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Okay, so we think the Pitch-Fest was a pretty rousing success. Sure, there were a few hiccups, and a few deletions, and you know, regular WriteOnCon fun.

We’ve finally got all the votes in, so we can announce! First off, each agent chose a winning pitch from their assigned pitches. Each agent donated a specific prize, and we will be contacting the winners via private email. But for announcement purposes, here’s who won!

Check out these winning pitches to see how they did it!

• Alyssa Eisner-Henkin — #12 The Creation of Hallelujah Calhoun
• Amy Tipton — #5 Sweet Little Lies
• Brianne Johnson — #20 The Summer I Started a Business; Solve a Bank Robbery & Showed up on Cajun Pawn Stars
• Christa Heschke — #13 Mim: A Trinketing Tale
• Dawn Frederick — #10 Odin’s Promise
• Eddie Schneider — #15 Three Wishes
• Jennifer Flannery — #22 Simply West of Heaven and #2 Lilly Petunia, Presidential Investigator.
• Jason Yarn — #9 Battle of the Wonderland Gardens
• Jodell Sadler — #20 Ninchicks: Crossing the Road
• Kathleen Rushall — #4 The Sidewalk’s Regrets
• Logan Garrison — #18 Rogue Healer
• Mollie Glick — #4 What Death Has Touched
• Peter Knapp — #14 The Wrong Side of Sunrise
• Sara Crowe — #12 Chasing Charlie

Congrats to those agent winners! Wondering what to do if your agent seemed to like your pitch, but didn’t request? See this post.

And now… Onto the Mentorship winners! These pitches were selected by book bloggers and agented/published authors. Each person was assigned a specific thread, and each thread was read an equal number of times. We really tried to make this as fair as possible. Our book bloggers and authors selected the following for entrance into our 6-month Mentorship Program. Details and invitations to the private forum will be coming via private email to our recipients.

But they are:

• Flannery, #17: ANNABEL MIST DOES NOT EXIST (MG Contemporary)
• Sadler, #16: HENRY HEARS YOU (MG Contemporary)
• Crowe, #8: LITTLE MISS EVIL (Humorous MG)
• Frederick, #8: FREAK (Gothic YA)
• Henkin, #23: THIS OTHER EDEN (New Adult)
• Garrison, #16: LOST AMONG STARS (YA Science Fiction)
• Crowe, 12: CHASING CHARLIE (MG Mystery)
• Tipton, #20: BLINK (YA Fantasy)
• Heschke, #15: SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW (YA Contemporary)
• Flannery, #9: THE FUNERAL SINGER (YA Contemporary)

Please join us in a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to all our winners, and to everyone who participated in the Pitch-Fest!

FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER YOUR PITCH INTO THE PITCH-FEST.

The submission window is open from now until 8 PM EST on Wednesday, March 13. Please make sure you enter everything correctly on the form. No changes will be made, even if you email us! We simply don’t have the time/manpower to handle such requests and prep the boards for the fest (which begins on Monday, March 18). Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

• Your pitch must fit one of the genres listed in THIS POST. Use the same wording we did.
• Everything you want to know about genres, length of pitch, and how to act during the Pitch-Fest are in THIS POST.

How did it get to be early March already?! It seems like the pitch workshops went so fast, and it’s almost time to get ready to submit that final pitch! With that in mind, we wanted to give you a quick run-through of all the rules.

• Each pitcher can submit one and only one pitch. Pick your best pitch for a finished manuscript. Our agents are looking for great projects that are ready to go. Don’t make them wait, because that makes them sad.
• Once your pitch is submitted, you cannot change it. So please take the time to make sure it’s exactly how you want it and proof the bleep out of it! We have a very short amount of time in which to assign and post these pitches; we quite simply don’t have the time to hunt down and edit individual pitches.
• Your pitch must fit into one of the genres listed here. It’s your responsibility to figure out where your pitch fits best. We’ve tried to keep the genres fairly general to make sure there’s a place for everyone. So things like romance, mystery, and coming-of-age books could fit into the contemporary category. Epic fantasy, urban fantasy, and fairy tale retellings could fit into the fantasy category. And so on.
• Your pitch must be 200 words or fewer. The pitch only includes the parts of your query that talk about the plot, characters, and themes of your book. It does not include the title, word count of the book, genre, or any biographical information you might include in a query. We will ask for title, word count, and genre separately.
• If you did not participate in the forum workshop, you can still submit to the PitchFest.
• We open for submissions at 6 AM EST on Monday, March 11 and close at 8 PM EST on Wednesday, March 13. We will post a link to the submission form on the WriteOnCon website on Monday morning. You must submit your pitch via this form to be included in the PitchFest. You are not automatically entered if you posted in the forums.
• We have a limited amount of spots in the PitchFest, because our agents can only look at so many pitches before their heads start to spin. If we get more pitches than we have space for, we will randomly select the participants. So please don’t feel like you have to get up in the middle of the night to submit your pitches right when we open. It doesn’t matter when you submit, so long as it’s during the submission period.
• We will post the pitches for you. Your pitch will have an agent and number, which we will send to you. The agents will read and comment on every pitch in their assigned group. Each agent will pick their favorite pitch from their group to win a prize. We will also be telling all the agents about pitches that are scoring really well among our blogger and published author voters, so it is possible to get requests from other agents even if you are not in their group.
• During the PitchFest, we ask that pitchers do NOT post in the forums. The purpose of the workshop is to give you the chance to ask all the questions you can to make that pitch awesome. The purpose of the PitchFest is to give agents, bloggers, and writers the chance to advocate for the pitches they love, so we’re limiting posting privileges to voters only. This does not mean, however, that you can’t blog, tweet, tumblr, FB, or whatever. By all means, spread the word and thank your commenters there!
• When it’s all over, we’ll post the winning pitches on the WriteOnCon website, and of course we’ll contact the winners via email!

