Manuscript Status: Finished
Mentor: Linsey Miller
Mentee: Rosiee Thor
Title: THROUGH GILDED VEINS
Category/Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction (Own Voices LGBT+)
Word Count: 80,000
Pitch:
When Anna, an outlaw-mechanic, and Nathaniel, the nobleman hunting her, discover the government is behind an epidemic of heart defects like theirs, they must work together to overthrow Nathaniel’s father before he stops all their hearts.
Excerpt:
There was nothing quite like the first tick of a new heart.
The TICCER stuttered to life in Anna’s palm. Its pendulum swung back and forth, a metronome moving in time with her own clockwork heart.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
“Damn.” Grandpa Thatcher threw down his instruments with a clatter.
Anna’s gaze snapped to the surgical table where their young patient lay prone, chest open. “What is it?”
“His condition is more severe than I thought.” Thatcher leaned forward to get a better look. “Glasses.”
Hands shaking, Anna pushed his spectacles back up his nose. Complications in surgery were more common than not, but Thatcher’s desperate tone still hit her at her core. She set her teeth against the memory of the last time the one-armed boy had gone under her knife.
Thatcher pointed with a gloved finger into the boy’s chest cavity. “Tell me what you see.”
Thatcher’s wheelchair demanded a short operating table, so Anna, who was taller even than the boys her age, had to stoop to see properly, struggling to look past the bouncy hair and upturned lips that made the boy more human than patient. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them on rigid, calcified valves and a thickened heart muscle.
“It’s enormous!”
“We’re surgeons, Deirdre-Anne. ‘Enormous’ isn’t an appropriate medical term.”
Anna inhaled through her teeth. “It’s hypertrophic.”
“Good. And what does that mean?” Thatcher’s fingers danced across the instrument tray.
“He needs a TICCER, as you thought.”
Thatcher grabbed the cauterizer in acknowledgement of her correct answer.
He wouldn’t ask her to help.
She didn’t want him to.
So interesting! I’d love to take a look at the full manuscript. Please send it to cmcdonald@maassagency.com, along with the query letter and synopsis, and include “Pitch Wars” in the subject line. Thanks!
Caitlin McDonald
Donald Maass Literary Agency
I would love to dive deeper into this! Would you please send to me as a word doc at reneequery@ktliterary..com. Thank you!
I’d love to take a look at the full manuscript. Please send it as a word attachment to querycaitie (at) lizadawson (dot) com with your query in the email, with the PitchWars request in the subject.
I’m interested in seeing more of this! Please send the query + the first 50 pages (as a word document) to rachel(at)lperkinsagency(dot)com with Pitch Wars: TITLE in the subject line. Thanks!
Yes PLEASE! This sounds fantastic. I’d love to see the query and full manuscript. Please send to Rebecca@reesagency.com, with PITCH WARS REQUEST in the subject line. Thank you!
I’d love to read more! Please send the full manuscript to hjacobson@icmpartners.com Thank you!!
I’d love to read more of this! Please send the full manuscript as a Word doc or PDF to melissa@rpcontent.com, and be sure to put “Pitch Wars” in the subject line.
Thank you!
Melissa Nasson
Rubin Pfeffer Content
I’m very intrigued by this concept and your opening! I’d love to see the full manuscript. Please send it + query + synopsis to LBiagi (at) jvnla (dot) com, with Pitch Wars in the subject line. Excited to read!
I’m defintiely intrigued by this! Please send a query, synopsis and first 25 pages to chquery@mcintoshandotis.com. Please mark “Pitch Wars request” in the subject line. –Christa Heschke
Hi Rosiee, What a great first page! Please send the manuscript and a synopsis as Word doc attachments to queryroseanne@gmail.com with Pitch Wars and Query + title in the subject line. Can’t wait to read!
Roseanne Wells
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency
We’re definitely drawn to the concept and would like to read more. Please send a query with the first 3 chapters to acquisitions@curiosityquills.com with ‘Pitch Wars’ in the subject line.