We recently switched our blog to this great, new location. To celebrate our snazzy, revamped site, we are giving away a TEN page critique to one of our lucky and oh-so-talented readers. (Whooo-hoooo! Clap, clap, clap.)
For this contest, we are looking for your best one sentence summary of your book or WIP. We know, we know. How on Earth do you summarize pure genius? We could tell you, but why should we reinvent the wheel?
Here are a few links that do a much better job of explaining the how’s and why’s than we ever could. (This is especially true considering some of us are still groggy from staying up late watching 4th of July fireworks and eating barbeque and way too many s'mores.)
Nathan Branford’s awesome post on summarizing your work in one sentence or one or two paragraphs.
Rachelle Gardner’s amazing blog entry about the subject, complete with examples.
Casey McCormick offers some great examples. (If you have a moment, check out the rest of this terrific blog that focuses on finding an agent. A MiG favorite.)
Here are the CONTEST RULES:
Create a one sentence summary of your MIDDLE GRADE or YOUNG ADULT book. (We love you picture book writers, but we just aren’t comfortable critiquing this genre.)
Post your sentence under the comments of this entry ONLY. Any stray entries will be ignored. (We just can’t feed strays; they’ll never stop coming around. You know it's true.)
One entry per person please.
Contest deadline is Saturday, July 10th at 11:59 pm EST.
As a group, the MiGs will decide on ONE winner based on which book we’d most like to read. Rest assured: we are an eclectic group with a wide range of reading interest so no specific genre will have a better shot.
The winner will be announced on Monday, July 12th.
THE PRIZE:
A critique of the first TEN PAGES of your book!
(The fine print: The ten pages must be 12 point Times New Roman, double spaced. All members of the MiGs will read your ten pages and make comments. Because there are six of us with wildly different schedules we cannot promise a critique by a certain date; we will try our best to have it done by August 9th, though. And, oh, one more thing - you gotta promise not to cry or gnash your teeth or threaten to throw your computer in the nearest river. We are just six writers offering our opinions. We’ll be gentle but honest. If you haven’t developed an author’s thick skin, please reconsider entering.)
A homeless superhero journeys to a magical world to help his father's killer.
ReplyDeleteA sixteen year old FBI profiler wanna-be conducts her own investigation when her older sister is murdered.
ReplyDeleteA ten year old ghost tries to prove the non-existence of humans to overcome his fear of them.
ReplyDeleteWhen Michael tries to stop his sister's imaginary friend from it's rein of terror, all hell breaks loose, quite litterally.
ReplyDeleteA girl with the power to see other children’s imaginary friends must prevent an imaginary boy from fading away, while trying to stop the greedy plot of a bankrupt inventor.
ReplyDeleteA young girl learns to live again when her grandma, who dies, leaves her 365 notes, one for every day of the coming year.
ReplyDeleteA peaceful outsider is forced to fight to the death by a caste of wild dogs in a harsh parallel world to win passage back home.
ReplyDeleteSixteen-year-old Nate was busy failing English when along came five thousand seventy six zombies and a kick-ass girl who hates not just his guts, but all the other organs as well.
ReplyDeleteSeventeen-year-old Matthew has spent the past seven years writing about the savior of a faraway planet, but he never dreamed he would become that very savior.
ReplyDeleteIn Arcadia, where humans fear and hunt lycans to near extinction, sixteen-year-old Calla is thrown into an arena as the first and only human against the strongest fastest inhuman beings in existence.
ReplyDeleteA jester’s daughter and a painfully introverted princess begin their friendship as the most underestimated young girls in the kingdom, but end up heroes when they uncover and prevent the overthrow of the monarchy.
ReplyDeleteIn a world where people are literally chess pieces, two Pieces struggle to free themselves from their fates.
ReplyDeleteTo save her world from mass starvation, a teen botanist embraces the visions of her childhood, taking a wild leap into the supposedly-utopian fairytale next door.
ReplyDeleteIn a society where logic reigns and wishes are illegal, Lenore accidentally releases a defective genie.
ReplyDeleteA young girl discovers whether strength comes from her hair while trapped in a house filled with nine other girls and their "mother" who creates a mystery of life and death proportions.
ReplyDeleteIt took her two months to find the perfect outfit, three weeks to find a great pair of shoes, and five days to coordinate it all with a Mom approved “not too expensive” backpack; but
ReplyDeleteit took her best friend approximately 66 seconds to ruin everything.
A twelve-year-old girl struggles to forgive her father after he leaves her in the woods with nothing but a smoldering fire and her pest of a brother in this retelling of Hansel and Gretel.