Do you have any questions about this process that we haven’t answered yet? Drop a note in the comments section, or email us at writeoncon@gmail.com.

Hey there! The Perfect Your Pitch Workshop is winding down. Hopefully you’ve honed your pitch, title, and genre, as none of these can be changed after you’ve submitted them. And that submission window is rapidly approaching!  (It’s not now. It’ll be from March 11 – 13.)

But, you need to know the accepted genres in order to enter your pitch. Well here they are!!

Middle Grade

Historical MG

Humorous MG

MG contemporary

MG thriller

MG science fiction

MG fantasy

Literary MG

MG mystery

Young Adult

YA contemporary

Historical YA

Gothic/Urban YA

Girl-centric YA

Humorous YA

YA thriller

YA science fiction

YA fantasy

YA horror

High-concept YA

Literary YA

YA suspense

YA with elements of magical realism

New Adult

When you get ready to fill out the Google form, you will need to type in one of these genres exactly as you see it here. Please make sure you’ve chosen one of these genres!

You’ll also need to know the title of your work, your name (ha!) and email, and have your pitch ready. Pitches should not be more than 200 words, and should only include information about your book. Word count, author bio, etc. should not be added.

Questions? Ask us now! writeoncon@gmail.com

To celebrate the upcoming 60th anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s iconic classic Fahrenheit 451, the public was invited to design a new cover, which will be featured on the first printing of the 60th anniversary edition. Matthew Owen won the  Fahrenheit 451 cover design contest from Simon & Schuster and the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. I love this idea and wish there were more contests for classic cover redesigns. Maybe then we wouldn’t have covers that leave people a little disgruntled and confused?

The winning cover was revealed at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Owen’s cover beat out more than 360 submissions that were chronicled on this blog. It’s actually fun to scroll through the other entries and see the various interpretations of this classic piece of literature. Simon & Schuster and the Bradbury estate judged the entries.

What do you think? Do you like the new cover?

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl will be hitting the big screen on Valentines’ Day!

Starring Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum, this film is sure to delight fans!

Get ready for the “Perfect Your Pitch” workshop, being held in the WriteOnCon Pitch-Fest forums from February 18 – March 10. We’ll have links, posts, advice, and tips from some of publishing’s top professionals. The direct link to the Expert Board is HERE.

The forums will be open for CRITIQUE during this workshop. This is the time to perfect your pitch, pinpoint your genre, and get ready to submit to the Pitch-Fest (submissions aren’t until March 10! Get the submission form/reminder right in your email inbox by subscribing to our newsletter).

• The YA critique board is HERE.
• The MG critique board is HERE.
• Be sure to chat and meet new friends in the LOUNGE.
• Need your questions answered? Check here first. 

Want to know the agents that are participating? You know you do! We’ve got:

• Alyssa Eisner-Henkin, Trident Literary
• Amy Tipton, Signature Literary
• Brielle Johnson, Writer’s House
• Dawn Frederick, Red Sofa Literary
• Eddie Schneider, JABberwocky Literary
• Jason Yarn, Paradigm Literary
• Jennifer Flannery, Flannery Literary
• Kathleen Rushall, Marsal Lyon Literary
• Logan Garrison, The Gennert Company
• Mollie Glick, Foundry Media
• Peter Knapp, Park Literary
• Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger

That’s 12 of the best literary agents in the business! They’ll each be reading and commenting on 25 pitches each, so those of you who are good at math know that’s 300 pitches. Genres are still being ironed out, but we do have the following genres confirmed:

• MG/YA contemporary
• New Adult
• YA girl-centric
• Historical MG/YA
• Humorous MG/YA
• Gothic MG/YA
• MG/YA Thrillers
• MG/YA Fantasy
• YA Horror
• YA Science Fiction
• YA Suspense
• Literary MG
• YA Magic Realism
• MG Mysteries

More details to come, so keep an eye on your inboxes–or right here at the WOC site! If you’re hoping to participate, grab our Pitcher badge and blog about the Mid-Winter Pitch-Fest!

Questions? Leave them in the comments or email us at writeoncon@gmail.com.

So the Perfect Your Pitch Workshop is taking place in our forums right now! You can click on the YA Pitch Critique Board or the MG Pitch Critique Board to join in on the workshop, and Perfect Your Pitch!

