MENTOR: Elizabeth Penney

MENTEE: Heidi Timmons

TITLE: WISHING GLASS

CATEGORY/GENRE: Women’s Fiction with Romantic and Magical Elements

WORD COUNT: 91,000

PITCH:

In the spirit of A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life, Brielle experiences two possible futures with a charming cowboy and Hollywood actor. She travels the world, torn between Oklahoma and her dream of acting. By night’s end, Brielle must decide which life, and love, she can’t live without.

EXCERPT: 

There was no time better than Christmas to wish for the perfect life. Brielle turned over a worn pebble in her hand and tossed it into the ocean. Hopefully this Christmas her wish would come true. Her cell phone read 7:49 a.m. He would call soon. Any minute she would find out if she would stay for the audition and cancel Christmas in Oklahoma. God, let it be the audition.

Water lapped at her sandals. She closed her eyes against the sun on her face. She had to be at the beach when he called. It was her favorite place in Los Angeles. Brielle came here every morning for the last seven years and tried to find answers in the ocean. Everyone told her breaking into acting was like winning the lottery, but she didn’t listen. It was the only thing she wanted to do. She didn’t have a backup plan.

A seagull flapped in front of her, and she stepped backward into the dry sand. Brielle didn’t just want to be an actress, she wanted to be famous. That couldn’t happen in Sallisaw, Oklahoma with a population of ten thousand. She had kicked the red dirt off her shoes and headed to California. Living in Oklahoma, she’d been flattened into the landscape. In Hollywood, she would stand in the spotlight.

The cell phone rang. It was him. Her lucky bench was a few feet behind. She couldn’t answer it yet.