Category: 2021 NaNowrimo

You Treat Me to A Feast: If I Love You, I’ll Feed You by Chelle A. Carter-Wilson

Call me a djeli.

My Daddy was dark chocolate, a fire-filled, afro-adorned Baptist preacher, card-carrying member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and Princeton-educated theologian, fully aligned, with zero contradiction. He married a caramel-colored, college-educated woman born in the segregated American South, steeped in faith. I am the full inheritor of their best gifts. Raised in a home where social justice was a Christian value, Jesus had always been radical, and Black was beautiful, Black Liberation was never part of my theology, Black Liberation was my theology. Made in the perfect, precise Image of God, how could the Divine be anything besides Black like me?

Well, I once refused to eat a chicken because its feathers were black.  

Gifts, insights, and privilege notwithstanding, I remain watchful. Fail to be vigilant, and you no longer require an oppressor. You internalize the poison that racism is, and fully unaware, administer it routinely to yourself. 

A pieced quilt, my legacy is indelibly imprinted by the laying on of every forefather and mother’s holy hands. I am my ancestors’ wildest dream; genetically African yet American by birth, descended from royalty and enslaved by colonizers, I am the great-great-granddaughter of the captured, never conquered. 

Part psalm, part prose, some spun magic, this 40k word memoir is a spoken word performance – Bread & Wine meets Soul Food. Spirit-divination, spice, and Grace, these stories decode my faith, family food, and our cultural traditions, along with the lessons they taught me.

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Dead Man Walking by Sienna Leaver 

Death has been conquered. Dresno Tech, the world’s largest tech company, has done the impossible: They can predict exactly when you’re going to die. Their technology — the Death Date — gives you a three day alert. It’s just enough time to say your goodbyes and finish any unfinished business…

Will Raisan does not think three days is enough time. When he receives the alert, he panics. He’s only eighteen. His life has just begun. Still, he has no choice but to accept it. When the dreaded three days are up… nothing happens. His Death Date is wrong. The dates are never wrong. His miraculous case catches the attention of Dresno Tech CEO herself. He’s a glitch in their system. That makes him a weakness, a mistake. In response, they offer Will a colossal sum of hush money if he agrees to go with them and answer a few questions. How can he say no?

But as soon as he arrives, Will can tell something is wrong. The other people there — the other glitches — are treated as prisoners, while he’s treated as an esteemed guest. And when he meets a girl named Nine, he knows something is wrong. She drops him clues that have him digging around in the past of Dresno Tech. The more he learns, the more he knows he has to escape — before he loses everything on a gamble that could kill everyone.

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A Little Bit Yours by Anna McClain

In Eastern California, Rowan, the image of perfection at Bayville Highschool, finds herself lost when her parents announce they’re divorcing. The world already seems to be falling apart, but gets worse when her best friend and girlfriend of two years, Alana, tells her she’s been cheating on her for two months and has to leave her before anyone else gets hurt. Just as Rowan is thinking of giving up completely, she meets a mysterious girl at a coffee shop who takes her on the adventure of her life. This story tells the narrative of thousands of girls in the real world living through heartbreaks and questioning how to survive high school. Rowan has to learn to test her own limits and change how she sees the world, her place in the world. Every teenage girl eventually has to learn how to define herself not by her traumas, but by her own terms.

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It Takes Two to Tidy by Jessica Lin

Josh Tan needs to finish the latest album he’s producing. Instead of putting on his headphones and making beats, he’s faced with dusty vinyl records that need to be cleared out of his beloved father’s office after his unexpected death. With his sister busy with a newborn and his mother’s own grief and declining health, he has to get the family house ready for sale. He’s working through his grief with his therapist, but he needs help getting rid of cherished mementos that won’t fit in his small apartment. 

Enter Shelly Chou, a professional organizer who has never met a problem she can’t solve and file away in her color-coded binder. But she wasn’t expecting to bond with her latest client over green tea and their shared experiences growing up with immigrant Chinese American parents. They begin sorting through boxes, photo albums, and memories together, but images of Josh’s strong arms begin popping up in her dreams.  

