I was fortunate enough to be selected as a Pitch Wars mentee this year. Pitch Wars is a contest run by the amazing author Brenda Drake in which unagented writers apply to be mentored by established authors. Once the mentors select their mentees in late August, they have 2 months in which to revise their novels and make them shine! Then comes the Agent Showcase in early November, where Brenda posts pitches and excerpts from each of the novels on her blog, and agents take a look at them and ask to read them!
I entered my middle grade novel, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, and I was so lucky to have been selected by my spectacular mentor, Joy McCullough-Carranza. Her edit letter was stupendous — it was so clear that she really got my story. But she also made a huge suggestion, to “kill” a darling character, and asked a bunch of questions that really got to the heart of what my story is about. Revision wasn’t easy; at times it felt like I’d “broken” my novel and didn’t know how to fix it, but with a lot of sweat and time and not a few tears, it ended up so much better than before.
There have been countless success stories in the six years that Brenda has run this contest — stories of writers finding agents, and ultimately publishing their books. But Pitch Wars really is so much more than a contest…it’s a community of writers, a support network and cheering squad that has been so deeply meaningful. I’ve made friends through Pitch Wars that I will treasure for life.
Here’s a link to my Pitch Wars interview with Joy:
Pitch Wars Team Interviews: Rajani LaRocca with mentor Joy McCullough-Carranza
Pitch Wars has been a life-changing experience! More news to come soon!
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