Welcome to Team Gumdrop Mountain!
It’s been a long week of reading through all the amazing pitches. Our wonderful readers have narrowed the slush, and your team hosts have chosen seventy pitches for the agent round. To meet the slush readers and hosts go to this post here. And you can find out more about the participating agents on this post here.
For those of you not familiar with Pitch Madness, it’s a contest where agents compete in a game against their peers for pitches and you can find the rules and instructions of the game here.
Our team winners worked so hard on revisions this week, and their pitches, queries, and first chapters are better than ever. I’m co-hosting with the amazing Nikki Roberti! Check out her site and follow her, you’ll be happy you did.
Nikki Roberti
Website | Twitter
YA Contemp author rep’d by @sztownsend81 of @NewLeafLiterary, @BrendaDrake‘s assistant, #PitchWars Mentor, @StarkEditing Query Editor, Awarded Playwright
Scroll down to view all 10 picks for my team and click on the links to each entry …
Middle Grade
H1: Paranormal Adventure with Southern Roots: BOOGERMEN, HOODOO, AND HAINTS
Three Charleston seventh graders with abilities inspired by the proverb “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” must trust their powers and each other to save their favorite teacher from a mythical creature. READ MORE . . .
H2: Mystery: FOOD TRUCKS AND FIREWORKS
When fourteen-year-old aspiring chef Natalie helps family compete on a cooking reality show, she must uncover a nasty saboteur before Boston’s food truck community is ruined—even if that means risking her chance to win. READ MORE . . .
Young Adult
H3: Contemporary: BOOK OF MINIATURES
Art prodigy, Kenan, trades his paintbrush for a tattoo needle and falls for an anxiety-ridden girl. But overcoming the needle and repainting her fears doesn’t mean she’ll ever love him back. READ MORE . . .
H4: Science Fiction: THE LAST RELIC
When a vengeful warlord invades her planet with his cyborg army, Princess Lusi must work with exiled rebels to stop a galactic war and unravel a conspiracy to end her race. FROZEN meets STAR WARS. READ MORE . . .
H5: Dark Fantasy (Own Voices): VITIUM
To resurrect her brother, seventeen-year-old Daniela becomes one of Death’s Aspects: avatars of the Seven Deadly Sins tasked with killing immortals. But failing will transform her from hit-woman to target. KILL BILL meets FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST. READ MORE . . .
H6: Contemporary: ALL THE STARS IN THE OCEAN
Surviving high school trapped on Kauai? Manageable. Avoiding a dangerous stalker? A little harder. Trusting a football star who shattered your heart to be your bodyguard? Downright impossible. PRIDE & PREJUDICE meets GILMORE GIRLS. READ MORE . . .
H7: Contemporary LGBT: A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES
ROMEO AND JULIET with HOUSE OF CARDS twist. Paris seems like the perfect son for an aspiring Republican Presidential candidate, except Paris has a secret: it’s not Julia he wants, but her forbidden boyfriend. READ MORE . . .
H8: Fairy Tale Retelling: EVERY CINDERELLA HAS HER MIDNIGHT
Seventeen-year-old Hazel is the youngest godmother L.A. has seen in eons, but that’s no excuse to fall for her client’s ‘Charming’. After all, she knows fairy godmothers don’t make their own dreams come true. READ MORE . . .
Adult
H9: Contemporary Womens’ Fiction: DESIGNER YOU
Pam checked every box: marriage, kid, career? Check. When her husband dies suddenly and their DIY empire goes on life support, Pam must fix the relationship with her troubled daughter and save the family business. READ MORE . . .
H10: Speculative Thriller: THE NURSERY
When Kenleigh Maize learns a mysterious DNA sequence is the cause of her infertility, she’s invited to participate in a misleading clinical trial. It won’t treat her infertility but may explain the origins of life. READ MORE . . .
Comments are set to moderation so that agents won’t see the other agents’ requests. Please no comments other than those from the agents. After the agent round, we’ll release the moderation and let you all comment on the entries.
We’ll reveal the agent requests on March 17 starting at 4:30 pm Eastern time. All the twitter fun will happen on the hashtag #PitchMadness, where we’ll tweet the results of the agent round.
Join us for the Twitter Pitch Party on March 23 from 8AM to 8PM Eastern time on the hashtag #PitMad. It’s open to everyone!
How do you twitter pitch? You can find all the details here.
A huge HUGE thank you to my team and to the wonderful agents!
Go to all the other hosts’ blogs to read more winning pitches …
Team Ice Cream Sea – http://www.brenda-drake.com/
Team Peanut Brittle House – https://pintipdunn.wordpress.com/
Team Lollipop Woods – https://rebeccacoffindaffer.com/category/blog/
Team Licorice Castle – http://sharonmjohnston.com/
Team Peppermint Forest – http://wadealbertwhite.ca/blog/
Team Candy Castle – http://samanthajoyce.com/
Way-Word Writer 
I’d love to read THE NURSERY!