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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.
PW2021 Adult #10: FUTURE ATTRACTIONS (Upmarket/Climate Fiction)
Mentee:
Jenny Belardi
Mentored by:
Natalka Burian
Book Title:
FUTURE ATTRACTIONS
Category:
Adult
Genre:
Upmarket/Climate Fiction
Word Count:
84,000

Pitch:

Climate change is bearing down on Helen’s home state of Florida. It’s becoming difficult to ignore despite her all-consuming job spearheading future attractions for Joyland, an amusement park mega-corporation. When Joyland becomes a villain for its part in a warming planet, Helen must figure out her own part in the company’s problems, and its solutions.

 

Excerpt:

The air was cooler in Haunted Haven than anywhere else in the park. To ward off the heat, yes, but also to feel spookier. The Creative team thought of everything. Helen could never catch all the details they incorporated into an attraction. Today, for the first time, she noticed that one of the ghosts wore a locket engraved with LB, the initials of the park’s founder.

There were haunted houses at every amusement park Helen had ever visited, but Joyland’s was the best. It was what made her fall in love with the park. Back then, in elementary school, an abandoned mansion sat at the very end of her street. The driveway was practically nonexistent. No lights came from inside, nor any sound. She and her brother weren’t allowed to go near it. Being granted admission to Joyland’s Haunted Haven gave her a strange sense of power, like she could’ve entered that abandoned house any time.

Even now, she felt that power while on the ride. Now it was because of her proximity to it, her proximity to and power over everything in Joyland. The small black car in which she rode was made to look like an actual car from the 1920’s, and the mansion was decked out according to the same era. These were Gatsby-style ghouls. The attraction had barely changed since its inception, though some updates had been made thanks to technology that came on the scene in the past three decades.

6 responses to “PW2021 Adult #10: FUTURE ATTRACTIONS (Upmarket/Climate Fiction)”

  1. Amy Elizabeth Bishop says:

    Dear Jenny, This is such a compelling pitch and I was hooked by your opening page here! Would you send along a query in the body of the e-mail, and the full manuscript attached as a Microsoft Word doc., with Pitch Wars in the subject line, to abishop@dystel.com? If you receive a request from more than one DGB agent, do approach the person you feel might be the best fit for your work and notify us of other requests in agency. We’ll work it out on our end! 🙂 Thanks so much and looking forward to hopefully reading! Best, Amy

  2. Kaitlyn Johnson says:

    Yes! As a native Floridian currently in Orlando, this theme park meets climate change speaks to me! I would love to see the full manuscript. If you find us a match, please send query, synopsis, and pages to QueryManager.com/KaitlynJohnson/Contests

    Best,
    Kaitlyn Johnson
    Belcastro Literary Agency

  3. Mollie Glick says:

    Hi Jenny,
    This sounds great! I’d love to take a look. Please upload your material to booksubmissions.caa.com with “Pitch Wars Request” in the subject line.
    Best wishes,
    Mollie

  4. Hannah Strouth says:

    I would be honored to see this! Please send your synopsis and first 50 pages to hstrouth@janerotrosen.com with “Pitch Wars” and “FUTURE ATTRACTIONS” in the subject line!

  5. Zabé Ellor says:

    Hello! What a neat idea–I would love to see more! Please send the query (in the body of the email) synopsis (an attachment) and the first fifty pages (an attachment) to zrellor.books @ gmail.com (remove spaces.) Please include “PitchWars Request” in the subject line, and please only query one JDLA agent at a time!

  6. Alex Rice says:

    Would love to see this manuscript in my inbox! Please send over the full manuscript and a synopsis to me at alex.rice@caa.com, using the subject line of “Pitch Wars Query // TITLE.” If another agent at CAA also requests, please include their name in the query as well. Looking forward to reading! All my best, Alex Rice