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 starting on February 6, 2019, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2018 Pitch Wars Teams.
Next up, we have . . .
Margaret, why did you choose Bruce?
I loved the voice and fell in love with the main character, Waylon.
Bruce, why did you choose to submit to Margaret?
Margaret said she wanted a story with heart and heart is what I feel TUMBLEWEEDS has.
Margaret, summarize Bruce’s book in 3 words.
Heartbreaking, adorable, surprising
Bruce, summarize your book in 3 words.
Lawnmowers, lies, loss
Margaret, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.
I perform long-form improv!
Bruce, what do you hope to get out of the Pitch Wars experience?
I would like to learn how to transform a decent story into a great story and make it marketable.
Bruce, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your manuscript unique?
In a former life, I was an elementary school teacher. Now retired, I have oodles of time and I spend a lot of it NOT writing.
This book addresses something I often saw as a teacher, children being raised by a grandparent. Initially grateful they would take on rearing a grandchild, I began to question their parenting skills, if the child they raised abandoned their own child.
Through no fault of their own, kids often find themselves in a love/hate relationship with and at the mercy of people raising them. Waylon, my 11-year old MC, is being raised by his grandmother and is in such a position. He is tormented by her gambling addiction, yet fearful he’ll lose her because of her poor lifestyle choices. Oh, and Waylon sells tumbleweeds rather than lemonade.
Check out Margaret Dilloway’s recent release, SUMMER OF A THOUSAND PIES:
A heartfelt contemporary middle grade novel about a girl who must try to save her aunt’s failing pie shop, perfect for fans of The Thing About Jellyfish, Fish in a Tree—and The Great British Baking Show.
When Cady Bennett is sent to live with the aunt she didn’t even know she had in the quaint mountain town of Julian, she isn’t sure what to expect. Cady isn’t used to stability, after growing up homeless in San Diego with her dad.
Now she’s staying in her mother’s old room, exploring the countryside filled with apple orchards and pie shops, making friends, and working in Aunt Shell’s own pie shop—and soon, Cady starts to feel like she belongs.
Then she finds out that Aunt Shell’s shop is failing. Saving the business and protecting the first place she’s ever really felt safe will take everything she’s learned and the help of all her new friends. But are there some things even the perfect pie just can’t fix?
Summer of a Thousand Pies is a sweet and satisfying treat of a novel full of friendship, family, and, of course, pie.
Thank you for supporting our Pitch Wars Teams! The Agent Showcase is February 6 – 11, 2019. If you’re an agent and would like to participate, you must register here: https://pitchwars.org/info-for-agents/.
We hope you’ll join us to support our teams on the Twitter hashtag #PitchWars.