As part of that feature of this Pitch-Fest, we’re offering some words of wisdom from our participating agents, as well as some links from some of the best from around the web.

Up today, we’re taking some advice from Kathleen Rushall, literary agent at Marsal Lyon Literary. Here’s what she has to say about building your pitch:

You’ll hear this a lot: your pitch should grab your reader immediately and make them want more.

You can accomplish this by jumping right into your story. Start with something unexpected. Show us a bit of who your characters are and the set up, and then lead us straight to the hook. Remember, you don’t need to share the ending. I love when a pitch synopsis ends with a cliffhanger or mystery. You want to set up who your MC is, why we should care about him or her, and, most importantly, what’s at stake. Make the reader wonder what’s next. We should want to request the book to find out what’s going to happen!

Basically, the goal of a pitch is to make your plot sound as appealing as possible and to show an agent that you write well. Another thing to keep in mind (I know, as if you needed more, right?) is to try to stay authentic to the feel of your book. You want your pitch to reflect the tone of the manuscript. If it’s a thriller, the pitch should be punchy and especially fast-paced. If it’s more literary, the pitch should show off your prose and plot layers. Is it funny? If you can make me laugh just by reading the pitch, that is fabulous!

Stay focused on your plot and what makes it unique. Know your own book inside and out before trying to write a pitch. Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Pitches should be as simple and clear as they are intriguing. Good luck! I can’t wait to see what you’re going to come up with.

——–

There you go! Go forth and Perfect Your Pitch!

Okay, are you ready for Day Three of the Perfect Your Pitch workshop?! We are! Today, we’ve got Peter Knapp of The Park Literary Group dispelling his wisdom.

One of my favorite parts: “As you write and then revise your query, remember back to when it was just an idea unfurling in some corner of your mind. What was the emotional hook, the thing that made this the idea you just had to write? Which relationship or relationships lend emotional credence to the premise—that’s to say, elevate the premise from a scenario to a story. Once you’ve figured this out, you may want to frame your premise and plot through the lens of this relationship when writing your pitch.”

GO HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. It’s well worth your while as you polish and prepare that pitch. Your query letter will thank you.

Thanks to Pete, who will be participating in our mid-winter Pitch-Fest in just one month! You can get your pitch critiqued and genre honed in our forum.

Today’s post is brought to you by (the legendary) literary agent Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger. I could go on and on about her awesomeness, including that one time we met in Salt Lake City, but her post is so amazing, I’ll refrain.

Take it away, Sara!

The most important part of a query is the book pitch. I tend to skip over any biographical information until I have read the short synopsis. When I read a query I want to know quickly if I want to read the book. That is it. I will look at your credits/ MFA/ hobbies, if I like your pitch. Here are my thoughts on what you need to do to with your pitch to get a request:

WHAT YOUR SYNOPSIS SHOULD DO:
1. SET UP THE STORY/ GIVE US THE HOOK
Setting up the story will mean revealing much of the plot—but not every single thing that happens on every page. (And, please do not reveal the entire plot in the email subject heading which is alarming.)

The hook gets to the heart of the book. It is what makes me want to pick up a book and what keep me reading. What will connect me to this story?

People often think of hooks as gimmicks—but a gimmick won’t keep a story together, won’t make someone keep reading.

2. INTRODUCE THE CHARACTER/S/ CONFLICT
Who is this story about? What is his or her conflict? What is the main conflict of the book?

If a pitch is all about the character or all about the set up/ world, but not about what happens to the character in that world, it is not telling us enough to keep reading.

3. ESTABLISH GENRE/ SETTING/ TONE/ VOICE
Often queries get very specific about the genre and audience, and this is fine, as long as you do not veer into marketing or get too specific, such as all 13 year old swimmers will want to read this or picking an age range that does not make sense for a market such as 2nd grade- 12th grade.

If there is a Sci-fi twist or it is dystopian or a fantasy, I think it can work well to set that up for the reader upfront.

I do want to know the age of the character, as in both MG and YA this is hugely important for the markets, and I want to know that you know your audience.

TONE and VOICE are extras, but are usually present in the best queries. If I can get a sense of the tone of the book and the voice from description, that is a plus. That is not to say queries for humorous books should be funny, but I hope for a line or two in there that shows me that the book is funny.

WHAT YOUR SYNOPSIS MUST DO WHILE DOING THE ABOVE:
1. MAKE SENSE
Reread your query, get others to read it (especially people who have not yet read your book), read it out loud. I am reading at least 30 queries a day, like most agents, and if I have to reread a sentence more than once, I get frustrated and I get disinterested. Many do not make any sense at all.

It has taken me years to be able to truly write a pitch well. Practice! I do not think writing a great query letter correlates to being a great writer.

Bad queries are for the most part the companions to bad books. They are for books that are too long for a human to want to read, 600k words or so, are for the first book in a series of 20 volumes, are for a picture book about cocaine use, stories for all ages, etc.

The tragedy is bad queries for good books: queries that are confusing and sell a great book short because an agent tunes out.

