Tuesday, July 19, 2016

#teamloveherorleaver ...YA #Pitchwars co-mentoring team extraordinaire!



Welcome to the #Pitchwars 
co-mentoring team of
 Trisha Leaver and Kelly Calabrese ... aka team #loveherorleaver!


Hi, I’m Trisha Leaver. This is my forth year as a YA mentor, and I am insanely excited to be mentoring again this year! I live on Cape Cod…land of sun, sand and perpetual traffic!  I write YA Contemporary Fiction, Psychological Horror, Historical Fiction and Sci-fi and am published with FSG/ Macmillan, Flux/Llewellyn and Merit Press.My YA contemporary, THE SECRETS WE KEEP, was named one of the best YA novels for summer by Teen Vogue (2015) and received starred reviews from VOYA Magazine and School Library Journal (audio).  I am repped by the amaing Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. To learn more about me and my upcoming projects, head on over to my website: www.trishaleaver.com




And I am Kelly Calabrese! I’m a seize the day kind of gal. My energy and passions lead me to pursue many creative endeavors. I am a YA writer and have been a proud member of SCBWI since 2002, serving on the NJ SCBWI Conference Planning Committee and as the Kidlit Social Coordinator. I’m represented by literary agent Sarah LaPolla. I work as an entertainment journalist and a marketing copywriter for John Wiley & Sons Higher Education. I received a BA in Creative Writing and a BA in Psychology from Binghamton University. You can learn more about me and my creative endeavors on my website: https://kellyacalabrese.wordpress.com



How does co-mentoring work?

It’s like getting two amazing mentors for the price of one!!!  No seriously… it really is! This is Trisha’s forth year as a #Pitchwars mentor, Kelly’s second so we’ve had some time to figure out what works and what doesn’t in terms of revisions. Our game plan involves two rounds of edits. First up will be general, over-arching notes to tackle the big picture stuff: pacing, plot holes, character development, dropped threads etc. Once those have been tackled, we'll make a second pass through your manuscript, looking for smaller inconsistencies. Our notes will be color coded so you can see who is suggesting what, and as always, we encourage our mentees ONLY to make changes that resonate with them. This is your manuscript, your vision. We are here to guide, support, and cheer you on, not rewrite you story.


Who is our ideal mentee!?!

Our ideal mentee has a manuscript that is complete and near ready for querying. A MS that has been seen by a critique partner or beta reader and has already gone through several revisions.

As far as what would make us choose a mentee versus pass on them... well, it's all about the willingness to work together to make the best darn book possible! We want to help our mentee get an agent and eventually a book deal! That will take work and time and above all an openness to hear and respond to critiques.


Now for the question you all want answered, what are we looking for?

~Thrillers, psychological horrors, or creepy suspense novels that pull us in from the start and keep us reading not for the ore factor but because we care about what happens to the characters.

~Historical fiction, specifically those with a true crime or creepy subplot.

~YA contemporary. Trisha adores emotionally-driven contemporary fiction; Kelly loves anything with a dark subplot. If you can combine the two into one amazing manuscript, then we’d love to see it. Think A.S. King here!

In the end, regardless of the genre, we are looking for voicey, fast-paced YA fiction with characters that draw you in and keep your mind fixated in their world long after you’ve read the last page. We want a complete and revised manuscript from a dedicated writer who creates authentic and relatable characters. And lastly, someone who is not afraid to explore the darker, emotionally-challenging sides of the human psyche in their writing.


NO THANK YOU TO:
  • Incomplete work
  • Writers who get offended or upset easily
  • Straight-up Sci-Fi, epic fantasy and manuscripts where romance is the main thread. Let's just say that we like our romance sprinkled on the side, not as a main course.

 Unsure if your manuscripts fits our wish list, don’t worry…just shoot us a tweet and we'll let you know!  Our twitter handles are: @tleaver and @KellyCalabrese

 Now go forth and visit the other awesome YA mentors...then circle back and submit to us! LOL





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