that word. Their kind is real, whether they like it or not. No fur, no sudden fangs. Because a man who truly embodies the spirit of a wolf is tall, lean, silent and mysterious. Formidable, but interesting. Always on the lookout for food, and sex. Meet Lou and Johnny.

Lynne may not know their secret, yet she knows exactly what she’s doing when she takes them on. It’s fun. But how will she keep this quirky ménage intact when the outside world, and the weather, insist upon intruding? And what will happen when she discovers their true nature, and their ulterior motive?

Literary with a paranormal streak, this is a story for women raised on Angela Carter, who relish dark and dangerous masculinity but would prefer it tempered by a modern sensibility. Instinctive, consensual, the way it is out there, in the forest.

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The Honeycomb by Jordan Donald 

How far will you go to belong?  That’s the question that plagues Jake, an athletic, reluctantly sensitive, average, white, high school student, who feels like a puzzle piece that doesn’t match.  Trying to be a loyal friend, his friend Jamie’s comments on race and sexuality become harder to ignore.  Then, during an English class, and under Jamie’s relentless pressure, Jake does something he will never be able to undo.

On the school football team, and surrounded by a group of friends that have been together forever, Jake seems to have what every student wants.  Well, what every student thinks they want.  A place they fit. 

However, an intentionally disruptive decision puts Jake in close quarters with Fatiha, a victim of Jamie’s attacks.  Fatiha’s profound insight, born from her experience of growing up Muslim in a white area, has Jake questioning what it means to be white, to have privilege, and to be silent.

Tension builds as Jake begins to understand why he has never felt like he belonged, and what it will take to change that.  Finally discovering the courage to confront Jamie, Jake becomes Jamie’s new target.

Jake has two choices – both have a cost.  Repair his friendship with Jamie, but lose who he’s becoming, or trust Fatiha and step onto a new path, risking everything he’s known.

The Honeycomb is a YA novel based on my experiences as a white Canadian discovering what it means to be truly human.

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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).