The first round of the contest involved sending in a book pitch. I'll admit, this is my biggest weakness when it comes to writing. I cannot pitch or sell anything. I have worked, reworked, revised, and purchased help with queries and never truly found success with any of my methods. Ironically, the requests for full manuscripts have come from contests, not from querying. So . . . I wrote a pitch for this contest and entered. Here's what I wrote:
Ryan Moon is
infected and dying. The virus that killed his family and his best friend now
threatens to turn millions of people into flesh craving zombies. Too late for
Ryan, though. Part of a government
program to find a cure, he lives a captive existence between a hospital and
high school. It bites. How’s a guy supposed to focus in class with this
kind of life? But he tries. Because all Ryan has to live for is a chance to survive
and graduate, and the affections of a mysterious girl he met online. Jessica
Snow. She’s Ryan’s only friend these days. Pure and perfect, Jessica brings out
the best in Ryan—though she’s exposing emotions that are making his condition
worse.
And he’s getting
worse. Every day brings Ryan closer to becoming a monster, closer to the end. Desperate
to live, and for love, Ryan promises to take Jessica to prom. A promise made
impossible after a violent attack at his school forces Ryan into a secret
clinic run by Jessica’s father. There, Dr. Snow, who has a daring plan to use
Ryan’s blood as a possible vaccine, tortures Ryan for the sake of science. But the
drug won’t work on everyone, and if Ryan doesn’t act, he could start the
apocalypse.
He is desperate
to escape, to save the world and to be with Jessica. Ryan will take her to
prom, if her father doesn’t kill him first.
That's my pitch for Dead and Beloved. And guess what? It worked. The book made it to round two of the contest. I don't know what will happen from here, but it doesn't really matter. I have a bit of validation and a realization that I'm getting better.
Happy reading.
~ Jamie
