Category: Pitchapalooza pitches

Serenity’s Fire: The Story of A Mandalorian Legend by Éowyn Power

Mandalorian.

Syrynyty ‘Ryn’ Gristine tentatively considers herself one. But she was rejected from the creed when she tried to run away from her own destiny. 

When she tried to be a coward.

After her attempted escape from her own planet, she was exiled. Forever. 

Mandalorians do not run, they told her. Especially from themselves. They stand firm, and fight until every last ounce of strength is exhausted.

Bounty hunter.

That’s all Ryn is now. Out of guilt, she picked up the Mandalorian customs again, hiding her face under a helmet that she is never supposed to take off in front of a living being, and carrying Mandalorian weapons that she purchased in the black market. 

She lives as the Mandalorian she might never be.

Companion.

Ryn becomes a friend to someone for the first time when she meets a former stormtrooper named Nate. Relieved to finally confide in someone after years of brutal loneliness, Nate’s kindness and candor win her over, and Ryn’s gritty warrior’s heart is softened by love.

Assassin.

Soon, Ryn is given the hardest mission she has ever received. Orders to assassinate the most dangerous murderer in the universe. A killer who has ravaged whole civilizations, leaving wildfires of destruction in the wake of her rabid rage for power. 

Will Ryn prove herself to the Mandalorians and become one of them once again?

Will she shatter under the burden bearing down on her shoulders, threatening to crush her?

Or will she give everything up… for love?

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Operation Polar Revenge by Tara Erredge

Ever since his conservationist parents were mauled to death by a polar bear, Andrew’s grief has frozen his heart into a block of arctic ice. Since that time he and his younger brother, Steven, have been raised by their feisty southern grandma, a.k.a.: The Great G. 

Both brothers traveled different paths as they navigated the agony of their loss –  and now seventeen-year-old Andrew is back up in the Churchill, Canada region under the guise of continuing the noble work of his parents through a high-school mentorship program. But while average high school juniors have been taking classes, scouting out colleges, and binge-watching the latest shows on Netflix, Andrew has been developing a dark plan to avenge the untimely death of his parents. 

When his first attempt at vengeance results in a narrow escape from an enraged polar bear, Andrew inadvertently lets news of his close call slip while on the phone with his family. Madder than a cat getting baptized, Andrew’s grandma stops everything and makes arrangements for her and Steven to join Andrew in Canada, unknowingly shattering Andrew’s secret plans. But Andrew isn’t the only one at the conservation center who has been conspiring to pull off something unscrupulous. Soon after his family arrives, they are all pulled into a dangerous set of circumstances that leaves them with little chance of survival in a ruthless environment surrounded by merciless criminals. In this Stuart Gibbs Spy School series meets National Geographic mash-up, will Andrew’s hardened heart thaw in time to save those he loves?  

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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).

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GAME SEVEN: Fight to the Finish by James Tretick

No one ever dreamed they would be there: Except the players, and a boy at heart.

11-year-old Jimmy couldn’t believe his watering eyes. It was the fall of 1971, the last inning of the last game his beloved Washington Senators would ever play. Ruined by unruly fans and a forfeit to the Damned Yankees.

Jimmy thought baseball was over for him; except for Scouts and Co-Rec. But in 2005, Montreal couldn’t support a Major League team and, suddenly, the nation’s pastime returned to the Nation’s Capital. Jim was 45 by then; but felt like a kid again. 

The 2019 season, however, seemed to be over before it started. Eight weeks into the season, the Nats were 19-31 with a slew of injuries to starting players. Then on May 24th, the unexpected happened. A renewal, or a revival. The rallying cry for Scherzer and Strasburg, Turner and Soto, Rendon and the rest became, “Go 1-0 today.”

Riding the best team record over the last two-thirds of the season, the Nationals stormed into, and through, the playoffs. Luck won the first game, and perseverance took the rest.

Part game recap, part gut reaction, Game Seven will live in the hearts of Nationals fans for eternity. Climb aboard the bandwagon once again as D.C.-area native James Tretick takes us back to October 2019 as we relive the tales as the Nationals “Finish the Fight.”

