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Pitch Wars 2017 Team Interviews: Kerri Keberly with mentor Laura Brown & Kimberly Vale with mentors Rebecca Sky and Stacey Trombley

Wednesday, 13 September 2017  |  Posted by Brenda Drake

Our mentors are editing, our mentees are revising, and we hope you’re making progress on your own manuscript! While we’re all working toward the Agent Showcase on November 1st-7th, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2017 Pitch Wars Teams.

And now, we have . . .

Kerri Keberly – Mentee

Website | Twitter

 

Laura Brown – Mentor

WebsiteTwitter

 

Kerri, why did you choose to submit to Laura?

Oh boy, where do I start? Laura had so many things on her wishlist that matched up with my manuscript, that I nodded my head the entire time I was reading her bio. One, thanks to her Once Upon A Time obsession, she was down for light fantasy. Two, she’s a sucker for second chance romances. Three, she was onboard with beta heroes. She’s also a plot hunter, which I was really excited about because I’m a fan of killer plot lines, and, of course, I want my book to be tight and right. Plus she nailed it on the PitchWars Live Show. After that, I knew she was the mentor for me: Honest but constructive with a sense of humor that could withstand all my cheesy pun-liners. So happy to be on #TeamDionysus!

Laura, what do you love about Kerri’s manuscript?

Her concept snagged me from the beginning. I loved the concept of Greek gods working in a business type atmosphere and interacting with our world, especially when romance is involved!

Kerri, summarize your book in 3 words.

Cupid’s last chance

Laura, summarize Kerri’s book in 3 words.

Eros plays cupid

Kerri, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your MS unique?

*taps mic* I’m a master at Domestrickery, I live in Michigan with my husband and son, and I love all things Greek mythology. I’m a freelance advertising copywriter, drink way too many iced coffees for my own good, and am currently trying to talk my husband into getting another cat. Also, in the third grade, I hid my glasses in the linen closet and told my mother a ghost had stolen them. See? I’ve been telling wild stories pretty much my whole life… Too bad I didn’t realize until much (much) older I should probably write them down.

As for my MS, it all started one day while I was flipping through one of my many Greek mythology books. I’d just read a novel that had an office romance trope and when I got to the story of Eros and Psyche, some intriguing thoughts popped into my addled brain: What if the God of Love had a day job, and what if he almost lost it? And how ironic would it be if he had a broken heart? I started writing Business of Love the next day. It’s a fresh twist on the Greek gods thing with dual plot lines and a snark-filled (mortal) enemies-to-lovers office romance nestled in the middle. Yes, I am insane. Why do you ask?

Laura, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.

I met my husband through a high school theater program.

 

Next up is . . .

Kimberly Vale – Mentee

Website | Twitter

 

Rebecca Sky – Mentor

Website Twitter

 

Stacey Trombley – Mentor

Website | Twitter

 

Kimberly, why did you choose to submit to Rebecca and Stacey?

Rebecca and Stacey are both experienced Pitch Wars mentors who have shown fierce dedication to the contest. I knew they were interested in high-concept manuscripts as well as unique twists on cliche tropes, and I thought my pirate fantasy fit the bill. My biggest deciding factor in submitting to Rebecca and Stacey was knowing how devoted they are to their mentees. To me, they were looking for an author, not just a book they enjoyed or thought might do well in the industry, and that relationship was most important to me.

Rebecca and Stacey, why did you choose Kimberly’s manuscript?

Her book really stood out to us both. We loved the concept, dark tones, and great writing! It had a mixture of marketability, unique concept, strong voice, and great characters. We were sucked into it and even forgot we were reading for PW instead of just pleasure reading. Who doesn’t like a crew of all girl pirates saving the day?!

Kimberly, summarize your book in 3 words.

Pirates. Heroines. Magic.

Rebecca and Stacey, summarize Kimberly’s book in 3 words.

Kickass Girl Pirates

Kimberly, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your MS unique?

I am an educator, a wife, and a mother of two young children that look nothing like me. I’m a Slytherin with a fox patronus and enjoy bringing elements of Harry Potter into the classroom as often as I can. I consider myself to be very self-sufficient–teaching myself how to play guitar, how to control my lisp, and how to write.