2. SHOW ME WHY YOUR STORY IS UNIQUE
This is not easy. But even if your story is about a vampire or zombie or fairy and the market feels flooded with those stories, you have to fight for your book. This does not mean telling me how much better your story is than the bestselling series about the above. This means writing a synopsis that will show me that this character and this world are different than what I have seen before.

3. MAKE ME WANT TO READ YOUR BOOK
This is about bringing all the above elements together. The best pitches are short and sweet. They tell me the most important details about a character to make me want to know more, introduce the main conflict right off the bat, have a unique hook.

You want to tell me enough about the book that I have a sense of what it is, but you also want to leave me wanting more. Check out book jackets, these are slightly different than pitches, but are a great learning tool.

And it is worth saying again, if query letters and synopses are not your strong point, that is OK. It is a learned skill for most of us. If you struggle with it, keep practicing, and keep it simple.

——

Wow, right?

Have you gone into our forums to get feedback on your pitch? You should!

Today’s pitch-writing tip comes from the fabulous Mollie Glick. She’s been a supporter of WriteOnCon for years, and we’ve even had some success stories from her! Mollie is a literary agent at Foundry Media.

Her tip today is short, but worth it’s weight in gold.

The best way to elevate your pitch is for it to mirror the mood of your novel. If your novel is funny, the pitch should be clever. If it’s poignant, the pitch should be moving, and if it’s suspenseful the pitch should capture its drama. All the basic elements should still be there, but if you can present them with panache they’re more likely to catch an agent’s eye.

Go forth to the forums to get your pitch critiqued!

YA pitch critique

MG pitch critique

If you haven’t read the rest of our professional’s advice on how to write the perfect pitch, you can check them out in this board.

How are your pitches going? Have you been in the forum getting feedback to really make them strong and shiny for the upcoming Pitch-Fest?

Our critique boards are open year-round, but are especially hopping during our conference and other events. The Perfect Your Pitch workshop runs until March 10, and then we’ll be taking your submissions for three days, from March 11 – 13. We’ll be randomly drawing 325 pitches for the Pitch-Fest, so don’t stress about what time zone you live in. It’s not a first-come, first-served type of thing! You can submit anytime from March 11 – 13.

Then we’ll be taking a breather as we prep the forums for the actual Pitch-Fest, which will begin on Monday, March 18 and run through Friday, March 22.

We’ve been giving tips and tricks from literary agents and other professionals. You can find links to all of those here.

Up today, we have literary agent Logan Garrison of The Gernert Company here to share with us how to prepare your letter so that it’s as perfect as possible.

Anything over about a page (and I mean that in the 12pt font double-spaced kind of way your teachers always meant it–no cheating!) tends to just get glazed over by whatever assistant or intern happens to be screening queries. I wish it weren’t that way, but as someone who handles a very high volume of queries every week, I can assure you that it is.

The best queries, to me, are the ones that have an intro sentence that peaks my interest (usually a quote from the work or your one sentence pitch of it), a short summary of the work, a brief paragraph on the intended audience, and then a quick bio of the author.

Be ruthless with your letter. Cut and cut and cut, then hand it off to someone else and ask them to be ruthless. It hurts, but it’s so valuable to just get it cut to the bare bones—you’re much more likely to grab someone’s interest that way.

Thanks, Logan!

Known throughout southern New England as Dave the Animal Man for his business called Animal Experiences, Dave Marchetti has three books geared to young children: Steve the Stickleback, Nestle’s Big Adventure, and The Frog with Slippery Fingers.

There are so many enticing books releasing over the next few months and I literally can’t wait to get my hands on ALL of them. Debut novels and returning favorites are topping the lists of my BOOKS TO PINE FOR. I also threw in a bibliophile journal to keep track of all my reading. Make sure to put these on your lists.

BOOKS I’VE READ: A Bibliophile’s Journal

For avid readers who see books as a vital part of their lives and homes, this beautifully illustrated reading journal is a decorative object in itself. Conceived by Deborah Needleman and illustrated by Virginia Johnson, the author/illustrator team behind The Perfectly Imperfect Home, this journal reflects the same aesthetic and spirit that made the book so successful.

Whether you read print books, ebooks, or a bit of both, Books I’ve Read will serve as a tangible keepsake of your reading experiences. The journal features an elegant three-piece case and is filled with full-color illustrations of impressive home libraries and cozy reading corners from Deborah Needleman’s home décor guide The Perfectly Imperfect Home. It also contains recommended reading lists from a variety of reputable sources (Pulitzer Prize, Man Booker, and National Book Award winners, Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels, BBC’s Best Novels, etc.), as well as prompts for making your own lists (Most Beautiful Books, Books I’ve Given as Gifts, Books I Loved as a Child).

{Adorable illustrations in a journal for keeping track of the books you read…yes, please!}

Release Date: June 25, 2013

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

From the New York Times best-selling author of Maine and Commencement comes a big, sprawling novel about marriage-about those who marry in a white heat of passion, those who marry for partnership and comfort, and those who live together, love each other, and have absolutely no intention of ruining it all with a wedding.

Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years-forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine knows both sides of love-the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it’s over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife’s family thinks she could have done better. Kate, partnered with Dan for ten years, has seen every kind of wedding-from the Nantucket beach wedding to the Irish castle wedding-and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own. And Mary Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter, knows exactly what marriage is: it’s a diamond ring on a girl’s finger-and it’s her job to make sure everyone believes that. Weaving these lives together, Sullivan gives us a sharply observed, witty, irresistible portrait of the thorny, joyful, and complicated union that is marriage.

{Loved, loved, loved Maine. This one is topping my list of Books to Pine For!}

Release Date: June 4, 2013

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

A charming and laugh-out-loud novel by Lauren Graham, beloved star of Parenthood and Gilmore Girls, about an aspiring actress trying to make it in mid-nineties New York City.

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates-Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material-and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works. Meanwhile, she dreams of doing “important” work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It’s hard to tell if she’ll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won’t call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet. Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job.

{I always have to check out a celebrity’s novel…and Lauren Graham is always funny so this might be a hit!}

Release Date: April 30, 2013

SISTERLAND by Curtis Sittenfeld

From nationally bestselling author of Prep and American Wife, an expressive novel centered on a natural disaster that shakes a family to its core and forces a woman to confront the identity she’s been fleeing since adolescence.

St. Louis, 2009-Kate and Jeremy are caught unawares after being woken by a series of tremors just hours south of the strongest earthquake in U.S. history. The quake has taken a toll on Kate’s nerves, but it’s nothing compared with her identical twin sister, Vi-a self-proclaimed psychic medium-having broadcast a prediction that a more powerful earthquake would strike. While her sister’s performance is embarrassing to say the least, Kate can’t dismiss the hunch as wholly ungrounded, for to do so would be to deny a part of herself that exists no matter how hard she’s tried to suppress it. Faced with the question of whether she hopes her sister’s prophecy will ring false, though it would put her in the line of public scrutiny, or true, though it could mean widespread destruction and even death, Kate must decide whether or not to hone in on her long-ignored faculties to predict what will happen, and admit to her friends, family and community that she has this unusual ability.

{I loved Prep and American Wife so I can’t wait to see what else she has in store for us.}

Release Date: June 25, 2013

THE LIFE LIST by Lori Nelson

Perfect for readers of Allison Winn Scotch, Jill Smolinski, and Cecilia Ahern’s PS, I Love You, this debut novel is the emotionally resonant, utterly charming story of a woman who must reevaluate her life when her mother passes away, leaving her the task of completing a list of life goals she wrote as a teenager.

When her mother dies, Brett is grief stricken, but it comforts her to know that her future is mapped out before her. She will step into her mother’s role as the CEO of Bohlinger Cosmetics, and will continue dating her boyfriend, the detached but deliciously handsome Andrew. But her mother had a different plan for her. When the will is read, Brett gets the shock of her life. Not only will she NOT be the CEO of Bohlinger Cosmetics, but she also will only get her inheritance if she fulfills a set of life goals she wrote-and then threw out-twenty years ago. At first Brett is outraged-she long ago stopped wanting the things she desired as a teen, and she likes her life just fine. But as she begins to follow “the life list,” she realizes that her mother might just have known her better than she knows herself.

{Sounds like women’s fiction at its best!}

Release Date: July 30, 2013

THE GIRL IN THE BLUE DRESS by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Following college, Jamie McAllister wins a prestigious internship at the White House that she has no idea will irrevocably alter her life. An unexpected flirtation with the handsome and charismatic Gregory Rutland quickly leads to an emotional relationship she is ill equipped to handle at twenty-two. Each time she tries to extricate herself Greg is unable to find the strength to let her go. Meanwhile, the opposing party mobilizes to annihilate his presidency by any means necessary.

As Greg’s conflicting desires drive her to the breaking point, Jamie can’t help but reveal intimate details to those closest to her. But she must have unburdened herself to the wrong person—because within a matter of weeks Jamie finds herself, and everyone she loves, facing highly calculated destruction at the hands of Greg’s political enemies.

With her every mistake dragged out for the world to judge, Jamie has to endure an unprecedented trial in the court of public opinion—with the fate of the President, his party, and the country at stake.

Now, years later, can the woman infamously known as the “girl in the blue dress” make sense of this affair, and the trauma it wrought, for the world—and for herself?

{I wonder who the character is based on?}

Release Date: August 27, 2013

We here at WriteOnCon have decided that we sleep too much. To rectify that, we’re organizing a mid-winter “Luck ‘O the Irish” pitch-fest, where agents, book bloggers, and authors will team up to read and vote for the best pitches of 2013.

You read that right! A pitch-fest! At WriteOnCon!

But you won’t need a pot ‘o gold–or a lucky leprechaun–to participate, because our goal is to make sure you’re well prepared. After all, we have bonafide literary agents coming to this thing! Yes, they will be reading the pitches, and yes, they are looking to sign clients. It could be you!

