Category: Pitchapalooza pitches

Deborah Henely
Last Chance, Texas by Deborah Henely
Last Chance, Texas has the highest literacy rate in the state and it may have been due to the unusual influence Ms. Hatty, the librarian, had over the small town. When the lovely old library burns to the ground, along with Ms. Hatty, her influence extends beyond the grave with the last nine books left in a box. Each book was earmarked by a sticky note with the recipient’s name.
The nine books are random, from a grimy copy of the Grinch who Stole Christmas for the town’s playboy, to Coding for Dummies for the brilliant Computer Analyst who consulted for Dell Industries. She indicated Marley and Me to go to an irascible old coot who hated dogs, and a copy of The Art of French Cooking to a cowgirl who couldn’t boil water. Persuasion, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Like Water for Chocolate, and John Addams were the rest of the books, all for specific people and Ms. Hatty’s unfathomable reasons.
The entire town starts a reading frenzy, to ascribe meaning to her wishes. Meanwhile, the true reason the library was destroyed becomes all too clear when the governor’s office announces plans for the East/West Corridor, cutting directly through Last Chance. It will erase the town, and give anyone with large adjoining acreages millions of dollars in an eminent domain deal.
Ms. Hatty, with her Democratic Party influence and political clout, would have stood in the way of the Corridor Deal.
She had to go.
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March 1, 2017
Tegan Whalan
Swallow & Popjoy by Tegan Whalan
London, 1814: Young 14-year-old John Popjoy steals a gelding, and is transported to Australia. He works hard, despite receiving little food, and being flogged at every opportunity. John attempts to find freedom – but fails. Hope comes to John when he meets fellow convict William Swallow. William has already escaped from transportation twice, and he is formulating a new cunning plan to return to their home country – and John is part of it.
Based on the true stories of both men, “Swallow & Popjoy” tells the interconnected biographies of the convicts, asking just what motivated the prisoners to make the extraordinary choices that led to one of the most thrilling escapes in Australian convict history.
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017
Hanna Alkaf
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
By the time school ends on Tuesday, Melati Ahmad’s mother has died 17 times.
On the way to school, she is run over by a runaway lorry. During English, she is caught in a crossfire and hit by a stray bullet straight through the chest. At recess, she accidentally ingests some sort of dire poison. And as they peruse their geography textbooks, Melati’s mother is stabbed repeatedly by robbers.
Melati knows she isn’t to blame. It’s the Djinn, scratching at her mind with his wicked, clawed fingers, squeezing the air out of her lungs and pounding urgent tattoos on her heart. It’s only through an intricate web of counting and tapping that she’s able to tame the beast within her and keep her mother safe. That’s the sacrifice the Djinn demands, and one she’s happy to pay.
But it’s 1969, and on May 13th, the already percolating melting pot that is Kuala Lumpur boils over. As the Chinese and Malays wage war against each other, Mel and her mother find themselves separated by a city in flames. And with a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take all of the courage, grit and Beatles songs in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and the Djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.
Based on actual events, THE WEIGHT OF OUR SKY is a young adult novel complete at about 57,000 words.
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017
Elizabeth Brookbank
The Friend by Elizabeth Brookbank
My novel is titled The Friend and is about Pansy, the free-spirited daughter of an Irish revolutionary and a washer woman, and Livvy (short for Olivia), the prim and proper daughter of an English gentleman: two young women from very different backgrounds living in nineteenth century England who fall in love with each other. In a world that views their love as unspeakable and unnatural, Pansy and Livvy want nothing more than to be together. They are able to hide for a while behind the thin veneer of social acceptability provided by the fashion of the time for “romantic friendships” between women. Eventually though, things start to go wrong. Livvy’s parents insist she marry the eldest son of the scheming and social-climbing Mr. John Archibald – not only to get Livvy clear of Pansy, but to shore up the family’s finances and its hold on their historic estate. Forced into a corner by Livvy’s impending nuptials and increasing suspicions about the true nature of their relationship, Pansy and Livvy decide to run away together – to elope to America to start a new life. The night they set for their escape arrives, but Livvy never makes it to the ship they planned to take to freedom. In the wake of her disappearance, Pansy is arrested and charged with her murder…