While writing BONE CROWN, my goal was to create young women who stood strong despite their weaknesses and faced their struggles and enemies with wicked smiles. The world is Caribbean-inspired with a diverse cast of characters and a unique mythology and magic system. Did I mention there is an all-girl pirate crew?

Rebecca and Stacey, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.

Rebecca: I dropped out of a creative writing diploma because I was too afraid to share my work. A few years later I have a book deal. Go figure. Oh and I’m also scared of zippers.

Stacey: I’m currently a stay at home mom of a two year old and Rottweiler but am now taking classes to become a poker dealer!

 

Our mentors’ latest releases…

THE LOVE CURSE: ARROWHEART by Rebecca Sky (June 14th 2018 from Hodder Children’s Books/Hachette UK)

If you want to pre-order it I’ll love you forever (and keep your receipt as I’ll be doing some epic giveaways!)

Amazon

What if you had the power to make any boy fall in love with you? Addictive romance with a fantasy twist for fans of Holly Smale, Ally Carter, and Zoe Sugg.

The gods are gone. 
The people have forgotten them.
But sixteen-year-old Rachel can’t forget – the gods control her life, or more specifically, her love life.

Being a Hedoness, one of a strong group of women descended from Greek God Eros, makes true love impossible for Rachel Patel. She wields the power of that golden arrow, and with it, the promise to take the will of any boy she kisses. But the last thing Rachel wants is to force someone to love her . . .

When seventeen-year-old Benjamin Blake goes undercover to investigate disappearances that link back to the Hedonesses, Rachel’s world collides with his, and her biggest fear becomes a terrifying reality. She’s falling for him – a messy, magnetic, arrow-over-feet type of fall.

Rachel distances herself, struggling to resist the growing attraction, but when he gives up his dream of being an officer to help her evade arrest, distance becomes an insurmountable task. With the police hot on their trail, Rachel soon realizes there are darker forces hunting them – a group of mortals recruited by the gods who will stop at nothing to preserve the power of the Hedonesses – not to mention Eros himself, who is desperate to reverse the curse . . .

Rachel must learn to do what no Hedoness has done before – to resist her gift – or she’ll turn the Ben she’s grown to love into a shadow of himself … for ever.

 

 

FRIEND (WITH BENEFITS) ZONE by Laura Brown

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

I’m ridiculously attracted to my best friend.

Today is a bad day. The worst actually. After dealing with the constant manhandling that comes with being a cocktail waitress at a dive bar and surviving a date from hell, I see an eviction notice slapped on the door of my sketchy basement apartment. Great.

When my best friend Devon shows up at my door and uses his stubborn charm (emphasis on stubborn) to get me to move in with him, I give in. We’ve had about a million sleepovers since we met in the kindergarten Deaf program, but this time it’s different because I can’t stop thinking about his hard body covering mine, every single night.

I know Devon would do anything for me, but I’m afraid what I want to happen will ruin our friendship forever. And the more time we spend together in close quarters, the harder it’ll be to resist the spark of attraction I’ve always felt. But maybe it’s possible to have the best of both worlds: keep the one relationship I can’t live without and indulge in an attraction I can’t deny.

I guess the only thing we can do is try…

 

NAKED by Stacey Trombely

Get Naked here: Amazon

A teenage prostitute returns home to escape her past and be “”normal”” again but someone has followed her home and it’s only a matter of time before her secrets are exposed.

The best place to hide is in a lie…

I could never fit in to the life my parents demanded. By the time I was thirteen, it was too much. I ran away to New York City…and found a nightmare that lasted three years. A nightmare that began and ended with a pimp named Luis. Now I am Dirty Anna. Broken, like everything inside me has gone bad.

Except that for the first time, I have a chance to start over. Not just with my parents but at school. Still, the rumors follow me everywhere. Down the hall. In classes. And the only hope I can see is in the wide, brightly lit smile of Jackson, the boy next door. So I lie to him. I lie to protect him from my past. I lie so that I don’t have to be The Girl Who Went Bad.

The only problem is that someone in my school knows about New York.

Someone knows who I really am.

And it’s just a matter of time before the real Anna is exposed…

 

Thank you for supporting our Pitch Wars Teams! The Agent Showcase is November 1-7, and our next #PitMad is December 1st!

 

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