My Pitch Wars wish list

I’m so happy to be a Pitch Wars mentor again this year! First, here’s a little about me.

• I’m now a full-time writer. Before this, I was a full-time lawyer. And I still squeeze being a full-time mom into the mix.
• My debut novel, THE EIGHTH GUARDIAN, was released in May. Confetti! It’s a fast-paced thriller set in a world of time-traveling teens employed by the US government. (Because you can take the girl out of the law, but you can’t take the law out of the girl…)
• The sequel, BLACKOUT, comes out in January, and I’m hard at work revising the third book.
• Basically, I’m busy all the time. I live on coffee and KIND bars. (The dark chocolate  nuts and sea salt variety, to be specific).

If you write any of the following, we might be soul mates and you should put me on your submission list. Please note, I’m mentoring YA only this year!

• Historical.
• Fantasy.
• Historical fantasy!
• And especially, historical fantasy based on underrepresented cultures.
• Thrillers. Anything fast-paced, high-adrenaline, super-actiony. (That’s a word).
• As a general rule, the darker, the creepier, the better with me. And if you’re not 100% sure whether I’d like something, feel free to ping me on Twitter and ask! @MeredithMcP

We will probably not be a good match if you write the following. (And, I mean, I’m sure you’re still awesome, and I totally still want to hang out with you.)

• Contemporary romance.
• Anything light-hearted in tone.
• Time travel. I know, I know. I write it. It’s my speciality.  But that’s actually why I’m not taking any time travel on. I make it a general rule not to read a genre I’m actively writing, and, from a legal standpoint, I can’t read it right now anyway. So please, don’t waste a spot on me if you write time travel. It’ll be deleted unread. (To be blunt.)

So why would you pick me?

• I was a Pitch Wars mentor last year. My amazing mentee got ten—ten—agent requests and wound up signing with one of them only weeks later.
• I think I’m pretty decent at reading a manuscript, identifying the problem areas, and working with a writer to figure out how to fix them.
• I also think I have a pretty decent knowledge of the industry. What’s selling, what’s not, what agents and editors are looking for at the moment, what they’re not. And that will always be in the back of my head.

And that’s it! If you think we’re a good fit, I hope you keep me on your list. And if not, then I wish you all the best! Good luck to everyone!

Check out the other mentors here!

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