Falling for a client is definitely NOT part of her five-year plan. Her parents thought she was mad for leaving a stable job to start her own business. Armed with her trusty label maker, Shelly knows she can expand her client base and do it all on her own. But what will she do when she’s confronted by someone who’s definitely sparking joy (and then some)?

IT TAKES TWO TO TIDY is Marie Kondo meets SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. IT TAKES TWO TO TIDY is a 50,000-word contemporary romance with two Chinese American protagonists.

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The Tsarina of Snow by Lizzie Joy Broschat

Once, there was an empress. After losing her crown and her family to a country that ran red with the blood of revolution, she let her spirit be consumed by the cold of winter until all she could remember was her wish to find her beloved son. 

Once, there was a little boy. All he had ever wished for was a home, a place of warmth and comfort, a place where he didn’t have to worry about whether or not food would be on the table every day. And he seemed to get his wish handed to him on a silver platter in the form of a lovely lady dressed in snowflakes and jewels.

Once, there was a mother. Like any other, her only wish was to protect her little boy. If that meant she had to venture through Denmark in the dead of winter in search of a mythical queen, then she was prepared to do that.

Sometimes, a wish can go too far. It can take you deep into the frozen wilderness or into a cold, dark sleep. Sometimes it can turn you into something you never wanted to be. But this is an “other times” story as much as it is a “sometimes” story. Because other times, a wish can also be the one to pull you into the light.

The Tsarina of Snow is an Upper Middle Grade Historical Fantasy which retells Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen in 32,500 words.

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Patriot Girl of Mt. Rose by Peggy Ballman

Ten-year old Elizabeth Stout is a proud Patriot who lives in a village near Princeton, in the colony of New Jersey.  While her father and brothers are fighting the British, Elizabeth gladly does her part to help manage their farm.  As the Revolutionary War drags on, her one place to escape are the sprawling rose gardens behind their barn, and with her grandfather’s help, her gardening talents grow.  In evenings when villagers gather to share news, Elizabeth feels their grief and worry and longs to do more for the Patriot cause. “Girls can’t help in war!” she’s teased, but Elizabeth wishes with all her heart it could be different.

Now the war is ending and Elizabeth’s family is reunited at home. When the Continental Congress moves to Princeton, her father receives a visit from his former commander, Colonel Alexander Hamilton. Elizabeth learns that while war may be over, the challenges are just beginning for an independent America. Soon she discovers there is still time to help the Patriot cause — and one of its greatest heroes – even when it happens in the most unexpected ways.

Patriot Girl of Mt. Rose is first in a series for middle graders based on the folklore of the Sourland Mountains of New Jersey. As the 250th anniversary of America approaches in 2026, Sourland Mountain stories offer engaging new tales of childhood life during the Revolution. Next in the series is Legend of the Unionville Schoolhouse.

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THE WRITING JOURNEY by Hannah Sharpe

I am seeking representation for my novel, THE WRITING JOURNEY, an intricately plotted contemporary women’s fiction that encompasses adventure, romance, and a bit of suspenseful intrigue. This novel is “Eat, Pray, Love” meets “James Bond”, and will appeal to fans of “Little Fires Everywhere”, and “The Girl on the Train”. The completed manuscript, at 75,000 words, details the impulsive decision of Andrea, an aspiring author, as she follows a stranger onto a plane to a mysterious destination.

Andrea wants to be a published author. But she’s held by a trap of writer’s block and anxiety. She must escape before she becomes stuck in a mundane future. But is an irrational decision that leads to an irreversible leap of faith the solution? Andrea believes so, when she finds herself in a perfectly plotted adventure, with newfound friendships and romance. Perhaps it’s unfolding too well though, like a well-developed novel.