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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).

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The Last Thing She Thought by Laurie Feldman

Rachel Chambers is a white, single mother who has spent the last 18 years focused on only one thing – raising her biracial son, Eli.  At eighteen, he is killed during a police encounter leaving Rachel unmoored and barely able to function. After receiving Eli’s battered cell phone from the pathologist, she discovers he had a secret girlfriend, Jamira.  Developing a relationship with her gives Rachel the opportunity to learn more about her son, and feels like a meaningful way to keep him alive, in her heart and in her mind. Jamira introduces Rachel to the Black Lives Matter movement and pushes her to insist on a fair investigation.  Though Rachel struggles with acceptance into the group, eventually her new allies help her to engage with the police commission to hold her son’s killer accountable. She begins a romantic relationship with a BLM member, allowing her to envision a fulfilling future, until she is reminded that justice is elusive.  Rachel is then faced with a cruel choice: abandon her quest and invest in a life without Eli or go outside the system to hold law enforcement responsible. She decides she must sacrifice her own life in order to the hold the policemen responsible for her son’s death to account. Rachel’s solution is to detonate a suicide vest at the police station with Eli’s killers in the room.

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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).

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American Fledgling by Kirkley Mehndiratta

I guess that the best way to tell you my story is to tell you how I came up with the idea for it.  I was inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote about liberty and safety. He said that if you trade liberty for a measure of safety, you end up with neither.  

What if this idea came out of a little-known adventure that Benjamin Franklin experienced well before he was a founding father?

My 80,000-word middle-grade novel, American Fledgling, is an alternate history with fantastical elements. On the night of his kite and key experiment, a witch turns Benjamin Franklin into a turkey. As a turkey, Benjamin has until Thanksgiving day to get the presidential pardon to break the spell. The future of American democracy hangs in the balance.  American Fledgling is ultimately a story about the fragility of democracy and the power one can have—for good or for ill—to shape the course of history.

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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).

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A Cold Night for Alligators by Viggy Parr Hampton

After getting passed over for a promotion yet again, Dr. Archibald Gruber, a seasoned epidemiologist with the CDC, is ready to do whatever it takes to earn what he deserves—even if it means putting himself in danger.

His opportunity to prove his worth arises when the CDC team dispatched to solve a mysterious outbreak in nearby Savannah comes back puzzled and empty-handed. Throwing his usual sense of risk aversion to the wayside, Gruber decides to go rogue and travel to Savannah to solve the outbreak himself.

When his investigation leads him to the sinister, long-abandoned theme park Gullywasher’s of Georgia, Dr. Gruber crosses paths with Sid and Zeb Barkov, a pair of YouTuber brothers intent on filming their exploration escapades inside the notoriously creepy park. Unfortunately for all three, a paranoid drug dealer has made the old park her center of operations, and she’s managed to awaken the unquiet, hungry forces that call the park home.

Inspired by the author’s real-life work as a botulism epidemiologist at the CDC, A Cold Night for Alligators is science-speckled horror debut that showcases the disastrous consequences that can arise when we mess with things we don’t understand.

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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).

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Overcast by R.H. Tyrrel

Dyson Vadas is back for senior year and Leia Valerious is fuming. 

Because Dyson is dangerous.  

Leia has not forgotten the attack on Kaye in 8thgrade. Without enough evidence to convict, charges were dropped and Kaye’s parents moved her across the country. Dyson’s elusive parents moved him too. 

But now, Dyson is back, charming the student body with his half mouthed smile. Dyson, who never eats, never tires, and always smells strongly of sunscreen. And now Leia is stuck with Dyson in not one, or two, but three classes. To Leia’s dismay, and against her protests, Dyson keeps inserting himself into her life. 

Armed with rage, determination, and her best friend Venus, Leia struggles to find the courage to stand up to Dyson and prove Dyson is more than what he seems. 

Midwestern public school can be the 9thcircle of hell or a funky pop song experience depending on the people. Growing up in the early 2000’s and frustrated by society’s justice system, I craved a story where the monster, literally and figuratively is not given any sympathy or romantic musings from the heroine. 