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017
Gregory Caplan
Incriminated by Gregory Caplan
Bolstered by the notion “confession is good for the soul,” I unburden my conscience in a charismatic & candid memoir about the real justice system titled, Incriminated. A 65,300 word draft is written.
I grew up in middle-class suburbs during the mid-1970s through early 1980s. My conception of justice consisted of elementary, yet misguided, premises: 1. prosecutor = good guy; 2. defense attorney = bad guy. Despite tangential concerns about systematic shortcomings, I believed justice universally prevailed. I became a prosecutor and energetically delivered “justice.” My confidence about earlier suppositions gradually faltered. I was then immersed in a shadowy world of politics & bureaucratic infirmities. I experienced a metamorphosis, and ventured across the proverbial boundary of good & evil, from high & mighty prosecutor to rabble-rousing defense attorney.
I partook in courthouse capers & unsanctioned governmental escapades. Luckily, I preserved copious notes. This “evidence” reveals substantiation for my tumultuous conversion and subsequent reintegration.
Incriminated “serves up” a candid & humorous rendering of justice with conviction in a spirit akin to workplace memoirs such as The Job and A Thousand Naked Strangers. Incriminated welcomes readers to examine quandaries of justice professionals which are overcome through indispensable moments of humor.
I worked nine years as a prosecutor & 10+ years in private practice. I manage a diverse marketing & social media platform, publish a criminal law magazine, & provide guest analysis for KNBC & KABC, EW, & LA Daily News.
Thank you for your consideration of Incriminated.
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017
Leann Daniel
The Anger Album by Leann Daniel
Seventeen-year-old songwriter, Andie Lund, has spent a good deal of her life engaging in face time with a variety of anger management therapists. So when it seems Andie has met her match with Dr. Jay Dickson, she makes it a personal challenge to contest everything he says or does. That is until she’s forced to join sides with the shrink or risk her entire career falling through.
Andie’s band has a distribution deal lined up with Strange Angels Entertainment in Los Angeles, if they can write and record an entire album in a month’s time. To get her father to agree on letting her pursue this opportunity before she’s eighteen, Andie must first strike a deal with her therapist stating that she will retire her iron fists and produce an effective anger journal so she might win her freedom from the shackles of therapy. But when the root source of all her anger begins to unveil itself in the form of an unexpected classmate, Andie must try and cope with these new truths without losing her temper, her career, or (most importantly) herself.
THE ANGER ALBUM is a 96,000-word literary young adult novel told alongside Andie’s lyrics from each song written throughout the story. It will perhaps appeal to readers of Jesse Andrews and Tara Kelly, and anyone who appreciates a taste for music and a bit of humor as well.
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017
Jaclyn Reiswig
Second Life by Jaclyn Reiswig
Wes Hastings was just another of her British actor make-believe boyfriends. She never expected she’d actually meet him—on the Tube, of all places.
She never expected their train to explode moments later.
Her dream trip to London morphs into a nightmare. She’s injured, stranded underground in the smoking ruins of the car. Alone, except for one familiar stranger. Turns out it’s easier to see your celebrity crush as a real person when he’s bleeding to death. Bombings are great for perspective.
He’s not Wes Hastings the actor anymore. He’s the brave man showing her how to hold it together. She has basic first aid training. He has a dark sense of humor. They have each other—but his time is running out.
Help finally arrives in the form of a medic, who gives her a terrible choice: she can watch Wes die, or risk her life on a chance to save him.
Even if they both survive, moving on without him may prove a more difficult challenge. They’ll be separated by an ocean, by his fame—by her integrity.
And he never even got her name.
SECOND LIFE is a 70,000 word contemporary romance. I earned my BA in English with a concentration in writing, and am lucky to stay home with my two kids. SECOND LIFE is my debut novel, but I am an experienced pro at crushes on British actors.
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Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be awarded the “Fan Favorite,” and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
March 1, 2017

N.L. Nelson

Life is Like A Free Throw by N.L. Nelson

“Someone just killed my sistah!” The year is 2004, and fear fills the back alleys and parks of Washington DC. Night clubs close and children go in hiding. Rumors surface that the organization Blue is behind the rebuilding of Shade. And just when girlz finally find a good man, the road house boyz rise again.