Andrea’s attention to detail has her questioning whether truth and her reality align. To stop living in fear, she pushes her instincts aside and lets herself fall for strong friendships and an enthralling romance. But inevitable circumstances force her to decide what role to play in her own life. As secrets are revealed, Andrea’s left confused, while finding clarity in herself.

This book navigates unlikely connections, mental health, hope for change, and life beyond an unrelenting pandemic. I understand familial struggles that cause anxiety and lead to unstable relationships. As a MSN, RN I understand mental health, and shifts in viruses.

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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).

she becomes death by Marissa Goldstein

Arsenia wears the dead on her skin. To honor them, to remember them. A scar to maintain a shred of her dwindling humanity. Each life she takes brings her one step closer to becoming a Shadow, an ancient syndicate of mercenaries that was founded by her ancestors. But Arsenia lacks the blood lust her family members seem to crave despite her conditioning since she was a young child. She has two weeks before the Confirmation, when she is to take her Oath of Silence and make the ultimate sacrifice to become a Shadow, a sacrifice she was not supposed to know of until it is revealed by the Elders. When Arsenia hears the whispers that she will be ordered to slaughter her twin sister, she defies them. She is sentenced to the Pit, to repent for her disobedience. It is only in the Pit where she enters the Rites of Death, a ritualistic game of survival that was thought to have ended a generation before her. The longer she survives the Rites of Death, the more she wonders what kind of life she is really fighting for and what will become of her if she wins.

she becomes death is a coming of age story during the darkest of circumstances. she becomes death is a 50,000 word New Adult thriller prequel novel.

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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).

American Playground, a novel by Michael Shokrian

How a 7-year old Iranian kid moved to LA with only one word of English and learned everything he needed to know to become an American on the battlefield of a suburban playground.

Once the tetherball king of his school in Tehran, Mishel Manoucherian, is immediately singled out for being brown and quite possibly Mexican. He becomes the newest member of the downtrodden boys known as the Nons.  Mishel plots to get in with the Pros – long haired, carefree kids who rule the playground, radiating the casual essence of 70’s California Cool.  Mishel knows who he wants to be; but can he first admit who he is?

At home, Mishel watches nervous breakdowns happen daily in his family. Mama clings to superstitions, family recipes, defying bourgeois LA while Baba absents himself seeking the Amrikayee Dream. Will they ever find their place in the American landscape? And at what cost? Mishel turns to an unlikely mentor for advice: Bugs Bunny. What a maroon.

 Classic coming-of-age narrative wrapped in an immigrant family’s struggle to fit into American life, played out via the hardnosed hierarchies of the asphalt jungle.  Mishel’s tragicomic encounters recall Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle– with a Persian twist, alongside Iranian-American classics like  Porochista Khakpour’s Sons and Other Flammable Objects and Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni. Imagine those books with a wise-cracking rabbit guiding the way: “Don’t take life too seriously, kid. You’ll never get out alive!” That’s American Playground.

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Snobs & Silly Mothers by Julia Henkelmann

Being Jane Austen’s most well-known (and, well, bitchy) romantic hero surely is the easy life. Except that most of what Fitzwilliam Darcy had to say ended up on the floor of the cutting room.

So what exactly did Miss Elizabeth tell him on those walks in Rosings that sounded like “please drop by and propose already”? And how did it come about that he visited his sister just days before she was about to ruin her life by eloping with her childhood friend and all-round scoundrel?  

For that matter, how was Darcy‘s life and personality influenced by growing up next to a cheat, liar and budding adulterer, watching even his own father being taken in by the little blighter? 

And talking about a lack of perception, how does he deal with having a best friend whose routine in any new place is „make himself acquainted with everybody of higher status than the green grocer – acquire invitations to the next village dance – immortally fall in love with the resident ‘most beautiful women I have met in all my life’ who, on a good day, will _not_ turn out to be closely related to the green grocer”  ? 

And how did the resulting Jerk With a Heart of Gold experience his encounter with yet another determined mother on the hunt and her gaggle of daughters?

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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).