I hold a double BFA in Creative Writing and Acting from the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, 2011. Previous Publications include, Anything But Ladylike, Quite Shorts 2011, Uprooted,Poetry on Buses 2014, Blue Paint, Seattle Fringe Festival 2016, and co-author The Fog Machine Play, 2017, produced by Copious Love Productions. 

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The Color of Trauma by Hollie Smurthwaite

THE COLOR OF TRAUMA, a supernatural suspense novel, is complete at 99,000 words. The book will appeal to readers who enjoy the style and voice of ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE and the pacing and genre combining of Kelley Armstrong.

Kiera Brayleigh is a professional memory reader. Experiencing people’s traumatic memories makes normality impossible, but she’s hoping for functional. Or maybe normal adjacent.

Dean Matthson, a Chicago homicide detective, is troubled by his talent for understanding the worst of humanity. But he doesn’t have time for introspection; he’s hunting a serial killer. At a dead end, he attempts to recruit a memory reader.

Kiera can’t believe what Dean is asking. Only an idiot would peek into a coma patient’s vicious assault memory. Kiera, it turns out, is an idiot. But Dean doesn’t see her that way. Breaking down their boundaries, Kiera and Dean find themselves in an intense affair, but neither is sure they are worthy of love. And both wonder how broken is too broken.

As the pair struggles, the killer discovers Kiera’s involvement, making it a race to find the killer before he finds Kiera.

I won the 2019 Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Manuscript Project contest with THE COLOR OF TRAUMA. I am a member of Off-Campus Writers’ Workshop (OCWW), Sisters In Crime, and the Chicago Writer’s Association.

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Doctor of Doctors by Lally Pia

With a chisel and scalpel I can remove a human head within forty seconds. Three years into my practice of this macabre craft I checked out of this dead end job, applied to medical school, and became a psychiatrist. The heads I work with now talk back to me–––a mixed blessing, at times…  

My memoir, “Doctor of doctors” is a 90,000-word cultural adventure through four continents. It follows the path of an immigrant whose journey is besieged with setbacks. A bungled U.S. green card application separated me from my family. When medical school closed due to political turmoil, the timing could not have been worse. I was forced to leave Ghana and placed in limbo for two years. Later, single motherhood sent me on a sojourn into the depths of the welfare system. This far from rosy start to my life as a naturalized American citizen made me highly skeptical of the prophecy of a Sri Lankan fortune teller, who told my dad that I would become a physician one day.

I hope to inspire other young adults who have wanted to give up when life gets dark. Over 20,000 people online have already viewed my interview of a day in the life of a psychiatrist, and I believe they will be motivated and entertained by the path that led me there. It will also hopefully blast a hole into the concept that our country needs yet another wall.

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Lost to Follow Up by Adele Blackler

Simone Reilly has perfected flying under the radar in her years as a lab technician at BioDesign. While she quietly did her work, she watched her ambitious co-workers ask too many questions of the chief technology officer, Henry Gutter, and be escorted to the door.  Now, her years of acquiescence have paid off. She receives a coveted promotion just as BioDesign is starting its first human trials, and has a lucrative buyout beckoning. 

Simone should be excited to manage the trial, and work with the brilliant Dr. Goddard, who implants the BioDesign brain stimulator in children with cerebral palsy. But her new boss seems to have a pill problem, the nurse who was her conduit for information vanishes, and patients and evidence keep disappearing. When a patient needs emergency surgery, Simone presses for an investigation into the device. But before the investigation can start, Simone’s boss dies under mysterious circumstances, and Simone begins to realize she can’t trust anyone.

Simone races to prove the device is failing before more sick kids are put on the operating table, but is faced with scared families, company lawyers and non-disclosure agreements, and threats against her own life. 

As answers elude Simone, one thing becomes clear. No life is sacred in this trial. 

Adele Blackler has a PhD in Pharmacology and works as a clinical trial manager for a medical device company. Lost To Follow Up is a medical mystery that examines who pays the ultimate price when human clinical trials go wrong.

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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).

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