Banker by day, baller by night. 31 year old, Treshawn D. Brown has only one goal; to get back on the basketball court and represent the Minnesota Timberwolves. With the help of his friends, club bouncer Derek Walker and auto mechanic Xavier Rush he may get a second chance, to fix a costly mistake that sidelined his career two years ago.

If he can just hide his 2 year relationship with his flamboyant lover Spencer Johnson, avoid his nemesis Anthony Singletary, and reveal the cryptic messages of Men of Twilight, then certainly he can get one more shot at the pro circuit.

LIFE IS LIKE A FREE THROW is the first novel by author N.L. Nelson. This journey explores men who love basketball, other men, and a good back alley brawl. Anyone who has a dream, will want to follow the exploits of Treshawn and his boyees as they try to follow their destiny, get their man, and make DC proud.

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

March 1, 2017

Mica S. Kole

The Goddess Candidate by Mica S. Kole

The day eleven Signposts fell out of the sky, Devon Lamont’s main concern was hiding makeup from her fundamentalist father. But when one of these fiery Signs appears outside her high school, Devon becomes one of the first people to read the strange words burned into the ground all around it: Walk through fire… and become God.

A day later, a Portuguese bartender films himself touching the Sign, crossing dimensions, and meeting angels, and the world learns that the Signs are no hoax. God is dead, and His post is up for grabs… or Satan’s got a trick up his sleeve.

But none of this matters to Devon. Touching the Sign would mean an end to her carefully cultivated double life as popular girl and pious child… and she’d rather be kissing Corey, a semi-mysterious, nerdy guitarist. But Corey has an otherworldly secret, and he—as well as half the modern world—thinks it’s worth severe burns to turn into a deity. Even worse, Devon’s father sees the flame-protected Sign as an opportunity to prove his family’s faith… and it is this steadfast devotion that could burn Devon’s world to the ground.

At 72,000 words, THE GODDESS CANDIDATE is a contemporary YA LGBTQ fantasy that explores the various effects of religion on the human capacity for tolerance and love. It pairs Kiera Cass’s THE SELECTION with the modern-day darkness and diversity of Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS. It is intended to kick off a series.

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

March 1, 2017

Joseph Dalton

Parties for a Purpose: Hope Ridings Miller & the Golden Age of Washington Society by Joseph Dalton

There was a time in Washington when our leaders acted with dignity and mutual respect. As a result, things got done. Formal dinners and other high society events had something to do with that. Politicians found it harder to attack each other by day when they were breaking bread together by night.

Reporting on the serious business of Washington parties through five administrations, from FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s Great Society, was the journalist and author Hope Ridings Miller. She arrived in DC at age 28, a small town girl with big ambitions. Five years later she became Society Editor of the Washington Post.

Miller was welcomed as a guest at countless state dinners, embassy receptions and private affairs — gatherings where teacup talk could make or destroy careers. Her columns were a must-read for Washingtonians who wanted to know what was really going on.

In the biography Parties for a Purpose: Hope Ridings Miller & the Golden Age of Washington Society readers are escorted into the Capital’s regal mansions and elegant salons. Included are personal observations on the First Ladies; unpublished letters from the famed hostesses Evalyn Walsh McLean, Cissy Patterson and Perle Mesta; and intimate conversations between Miller and her fellow Texan and great patron Speaker Sam Rayburn.

Author Joseph Dalton is an award-winning journalist, also Miller’s younger cousin. Before her death Helen Thomas contributed the Foreword.

Utilizing both charm and discretion, Hope Ridings Miller reigned over Washington society. Parties for a Purpose tells how she did it.

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

March 1, 2017