NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2021
UPDATE: APRIL 1, 2021
The winner is…
ESTHER HANADA’S MEGA MANGA MIX-UP BY MARIANNE ROBIN-TANI
Marianne will receive an introduction to an agent or publisher appropriate for Esther Hanada’s Mega Manga Mix-up.
Listen to the announcement.
Read the winning pitch.
Our Fan Favorite goes to…
Read the Fan Favorite winning pitch.
Congratulations, Marianne and Saanvi! Thank you to every writer who participated and the fans who voted.
You can watch the full NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2021 below.
We’re turning it up to 11!
Eleven years. That’s how long The Book Doctors and Nano Nation have been slinging words and making beautiful music (and books) together. Writers from around the globe delivered yet another batch of pulse-pounding pitches for NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2021!
As ever, we were gobsmacked by the undeniable awesomeness of the writing that poured forth from Wrimos: Love among the Wichita Whippets, Tehran’s tetherball king coming of age, an ancient syndicate of mercenaries, a moon-cursed ménage, a manga mix-up, and a death-date predictor. Of course we’ve come to expect this level of excellence.
Now for the 411
The 20 pitches were selected randomly. You can watch the recording of NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza to hear our feedback. It’s our mission to try to help all you amazing writers not just get published, but get published successfully. That’s why we’ve told you what works, but also what needs to be improved.
But don’t let our opinion sway your vote. What story intrigues you? What pitch would prod you from the couch to the bookstore (or to buy it online)?
The pitch that receives the most votes by 11:59 p.m. PDT on March 31, 2021 will be awarded the Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250). We’ll announce the Fan Favorite on April 1, 2021.
Here are the rules
But please note: YOU CAN ONLY VOTE ONCE! So please choose carefully. Don’t just read the first couple of pitches — read them all. You owe it to your fellow Wrimos. Encourage your friends, family and random strangers to vote for you via the link to the poll. Connecting with your future readers is a vital part of being a successfully published author today. And this is a great way to get some practice.
We will also be posting these pitches on social media. We encourage anyone to like your entry but only poll votes from the webpage will count toward the Fan Favorite.
NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza 2021 voting
Click the writers' names to read their pitches. Then vote for your favorite.
- Tempestuous by Saanvi Agarwal (36%, 1,119 Votes)
- Dead Man Walking by Sienna Leaver (22%, 670 Votes)
- Esther Hanada’s Mega Manga Mix-up by Marianne Robin-Tani (11%, 347 Votes)
- Win, Lose, or Rain by Jackie Deskovich (11%, 338 Votes)
- It Takes Two to Tidy by Jessica Lin (8%, 236 Votes)
- American Playground by Michael Shokrian (4%, 113 Votes)
- You Treat Me to A Feast: If I Love You, I'll Feed You by Chelle A. Carter-Wilson (3%, 107 Votes)
- The Honeycomb by Jordan Donald (2%, 76 Votes)
- A Scarlet Thread by A.S. Bondi (1%, 16 Votes)
- The Tsarina of Snow by Lizzie Joy Broschat (0%, 13 Votes)
- Class of '79 by Holly L. Dutton (0%, 8 Votes)
- Three Ingredients by Emily Esterson (0%, 6 Votes)
- she becomes death by Marissa Goldstein (0%, 6 Votes)
- Something In-Between by Sofia Lourdette Santamaria-Micher (0%, 4 Votes)
- Bullets in the Water by Conor McAnally (0%, 4 Votes)
- Animal Acceptance by Beatrice Vargas (0%, 3 Votes)
- The Writing Journey by Hannah Sharpe (0%, 2 Votes)
- Patriot Girl of Mt. Rose by Peggy Ballman (0%, 1 Votes)
- Snobs & Silly Mothers by Julia Henkelmann (0%, 1 Votes)
- A Little Bit Yours by Anna McClain (0%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 3,071
Saanvi Agarwal
TEMPESTUOUS by Saanvi Agarwal
Ishanee Dalaal learns that she has a stomach tumor at 11 am alone in a white hospital. It takes her exactly fifty seconds to decide upon two rules. Don’t tell anyone and don’t die.
Considering that she breaks rule one fifteen minutes later, she might need to rework those. Seriously reworking those because her incompetence at understanding her own illness leaves her to turn to Daya, a gaddāra and once a sister, who is determined to bring all Ishanee’s problems to light and rescue her.
And with that, Ishanee’s life is turned upside down. From her dutiful role as the Indian American daughter following her family’s guidance and the best friend who literally lives to be helpful, she finds estranged relations and secrets everywhere she looks. Suddenly her tumor seems to be the least of her concerns compared to her parent’s sudden interest in her life after years of ignoring her and stalking her best friend to check if he attempting to commit suicide again.
Not that Daya will let her forget about her conditions, because with every panic attack and bloody washing session, she’s closer to breaking rule two. And hiding is only working for so long before Ishanee has to decide just how much she’s willing to help the people she loves with her own life dangling in the air.
