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 . . .
Jessica Sherry – Mentee
Michelle Hauck – Mentor
Jason Hine – Mentor
Michelle and Jason, why did you choose Jessica?
Michelle: Jessica’s book wasn’t not something I’d normally read. It’s got dark themes and the main character is an antihero.There are contemporary elements and a huge piece of the plot revolves around a mystery. But it’s the sort of story that grabs you from the first chapter and never lets you go. Adam is so deserving of a champion and then to find out Jason, my 2017 mentee, felt exactly the same and wanted to co-mentor this great story. I felt like the luckiest person ever when we got a wild card!
Jason: I second what Michelle said. Adam wasn’t the book I’d gone in to #pitchwars looking for–it was the one that wouldn’t let me put it down. Adam explores the darker side of the human psyche, the things we obsess about, but never speak aloud. That in itself would be enough to draw my interest, but it also offers hope that people can change, and really drives that home with the title character.
Jessica, why did you choose to submit to Michelle and Jason?
ADAM didn’t exactly fit either of Jason or Michelle’s wishlists, but I took a chance because they both called for deeply flawed anti-heroes. I felt that Jason’s background in psychology would provide great insight into my mind-reading protagonist. Plus, his successes with Pitch Wars and getting an agent last year encouraged me, since he’d just been through all this himself. Michelle was Jason’s mentor, and her accumulated Pitch Wars success stories assured me of her talent for it and that being a mentor was something she loved doing. With several books and accomplishments between them and both being very knowledgable about a genre that I am new to, I believed that if I could get them in my corner, it would be an awesome win for me and an amazing help for elevating ADAM.
Michelle and Jason, summarize Jessica’s book in 3 words.
Michelle: Compelling layered antihero
Jason: Mindreading pusher redeemed
Jessica, summarize your book in 3 words.
Dark speculative suspense
Michelle and Jason, tell us about yourself. Something we may not already know.
Heather: I have a degree in finance and worked as a cost accountant for five years.
Jason: My wife and I lived apart for seven years while she finished medical school and her residency.
Jessica, what do you hope to get out of the Pitch Wars experience?
A query-ready manuscript and the confidence to put it out there, supportive relationships with other writers, and some street cred.
Jessica, tell us about yourself! What makes you and your manuscript unique?
ADAM is unlike anything I’ve ever written. An edgy anti-hero with a power he misuses for money and pleasure is a giant leap away from my usual good-girl protagonists. I’ve self-published three cozy mysteries in my Delilah Duffy series that have had great reviews and there are more Delilah stories to come, but ADAM catapulted me into a new genre that I’m thoroughly enjoying. What I loved most about writing ADAM is his voice—his honest, but jaded view of the world can be cringeworthy one minute and heartfelt the next. Writing him has felt risky, but beautifully real.
When I’m not going back and forth between protagonists, my motivational blog and website keep me busy. When I don’t want to be busy, I love being home in Wilmington, North Carolina with my family and hanging out at the beach.
Check out Michelle’s recent release, STEADFAST, Book 3 in the Birth of Saints series …
The final novel in Michelle Hauck’s Birth of Saints trilogy, Steadfast follows Grudging and Faithful in telling the fateful story of Claire and Ramiro and their battle against a god that hungers for blood.
When the Northerners invaded, the ciudades-estado knew they faced a powerful army. But what they didn’t expect was the deadly magic that was also brought to the desert: the white-robed priests with their lethal Diviners, and the evil god, Dal. Cities have burned, armies have been decimated, and entire populaces have been sacrificed in the Sun God’s name, and it looks as if nothing can prevent the devastation.
But there are still those with hope.
Claire, a Woman of the Song, has already brought considerable magic of her own to fight the Children of Dal, and Ramiro, a soldier who has forsaken his vows to Colina Hermosa’s cavalry in order to stand by her side, has killed and bled for their cause. Separated after the last battle, they move forward with the hope that the saints will hear their prayers, their families will be saved, and that they’ll see each other once more.
A stirring conclusion to the Birth of Saints series, Ramiro and Claire’s journey finds completion in a battle between evil and love.
BUY BOOK AT:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble
HarperCollins | Goodreads
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.
