Welcome to Pitch Wars 2019!! This year, we are mentoring Middle Grade. 
What exactly is Pitch Wars? It’s a mentoring program for unagented writers. You can read more about it here.
We’ll get to our wish list in a moment, but first, a little about us, your potential mentors.
Who are we, and why are we here?
Rajani LaRocca writes middle grade and picture books. She practices medicine and lives in the Boston area with her family and impossibly cute dog. Her middle grade debut, MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM, a foodie Indian-American mashup of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and competitive baking, was published with Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books in June 2019. Her next MG, MUCH ADO ABOUT BATTING, is coming in summer 2021. Her debut picture book, SEVEN GOLDEN RINGS, will be published by Lee & Low Books in Summer 2020. She is represented by Brent Taylor of TriadaUS.
Remy Lai writes and draws stories for kids. She lives in Brisbane, Australia, where she can often be found exploring the woods with her two dogs. Her prose/graphic novel hybrid PIE IN THE SKY, about two brothers who move to Australia and face a language barrier, was published with Henry Holt/Macmillan in May 2019. Her next MG, FLY ON THE WALL, is forthcoming in May 2020. She is represented by Jim McCarthy of Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret.
We are both Pitch Wars 2017 mentees who benefited immensely from our mentors and the Pitch Wars community, and we are SO EXCITED to be paying it forward again as mentors this year! As mentees, we learned a ton, revised our butts off, laughed and cried and commiserated and celebrated together even though we’re literally on opposite sides of the world. Our mentee will get our best advice, our stalwart support, emails, and twitter posts and gifs for good measure. We will help you and root for you during the revision process, through the agent round, and beyond. We hope to forge a lifelong relationship with our mentee, just like the ones that our wonderful mentors share with us.
What’s it like to work with us?
We are #TeamPITA—the concept, not the bread.
We will be Pains In The A** in the best possible way: mentors who give you our best, maybe even painful, suggestions for edits, but who will never tell you what to do. Because your book is your book! Mentors who will listen patiently to your complaints during the revision process, but who will tell you that we know you can do it, so get to it. Mentors who will guide you and hold your hand during the agent showcase, querying, and beyond.
But don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what our mentee from Pitch Wars 2018, Kathryn Powers, has to say:
“Even a year after being chosen, I STILL can’t believe that Rajani and Remy picked me to be their Pitch Wars 2018 mentee. They helped me take my manuscript from a complete mess to a polished novel I was proud of, always pushing me to dig deeper and find the heart of my story. We had a lot of fun together, from brainstorming via group calls to sending each other late-night goofy gifs. But it wasn’t all fun and games, so be warned. Rajani and Remy will make you work HARD—probably harder than you have on any project in your life. But if you keep an open mind and your nose to the grindstone, you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish with Team PITA at your side. I’m forever grateful to call Rajani and Remy my mentors and friends. “
So…what are we looking for?
First, we are VERY interested in working with creators from groups who are traditionally underrepresented in publishing. We’d love to see more diversity in the stories kids get to read.
In general, we are looking for middle grade stories with humor AND heart. We find that the best middle grade has both. Make us laugh and cry, like STAR-CROSSED by Barbara Dee and THE SIMPLE ART OF FLYING by Cory Leonardo. Give us smart kids, like THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin. Give us emotionally rich stories, like CATERPILLAR SUMMER by Gillian McDunn and WHERE THE WATERMELONS GROW by Cindy Baldwin.
There is more to our wish list! To see more of what we want, check out Remy’s blog here.
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