Not a writer? WE STILL NEED YOU! We’re recruiting book bloggers and readers to spread the word and to vote for their favorites. Advocate for the books you want to see published–contact us at writeoncon@gmail.com to become an official WOC 2013 Pitch-Fest Blogger. You’ll even get a special button. Ooooo. Shiny buttons.

The details:
–Pitch-fest runs from March 18-22. Authors, book bloggers, readers, and our fabulous literary agents will be voting on the pitches. The favorites in each category will win prizes, including some great agent feedback or membership in the official WriteOnCon mentorship program!

–There will only be a limited number of pitches accepted. That number is unknown at this time, because it depends on how many agents attend. We’re still recruiting agents and will let you know the final numbers as soon as we do! Pitches will be selected randomly, so it doesn’t matter what time zone you live in.

–The agents have selected their top three genres, and pitches will ONLY be accepted in those genres. Again, all genres are unknown at this time as we’re still finalizing agents, but don’t worry. We will make announcements about genres and numbers as things solidify (sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss a thing!). At this time, we are only focusing on the children’s market, so you can know now that this pitch-fest will focus only on middle grade and young adult genres.

–We’re announcing this now, before all details are finalized, because we’re running a “perfect your pitch” workshop in February. This will take place in the WriteOnCon forums, and will work much the same as the query critique boards do during the annual WOC. You will post your pitch, and your peers will critique it. We will have posts from industry professionals on writing pitches and genre classification.

We’re doing this for a good reason. We want your pitch to be as perfect as possible once the submission window hits in March. We will only be accepting your entry for the pitch-fest one time. We will not change your genre or edit your pitch after it has been submitted. This workshop during February is the time for you to fine-tune your pitch and get feedback about which genre your novel really belongs in.

–Only one pitch per person. Put forth your best work.

–Pitches should be for polished and query-ready novels only. That means if you haven’t finished your novel yet, you shouldn’t pitch. Still revising? Don’t pitch. The agents attending are looking for material, and when they request, you want to be ready to send out your novel. We’re announcing early to give you time to finish!

Dates to know:
February 18-March 10 – Forum peer pitch critiques (Carolin has the forum boards built! Check them out HERE)
March 11-13 – Submission of final pitches (this will be done through a Google form, NOT in the forum–details to come!)
March 14-17 – We build the boards in the forum (they will be hidden until March 18)
March 18-22 – Voting and commenting by literary agents, mentor authors, and book bloggers

We can’t wait to see you at the Luck o’ the Irish Pitch-Fest! Watch the WOC newsletter and site for more updates as we get closer to liftoff. Yeah, that was totally a mixed metaphor.

Questions? ASK THEM!

Entertainment Weekly gave Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde by Rebecca Dana an A- saying, “When Dana lands at Penn Station with $20 and the promise of a journalism job, she feels the weight of “everyone else’s stories falling like fresh soot from the skyscrapers above.” She knows there’s no new New York tale to tell — though Manhattan does give her all the glitter and heartbreak that a suburban Pittsburgh girl who dreamed of Truman Capote and Carrie Bradshaw could ask for. But like the martial-arts-obsessed Hasid of the title, her take on being young and smart and emotionally adrift in the city is odd and charming enough to be that elusive thing: a true original.”

Oprah Magazine calls it an “insightful tale of two fish out of water, an odd couple who together confront their very different God issues.”

Summary:

The ultimate fish-out-of-water tale . . .
A child who never quite fit in, Rebecca Dana worshipped at the altar of Truman Capote and Nora Ephron, dreaming of one day ditching Pittsburgh and moving to New York, her Jerusalem. After graduating from college, she made her way to the city to begin her destiny. For a time, life turned out exactly as she’d planned: glamorous parties; beautiful people; the perfect job, apartment, and man. But when it all came crashing down, she found herself catapulted into another world. She moves into Brooklyn’s enormous Lubavitch community, and lives with Cosmo, a thirty-year-old Russian rabbi who practices jujitsu on the side.

While Cosmo, disenchanted with Orthodoxy, flirts with leaving the community, Rebecca faces the fact that her religion—the books, magazines, TV shows, and movies that made New York seem like salvation—has also failed her. As she shuttles between the world of religious extremism and the world of secular excess, Rebecca goes on a search for meaning.

Trenchantly observant, entertaining as hell, a mix of Shalom Auslander and The Odd Couple, Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde is a thought-provoking coming-of-age story for the twenty-first century.

Yikes! Sylvia Plath’s infamous (and only) novel, THE BELL JAR, received a 50th Anniversary makeover and it’s not making people happy. Apparently the publisher tried to make it more appealing to women’s fiction fans. Get ready for an uprising on the internet. This is certainly going to spark a dialogue.

We’re over the moon to have Gayle Brandeis visit TCBR. Gayle is a powerhouse mama, writer, activist, teacher, and all-around lovely person. We’re grateful to her for sharing her family’s favorite books with us.