TEMPESTUOUS is a 95000 multicultural young adult novel where WHO PUT THIS SONG ON meets DUMPLING DAYS.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
A. S. Bondi
A SCARLET THREAD by A. S. Bondi
Medieval Córdoba is the jewel of Al-Andalus, a thriving, interfaith city that once ruled an empire. But while men govern Córdoba in the daylight, magical female assassins known as “Sisters” roam the night, controlling the city in the shadows.
Sabah has spent two years guarding a local brothel to prove her worth to the Sisters. Raised on the edge of poverty in Córdoba’s Jewish quarter, she can hardly believe her luck when the Sisters accept her into their ranks and assign her to the palace as their spy. She soon uncovers a conspiracy against the city within its own walls, a mysterious brotherhood that wants to topple Córdoba’s Muslim ruler and burn the Judería—her childhood home—to the ground.
Sabah assassinates one of the ringleaders, hoping to cut the head off the snake. But her plan backfires, and instead of weakening her enemies, she creates a martyr for their cause. As anger at the man’s death explodes into violence, Sabah must choose between following the Sisters’ strict, secretive code or protecting her family—and no one who disobeys the Sisterhood lives to tell about it.
Spinning Silver meets Assassin’s Creed in A SCARLET THREAD, a 100,000-word adult historical fantasy with series potential that will appeal to fans of Rati Mehrotra’s Markswoman (Asiana series) and Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season.
Bio: I have a medieval studies Ph.D. and recently co-authored a book on medieval history and right-wing extremism (as Amy S. Kaufman).
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Emily Esterson
Three Ingredients (working title) By Emily Esterson
Augustin Fortier has magic in his hands. His baguettes taste of love and effort, with an open crumb and crackly crust. Gifted with the “mother” that has been passed down in his family for centuries and the ambition of youth, Augustin is a shoe-in to win the Prix de Baguette. The key to his win? The “mother,” and wheat grown by his farmer friend, Lynette. One summer afternoon, Augustin finds the bakery’s basement door ajar, the lock cut. The “mother,” and his grandmother’s journals of formulas, are gone.
Simon DeNotre, the distant cousin who owns the Paris bakery, thwarts Augustin’s ambition at every turn, forcing him to sell pre-made commercial bread, turning off the ovens, sabotaging Augustin’s efforts to return DeNotre’s into what it had been when his grandmother baked there just after the war—one of the best bakeries in Paris. Was it DeNotre who stole the Mother? Or was it the woman in the yellow raincoat who passes by every day, looks in the window, and sometimes stands across the street just watching?
A combination of Chocolat by Joanne Harris, and Jenny Colgan’s Little Beach Street Bakery, Three Ingredients is about the curse of ambition, the mystery of family, and the magic of bread. The author is a professional writer/editor, holds an MFA in nonfiction, and teaches journalism at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School. She spent two years in France, is an avid baker, and attended the San Francisco Baking Institute.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Holly L. Dutton
Class of ’79 by Holly L. Dutton
There are few places more dangerous than a high school parking lot ten minutes before the bell rings. But at Mountain Vista High School, the danger doesn’t end with fender benders in the student lot.
When Kari starts her first year of teaching, she expects a steep learning curve, maybe a few difficult students. She does not expect to be starting her new career in a crime scene. But the murder of the school’s winning football coach the first week of school is just the beginning.
Kari’s classroom is broken into, her overzealous journalism students are on the trail of the murderer, the vice principal hates her and one of her co-workers just may be the guilty party. Unless it’s one of the students.
As Kari gets to know her fellow teachers, she starts to have a few ideas about who might be responsible for the school’s crime spree. But she’s not the only one with crime solving instincts. The home economics teacher, source of school lore, random gossip, and fabulous baked goods, Grace Billingsly, has other ideas. She thinks it’s Kari. Now Kari has to solve the crime to prove her innocence.
Set against the end of an era, Class of 79, is rollicking trip to the past, complete with rock and roll music, muscle cars and murder.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Sofia Lourdette Santamaria-Micher
Something In-Between by Sofia Lourdette Santamaria-Micher
After a protest at City Hall goes wrong, Luna, a Mexican-American high school senior, is saved from being pushed into traffic by a boy named Briar. Sparks fly, bad humor is exchanged, and something about a zombie… But more than sparks ignite when she realizes Briar is the son of the racist, white-supremacist candidate for mayor. Briar’s father is against her and her people and she despises his father with every ounce of her saucy Latina blood.
The last thing Luna needs is a tumultuous romance. She’s already juggling the emotional warfare of her parents’ divorce and the painful confusion of being biracial in a world bent on forcing her into one box or another. Yet Briar has brought both new laughter and hope into her life. She doesn’t believe in love, but she does believe in going against the current. And maybe–just maybe–she’s willing to try.
But playing with fire always burns.
Caught between love and hate, marriage and divorce, Mexican and American, Luna struggles to understand who she is when the love in her life is distorted. Will hate decide who she is and who she loves?
