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Pitch Wars Showcase

Please note: These are the entries for the Pitch Wars season beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2022. Please note that our Agent Showcase ends at 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday, February 14, 2022. Agents will not be able to leave comments requesting material after that time.
PW2019 YA #34: A VERY STRANGE ENCHANTED (Fantasy)
Mentee:
Meg Gaertner
Mentored by:
Olivia Hinebaugh
Book Title:
A VERY STRANGE ENCHANTED
Category:
2019 Entries
Genre:
Fantasy
Word Count:
86,000

Pitch:

To celebrate its military-industrial complex and conquests, Ravalia hosts the Revel. For trapeze-flying, drag-performer Quinn, this world’s fair is his chance to earn the King’s favor and bring his wrongfully conscripted brother home from the front. Then he learns that Revel profits will fund Ravalia’s next war. Quinn must join ragtag performers and politicians in using art to subvert tyranny—or be party to a massacre.

GREATEST SHOWMAN x WWI x magic

 

Excerpt:

While illusion was the circus’s mainstay, three truths tethered Quinn to reality: corsets were torture, cosmetics hid a person’s face but not his guilt, and Jaq would reject the Menagerie’s invitation. Yet tenuous hope had him trying all three anyway.

By the time he found his tentmate—swigging from a flask by a hoop dangling from a tree—the words filled his chest, his mouth, gritty like gunpowder and burning.

“I’m moving forward with my Queenie performance,” he announced, and sighed. The gunpowder turned back to butterflies. Swirling.

A match snicked.

Jaq expelled the accelerant. Fire whooshed.

He closed his eyes against the heat and coughed.

“And the world will see you as you truly are: visionary.” Framed by the blazing hoop, Jaq’s eyes caught the firelight—feverish, like she’d been birthed by flame.

And she thought he was melodramatic. “Yeah, and eyebrow-less, if you don’t watch it.”

Jaq scoffed.

“Also, the Menagerie’s having dinner tonight,” he said. “We’ve been invited.”

She spat out the residual. “You were invited. You should go. They like you.”

“Rina asked after you specifically.

“A kind gesture. The kind that doesn’t mean anything.” She crouched by the tree and searched through a bag.

Quinn sidled closer. “They were your friends not that long ago.”

“That’s not my problem.”

“Jaq.”

She shoved a newspaper at him. “Got that from the capital. It’s today’s.”

11 responses to “PW2019 YA #34: A VERY STRANGE ENCHANTED (Fantasy)”

  1. Megan Manzano says:

    I’d absolutely love to see more of this! Please send your query, synopsis, and first 30 pages to https://querymanager.com/query/MeganManzano/PitchWars

  2. Natascha Morris says:

    I’m intrigued. I’d love to see more, Meg. Please upload to feel free to query me to at QueryMe.online/natascha/PitchWars. Can’t wait to see the pages!

    Best,
    Natascha Morris
    BookEnds Literary

  3. Brent Taylor says:

    I’d be delighted to read this. Please send the full manuscript as a word document to Brent(at)triadaus(dot)com.

  4. Marlo Berliner says:

    I’m a fool for a circus! I’d love to read more! Please send the full with Pitchwars YA in the subject line to marlo.jdlit@gmail.com. Looking forward to reading!

  5. Karyn Fischer says:

    Hi Meg,

    This sounds like a lot of fun! I’d love to see more. If you’d like, please send the first 25-30 pages to QueryMe.online/1325/PitchWars. Thanks and I hope to hear from you!

    Karyn Fischer

  6. Mollie Glick says:

    Hi Meg,

    This looks great! Please send the full manuscript to mollie.glickasst@caa.com.

    Best,
    Mollie Glick

  7. Laura Bradford says:

    I love the hook and your first paragraph is really evocative. I’d love to read more!

    Please email me the full ms + synopsis and make a note in the subject line that this is a Pitch Wars entry. laura at bradfordlit dot com.

    Laura Bradford
    Bradford Literary Agency

  8. Jordy Albert says:

    I would love to take a look! Please send a query along with your full manuscript as a Word attachment and #Pitchwars in the subject line to me at jordy@thebookeralbertagency.com. Thanks!

  9. Alexandra Weiss says:

    Hi Meg! I like your unique twist on a circus and would love to take a closer look. Please send the first 50 pages to me at http://queryme.online/AlexandraWeiss/PitchWars2019.

    Thanks so much!
    Alexandra Weiss
    The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency

  10. Oh, I love this and would like to see more! Please send this pitch in the body of an email, synopsis and first fifty pages attached as a Word doc, with YA PITCHWARS and your title in the subject, to Jennifer@theseymouragency.com.

  11. Kristin Nelson says:

    What a lovely opening! I’d be delighted to take a look at your full manuscript. I’ve created a special Pitch Wars link so you can send the manuscript my way.

    Query Manager Event Link
    QueryMe.online/1350/PW20192020

    Pls also include your query letter as the first page of your full manuscript to help orient me when I dive in for the longer read starting on the 11th.

    It’s also okay to send to more than one agent at NLA if you have received multiple requests. We’ll coordinate on our end.

    Congrats on being a part of Pitch Wars. I can’t wait to read.
    Kristin