People Magazine calls it “deeply moving and inventive historical novel…[that is] ultimately a tribute to the beauty of sisterly love.” It’s also an Indie Next Pick, with one reviewer saying, “At the end of the 19th century, Paris was the center of the world for all arts, and humanity struggled with massive changes in the very structure of society. Degas and Zola were players on this stage as were three sisters who aspired to the world of ballet. Based on historical figures and incidents, this novel delivers great atmosphere and fully realized characters who weave through the harsh yet rich tapestry of the times and tell a story of family, romance, degradation, and fulfillment.” —Karen Frank, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT

The Washington Post ran a review of Painted Girls by Susan Vreeland. She writes that Buchanan  “paints the girls who spring from the page as vibrantly as a dancer’s leap across a stage.” Buchanan details Belle Epoque Paris, a space and time that I have not explored in fiction and the three poor sisters dreaming of being ballerinas. “Through their bad decisions, lying, thieving and prostitution of one sort or another, one reads on, compelled by love for these girls whom Buchanan describes so compassionately.”

SUMMARY:

A gripping novel set in Belle Époque Paris and inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen and a notorious criminal trial of the era.

Paris. 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventy francs a month, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work—and the love of a dangerous
young man—as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.

Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her
image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer
Aged Fourteen. Antoinette, meanwhile, descends
lower and lower in society, and must make the choice between a life of honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde—that is, unless her love affair derails her completely.

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural,
and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.”

Tina Fey and Paul Rudd team up for the first time in this adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz‘s debut about the college admissions process. The movie hits theaters March 8, 2013. Do you think it will stay true to the plot?

SUMMARY:

“Admissions. Admission. Aren’t there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides…It’s what we let in, but it’s also what we let out.”

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation’s brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman’s life to its core.

A debut novel by Seattle writer and former lawyer Tara Conklin is the #1 Indie Next Pick for February The House Girl (HarperCollins/ Morrow). Bookseller Beverly Bauer of Redbery Books, Cable, WI, describes it,

“Lina, a young, ambitious New York attorney in 2004, never knew her mother. Josephine, a young house slave in 1852, never knew her child. More than a century apart, their lives connect in unexpected ways. Corporate law offices, art museums, antebellum homes, and the Underground Railroad provide the setting for a story filled with secrets, betrayals, and love. Does the House Girl title apply to both women? The paths of these strong women will have the reader marveling at the layers Conklin has created to tell their intertwined stories.”

New Book Pick for Good Housekeeping.

Marie Claire calls The House Girl the “book-club book of 2013″.

You can also read more musings from Tara at her blog, Popcorn the Blog.

SUMMARY:

Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: she must find the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.

It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy roiling the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit—if Lina can find one. While following the runaway girl’s faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: How did Lina’s mother die? And why will he never speak about her?

Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing, suspenseful and heartbreaking tale of art and history, love and secrets, explores what it means to repair a wrong and asks whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.

The film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s young adult hit series Divergent (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, 2011) is scheduled for release on March 21, 2014. Shailene Woodley, who received accolades for her supporting role as George Clooney’s fiery daughter in The Descendants and starred in the TV series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, has been cast in the much-coveted role.  Neil Burger will be directing but the male lead, which Variety says is currently “considered one of the more sought-after roles for a young actor” has not yet been decided.

SUMMARY:

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Here’s some GREAT news straight from the Associated Press. Amy Poehler has signed a deal with It Books for an ”illustrated, non-linear diary.” It Books, a pop culture imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Monday that the book is currently untitled and scheduled for 2014. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Her original twist on the conventional memoir will have universal appeal,” according to It Books. “An illustrated, non-linear diary full of humor and honesty and brimming with true stories, fictional anecdotes and life lessons, the book will be a unique and engaging experience from one of today’s most talented and beloved stars.”

It’s the first book for Poehler, who recently co-hosted the Golden Globes ceremony with Fey, her longtime friend and professional collaborator. Poehler will be edited by It Books’ Carrie Thornton, who said in a statement that after first talking to Poehler she was “blown away by her creativity and her passion.”

With huge books from Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler is sure to hit one out of the park. Can’t wait to read it!

At Bookfinds we are all thrilled that Oprah is back making book club selections. Her second pick, following the critically acclaimed WILD by Cheryl Strayed is a debut novel by Ayana Mathis, The Twelves Tribes of Hattie. The televised interview with Ayana will appear on OWN’s Super Soul Sunday, February 3rd. The New York Times Book Review recently featured the latest Oprah 2.0 pick on their cover. Interestingly, there was no mention of Oprah or her book club in the review. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis (RH/Knopf) was reviewed by Isabel Wilkerson, the author of the prize-winning, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, (Random House, 2010).”

Wilkerson wrote that Twelve Tribes was ”raw and intimate…a brutal and poetic allegory of a family beset by tribulations…Mathis tempers the more operatic elements with tenderness and knowing glimpses into the human heart struggling to love…deeply felt.” She says “The story it tells works at the rough edges of history, residing not so much within the migration itself as within a brutal and poetic allegory of a family beset by tribulations.”