SOMETHING IN-BETWEEN is a YA novel about questioning one’s identity during adolescence and being in love despite having everything against you. Told through both humorous and defiant narrations, and a collection of honest poems, SOMETHING IN-BETWEEN is THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR meets ROMEO & JULIET. The manuscript is complete at around 45,800 words.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Anna McClain
A Little Bit Yours by Anna McClain
In Eastern California, Rowan, the image of perfection at Bayville Highschool, finds herself lost when her parents announce they’re divorcing. The world already seems to be falling apart, but gets worse when her best friend and girlfriend of two years, Alana, tells her she’s been cheating on her for two months and has to leave her before anyone else gets hurt. Just as Rowan is thinking of giving up completely, she meets a mysterious girl at a coffee shop who takes her on the adventure of her life. This story tells the narrative of thousands of girls in the real world living through heartbreaks and questioning how to survive high school. Rowan has to learn to test her own limits and change how she sees the world, her place in the world. Every teenage girl eventually has to learn how to define herself not by her traumas, but by her own terms.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Conor McAnally
BULLETS IN THE WATER by Conor McAnally – contemporary, conspiracy thriller
A senseless murder in his Texas hometown drags disgraced, national journalist MIKE CARSON into the rotting underbelly of historic Taborville and pits him against a powerful group, who know water will soon be more precious than oil. Mike must find the truth behind the murder, face down his failings and beat a murder rap, if he is to make it out of Texas. Taborville is a microcosm of America today, a confluence of venal antagonists, corrupt politicians and corporate greed which threaten the very lifeblood of the city. The truth will be painful for everyone. Can it restore Mike and save the town, or is it much too late?
This book is based on two murders in historic Bastrop, Texas, where we lived for 15 years and on my wife’s experiences as a member of the City Council, during a good ole boy era of casual corruption. This is my first novel. Author Anthony Trevelyan, when reviewing part of the manuscript, placed it somewhere between The Border by Don Winslow and Raylan by Elmore Leonard. I’m an award-winning investigative print journalist, who transitioned to producing television. I have written for TV entertainment in the USA, UK and Ireland. My shows have won 22 major awards including 5 BAFTAs and 5 from the Royal Television Society. I’ve written and performed three one-man shows on Texas history, Irish history and the Mexican American War.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Sienna Leaver
Dead Man Walking by Sienna Leaver
Death has been conquered. Dresno Tech, the world’s largest tech company, has done the impossible: They can predict exactly when you’re going to die. Their technology — the Death Date — gives you a three day alert. It’s just enough time to say your goodbyes and finish any unfinished business…
Will Raisan does not think three days is enough time. When he receives the alert, he panics. He’s only eighteen. His life has just begun. Still, he has no choice but to accept it. When the dreaded three days are up… nothing happens. His Death Date is wrong. The dates are never wrong. His miraculous case catches the attention of Dresno Tech CEO herself. He’s a glitch in their system. That makes him a weakness, a mistake. In response, they offer Will a colossal sum of hush money if he agrees to go with them and answer a few questions. How can he say no?
But as soon as he arrives, Will can tell something is wrong. The other people there — the other glitches — are treated as prisoners, while he’s treated as an esteemed guest. And when he meets a girl named Nine, he knows something is wrong. She drops him clues that have him digging around in the past of Dresno Tech. The more he learns, the more he knows he has to escape — before he loses everything on a gamble that could kill everyone.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
Chelle A. Carter-Wilson
You Treat Me to A Feast: If I Love You, I’ll Feed You by Chelle A. Carter-Wilson
Call me a djeli.
My Daddy was dark chocolate, a fire-filled, afro-adorned Baptist preacher, card-carrying member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and Princeton-educated theologian, fully aligned, with zero contradiction. He married a caramel-colored, college-educated woman born in the segregated American South, steeped in faith. I am the full inheritor of their best gifts. Raised in a home where social justice was a Christian value, Jesus had always been radical, and Black was beautiful, Black Liberation was never part of my theology, Black Liberation was my theology. Made in the perfect, precise Image of God, how could the Divine be anything besides Black like me?
Well, I once refused to eat a chicken because its feathers were black.
Gifts, insights, and privilege notwithstanding, I remain watchful. Fail to be vigilant, and you no longer require an oppressor. You internalize the poison that racism is, and fully unaware, administer it routinely to yourself.
A pieced quilt, my legacy is indelibly imprinted by the laying on of every forefather and mother’s holy hands. I am my ancestors’ wildest dream; genetically African yet American by birth, descended from royalty and enslaved by colonizers, I am the great-great-granddaughter of the captured, never conquered.
Part psalm, part prose, some spun magic, this 40k word memoir is a spoken word performance – Bread & Wine meets Soul Food. Spirit-divination, spice, and Grace, these stories decode my faith, family food, and our cultural traditions, along with the lessons they taught me.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).