Sunday, May 10, 2009

What Are You Working on Now?

By Vikki Perry, moderator of Columbia II SCWW

Last month, I participated in a contest offered by The Knight Agency. The prize was a critique and possible representation by an agent. They asked participants to send a three sentence pitch about their novel to their submissions email box. After the contest was over, one of the agents posted that they had received 1200 submissions and that there were 20 winners. I was not one of them. It was an awesome exercise.

Why am I telling you about this? That's easy. I want us to do it too! Soooo, here is what I propose. In sixty words or less, pitch your novel or book-length writing work (memoir, creative non-fiction, non-fiction,etc.) If you are not writing book length fiction, tell us about your latest poem or short story. Just scroll to the end of my entry and click on "comment." A page will appear which contains a box to make comments. In this box, type your 60 words. Then complete the "word verification" by typing the letters you see above that box. Choose an identity and publish. If you are unable to publish your entry, email your copy to me at vikkiperry@gmail.com with a copy to Ginny at ginnypadgett@sc.rr.com.

To sweeten the pot and encourage participation, I will throw in a copy of Chris Riordan's Don't Sabotage Your Submission. This book will go to a commenter on this blog. The critique group will be judging the entries at the June 15th critique meeting and we will post a winner.

To get you started, I will share the pitch that I sent to to the Knight Agency. (Yes, I know this is more than sixty words.)

"Cursed World War II flyer, Seth Avery, is soul sworn to prevent an ancient magical dagger from falling into the wrong hands. When Mackenzie Russell, a modern historian, discovers the dagger’s hiding place, she incites a string of events that attracts the attention of a cult of ancients who desire the dagger’s magic for their own evil gain. Fighting the powerful and forbidden attraction that flares between them, Seth and Mackenzie must flee the ancients who will not hesitate to kill anyone in their path, and prevent the dagger's power from being unleashed on an unsuspecting world."

Now tell us yours! You have until June 10th to submit.

Thanks and good luck,
Vikki

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this work?

Anonymous said...

I have written this thing a dozen times and tried to post it, this thing is way to complex for anybody to use it, my writing is an autobiography, that I am writing about myself, I call it Creative Nonfiction, the names have been changed to protect the guilty, relatives are thinnly disguised, it is about my abusive parents and other abusive adults in my family, and my abused siblings, three of whom were abused to death, it continues with my combat tours in the USArmy, in Special Forces, it covers the deaths of fifteen of my teammates who died defending the articles of our constitution, it continues with my dysfunctional lifestyle and my two divorces and my numerous live in girlfriends, it includes my difficulty in relating to people with my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a bland and non descriptive name for a really serious condition, my father is in here, he was an independent trucker and in my four years of high school I drove his truck to school on Friday and tried to get back in time for my first class on Monday morning

Anonymous said...

Fourteen-year-old Daniel’s life is a nightmare. His name replaced, he is now a servant to the man that murdered his family. He thought nothing could be worse, then the unthinkable happens. He and his friends are faced with imminent death. Can he escape to save his friends and live to get revenge? The answer lies in the violet thread.

Unknown said...

The Idea Man, a short story by Dave Sennema
Ziggy Lanier,known as a lovable smart-aleck by friends and family, graduates from college, moves to Winston-Salem, starts a business (Carolina Consummate Carwash), woos and marries a beautiful police detective and drives her to distraction with a series of hare-brained ideas, such as turning their kitchen into a gymnasium. Ziggy eventually begins to show hints of maturation.

Anonymous said...

Members of my writers group occasionally read sex scenes from their fiction and essays. These scenes are their best writing.

Sex Scenes from a Local Writers’ Group, will collect these unedited scenes, prefaced by autobiographical notes from each writer, a photograph, and two essays on the writer from members of the group. Anything goes

Brian said...

A hit-and-run accident, a broken vow, a homeless vagrant, a malicious Internet game; all have ties to a rash of brutal murders. The evidence points to a lonely mother of two, Sarah Sloan. An amnesiac, Sarah must prove her innocence while avoiding her demise from a killer she fears is now stalking her in...The Killer's Club.

Brian 2 said...

The devil has come to the town of Briley, Kansas, building a petition of souls to prove to God that man does not deserve the glory of Heaven. It's up to Ethan Thomas to face his own demons if he's to rescue his son and escape before their souls are lost forever. Life can be hell, if it's in D1SORD3R.