Oprah is working on making her newest version of the book club much more interactive online. She is offering lots of videos and reading group questions on her website, devoting a Twitter page to discussions and leading a Goodreads forum. Here you can join the Official Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 group on Goodreads

Below are a few of the glowing endorsements that The Twelve Tribes of Hattie has received.
“The opening pages of Ayana’s debut took my breath away. I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me in quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison.”
-Oprah Winfrey

“Lush yet deliberate…elegant and sure…a complex and deeply humane story of a mother’s ferocious love and failures at loving…In the vivid specificity of Mathis’s tale, she is telling a universal story, and it is profoundly consoling.”
-Laura Collins-Hughes, The Boston Globe

“Mathis never loses touch with the geography and the changing national culture through which her characters move. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is infused with African Americans’ conflicted attitudes about the North and the South during the Great Migration…In the long family arc that Mathis describes, the painful life of one remarkably resilient woman is placed against the hopes and struggles of millions of African Americans who held this nation to its promise…One of the best [novels] of 2012.”
-Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A triumph…a stone-cold stunner of a novel…magnificently structured, and a sentence-by-sentence treasure – lyric, direct, and true.”
-David Daley, Salon

“The influence of Toni Morrison will be evident in this remarkable page-turner of a novel that spans decades and covers dreams lost, found, and denied.”
-Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune, “Editor’s Choice”

“This brutal, illuminating version of the twentieth century African-American experience belongs alongside those of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Zora Neale Hurston.”
-Marion Winik, Newsday

“A poetic novel…that focuses less on American progress than on the small but powerful moments that are strung together, like beads on a necklace, to make one long strand of a family’s history…Like Toni Morrison, the author has a gift for showing just how heavily history weighs on families, as a learned sense of hope or despair gets passed down from parents to children and dreams die little by little, generation after generation. But if the endless heartbreaks sound melodramatic, Mathis earns your sympathy by making the rare moments of happiness feel simple and true.”
-Entertainment Weekly, Grade: A-

“A stirring, soulful novel that spans 60 years and is told in many rich and varied voices. It’s the story of one formidable woman, and of her children-the ‘tribes’-at different stages of their sprawling lives. It’s the story of the Great Migration, and of its ripping, aching effects across the 20th century…The Twelve Tribes of Hattiewallops you from the first chapter, but the book’s emotional power grows with the story as the decades pass and the scope of this family’s life is revealed.”
-Shelf Awareness

“Hypnotic…evocative, ambitious…encompassing Dickinson, Morrison, and the poetry of Rita Dove…Mathis understands both heritage and craft.”
-The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Mathis’ writing is beautiful and confident; she moves from one voice and scene to the next with ease and creates rich characters and vivid settings. She gets to the heart of these people, gets their voices just right and gives each one a unique perspective and personality…Literary readers will enjoy the craftsmanship and emotional reach, and it’s a natural choice for book clubs with lots to talk about…It’s a beautiful work with more than a dash of heartbreak and hope.”
-Boston Bibliophile

“An exploration of race, gander, and struggle…Mathis writes with power and insight. Though less lyrical, she is a more accessible writer than Toni Morrison.”
-USA Today

“The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a vibrant and compassionate portrait of a family hardened and scattered by circumstance and yet deeply a family. Its language is elegant in its purity and rigor. The characters are full of life, mingled thing that it is, and dignified by the writer’s judicious tenderness towards them. This first novel is a work of rare maturity.”
-Marilynne Robinson

“The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is beautiful and necessary from the very first sentence. The human lives it renders are on every page lowdown and glorious, fallen and redeemed, and all at the same time. They would be too heartbreaking to follow, in fact, were they not observed in such a generous and artful spirit of hope, in a spirit of mercy, in the spirit of love. Ayana Mathis has written a treasure of a novel.”
-Paul Harding

“Writing with stunning authority, clarity, and courage, debut novelist Mathis pivots forward in time, spotlighting intensely dramatic episodes in the lives of Hattie’s nine subsequent children (and one grandchild to make the ‘twelve tribes’), galvanizing crises that expose the crushed dreams and anguished legacy of the Great Migration….Mathis writes with blazing insight into the complexities of sexuality, marriage, family relationships, backbone, fraudulence, and racism in a molten novel of lives racked with suffering yet suffused with beauty.”
-Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred)

“Remarkable…Mathis weaves this story with confidence, proving herself a gifted and powerful writer.”
-Publishers Weekly (starred)

“Cutting, emotional…pure heartbreak…though Mathis has inherited some of Toni Morrison’s poetic intonation, her own prose is appealingly earthbound and plainspoken, and the book’s structure is ingenious…an excellent debut.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred)

SUMMARY:

A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented.  Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.  She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream, Mathis’s first novel heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Bethenny Frankel is working on a new book about life as a single mom, according to Radar Online. “Bethenny has been writing and documenting her feelings in the beginning stages of the divorce,” a source close to the situation tells Radar. “The book will explore the struggles and compromises all single moms face. It will deal with the delicate balancing act that is being a single mom, and the guilt she feels because her daughter Bryn will now come from a broken home, something she never wanted for her little girl.”

Frankel is a New York Times bestselling author of five books, including one memoir, A Place Of Yes, a novel, Skinnydipping, and three books about cooking and dieting.