ReplyDeleteIt’s finally Charlie Grisner's senior year in high school and if he didn’t have to deal with his mother’s mental instability, his father’s infidelity, teenage heartbreak, a weight problem, and the otherwise typical life of a seventeen-year old boy, then everything would be perfect.
ReplyDeleteA magical pen unleashes a young teen's power to control a fantasy land, a realm only she can save from evil.
ReplyDeleteWhen Gen Hunter discovers that her gorgeous new boyfriend is a demon, she does the obvious thing and sends him to hell (BIG mistake).
ReplyDeleteI'm not entering your contest, but just wanted to say your new site looks lovely! Best wishes, Ev
ReplyDeleteNewly initiated 17-year-old witch Lily sheds her disbelief just in time to discover that magic is dying out and then finds herself standing between that fragile ember and the wizard who would snuff it out for all time.
ReplyDeleteA mother searching for her missing child, sees her when others don't and is worried she's going crazy.
ReplyDeleteA genetically engineered soldier learns there is more to her than what she was bred to be.
ReplyDeleteTwin sisters get separated in the otherworldly kingdom of Quercus, where a king is dying and darkness rules.
ReplyDeleteWhen two angry teenagers from completely different backgrounds meet at a party on a country dirt road, falling in love makes 'Nowhere' feel like a real home.
ReplyDeleteA car crash starts a chain of events that disrupt the sheltered life of a minister's daughter and ignite a conspiracy that could cost her father his job.
ReplyDeleteEleven-year-old Jiju, who fights monkeys with a bamboo sword, believes she’s ready to join her father in battle, but he gives her a test instead—that includes a dragonfly and a whole lot of quiet.
ReplyDeleteIn a world where human match-making is coordinated by sommeliers for vampires of a certain gustatory sophistication, a child is born with skin as white as snow, hair as black as wood and lips as red as blood.
ReplyDeleteFive sixteen-year-old girls of various races develop a bonding friendship while dealing with the stress of being secret teenage superheroes.
ReplyDeleteThe reoccurring nightmare of a 5headed baby and witnessing the death of her boyfriend’s twin are only the start of her problems as 17 year-old Miakoda faces the horrifying disappearance of several teenagers in Atlanta Georgia, time freezing, and the primeval powers of her Cherokee ancestors.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Sisters Moraie (the Fates) botch twelve-year-old Lenzi's death by drowning she becomes a Borrower, stealing energy from those around her to remain alive, and worse, causes Fate to target her little brother in order to mend the hole her non-death created in the Tapestry of Life.
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ReplyDeleteAh, scratch the last one:)
ReplyDeleteDuring a war against sorcerers, young mages are drafted to become soldiers at an academy of magic, but then it’s discovered one of them is destined to start the very same war being fought.
Upon learning that the earth has been infiltrated by a horrifying race of aliens who pose as their parents, Jay Lawton must leave the Safe Zone and discover a way to save the city's youth from certain death.
ReplyDeleteA sixteen year old with a talent for shoplifting leaves her dying father to travel to her estranged mother’s underwater lair, where she makes a deal in exchange for lifesaving medicine that will have repercussions for the residents of this South Carolina tourist town, above and below the surface.
ReplyDeleteAn eighteen year old girl reporter investigates a local superhero for a series of murders on the streets of the city... but discovers that he may be watching her right back.
ReplyDeleteAfter a seventeen-year-old's private sext gets a public viewing, she faces the rest of the school year without the crutch of her once-envied popularity.
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ReplyDeleteIn a "Bunnicula meets The Swiss Family Robinson" type tale, Puckatoo, a young Jack Russell Terrier, tells of her adventures protecting three shipwrecked boys as they face ancient monsters and a scheming island chief while searching for their parents who were lost at sea.
ReplyDeleteAshley doesn't see, speak to, or hear ghosts the way her family has been able to do for generations and she must come to terms with being "normal" while being knee-deep in the abnormal.
ReplyDeleteNo girl in her right mind wants to become the target of a long-dead serial killer, but Callidora Hawthorne isn’t in her right mind; Calli is in love.
ReplyDeleteUpon her death, fifteen-year-old Diona learns that she is part divine and when others like her start to be killed for their powers tensions rise, between dividing groups of divinities, and war seems inevitable which not only threatens her but also the loved ones she left behind.
ReplyDeleteThe reoccurring nightmare of a 5headed baby and witnessing the death of her boyfriend’s twin are only the start of her problems as 17 year-old Miakoda faces the horrifying disappearance of several teenagers in Atlanta Georgia, time freezing, and the primeval powers of her Cherokee ancestors
ReplyDelete