Pitch Madness!!!

Check it out! I'm a slush zombie for Pitch Madness and will be diving into the slush to pick out the most tasty pitches. We zombies like brains so hopefully your entry is smart. If you don't know what Pitch Madness is, it's a contest to showcase the top pitches to some fantabulous agents. You can get more details here: http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/2013/02/pitch-madness-details.html

Here's the Pitch Madness schedule:
March 1: Submission windows announced.

March 8: Introducing the slush readers

March 12: Introducing the blog hosts and their teams

March 13: Introducing the agents

March 15: Submission windows open

March 15-18: 1st round - slush readers

March 18-23: 2nd round - 60 winners chosen for the game

March 24: Rules of the Game

March 26-28: Pitch Madness Agent Games

March 28 @ noon: Agent bids released (all ties go to a sudden death round)

Curiosity Quills Query and First Page (Re-Post)

Hello, Super Villains and Minions! Below is my re-posted query and first page for the Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest. Thanks so much for taking a look!

 

Query

 

Dear Super Villain,

Implanted shortly after birth with a device that tracks her every word and move, Rynn 713 has learned to live a life of quiet rebellion. A Seller in the day, but a Cyber Hacker in the shadows, she is content with meaningless hacks for the best coffee and latest hairstyles, hiding behind stacks of illegal books and movies, and longing for the Book Seller next door, whom she can never have.

But when her friend and the disabled daughter she has been hiding away are brutally executed because of Rynn’s careless mistake, she can no longer blind herself to reality. And when the Seller’s District is raided and all their treasons are exposed, she and the Book Seller are faced with a choice: run, fight, or die. But how do you run when they know everything you say and everywhere you go? And how do you fight when the only weapon you have is a computer? In one move, Rynn is hurtled into an underground world where hope and passion are the only ways to survive and hacking is the only route to freedom.

CORRUPTED is a YA cyberpunk with a heavy dash of romance. It is complete at 77,000 words. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Brianna R. Shrum

 

 

First Page of Corrupted

 

 

The tracker in my forearm began to beep at 3 a.m., yanking me from a peaceful sleep. I stared at it for a moment, wondering whether the GPS or microphone had prompted the warning. When the words, “…the gunpowder, treason, and plot…” came fuzzily through the television, I concluded it was not a malfunctioning GPS and panicked, leaping from my broken down couch to turn off the television. ‘How did it unmute?’ I wondered, frantically searching for someone besides myself to blame. My eyes came to rest on the loathsome remote, which I had apparently fallen asleep on, forcing the volume to rocket out of control. I never watched television…edit- interesting television… with the volume on, but chose to read subtitles, because any buzzword repeated too many times would undoubtedly trigger an inquiry and a Screener to monitor me for days, until The State realized I wasn’t a threat. Or worse, it could trigger a full-fledged investigation. If my house was raided, I would be dead in a heartbeat.

My heart stopped in my chest as, seconds later, my door was assaulted by heavy knocking. It seemed that someone had wrenched the oxygen from the room. This was it. I was going to die. The Enforcers would come in, find my stash of contraband, and shoot me on the spot…if I was lucky. My heart pounded against my ribcage relentlessly. It felt like little razors lined the inside of my throat, drawing blood with every ragged breath. I shakily climbed the steps to the main level, covering the opening to my hidden room with a floor tile and a rug, in case the Enforcers at my door were less than thorough. The barrage on my front door continued, and I stopped for a moment at the entry, took a gasp of air, and opened it.

Revised First Page for Curiosity Quills

Well, some wickedly wonderful super villains and minions stopped by and critiqued the first page of my manuscript: Corrupted. I have taken these critiques to heart. Here is the greatly improved result. Thanks to all! Especially to Krystal Wade for a fantastic line by line. All of you rock.

First Page of CORRUPTED

 

The tracker in my forearm beeped at 3 a.m., yanking me from a peaceful sleep. I stared at it for a moment, wondering whether the GPS or microphone prompted the warning. When the words “…the gunpowder, treason, and plot…” blared fuzzily through the television, I concluded it was not a malfunctioning GPS and panicked, leaping from my broken-down couch to turn off the television.

How did it unmute?

I frantically searched for someone besides myself to blame. My gaze rested on the loathsome remote, which I had apparently fallen asleep on, forcing the volume to rocket out of control. I never watched television - interesting television - with the volume on. I chose to read subtitles, because any buzzword repeated too many times would undoubtedly trigger an inquiry and a Screener to monitor me for days, until The State realized I wasn’t a threat. Or worse, it could prompt a full-fledged investigation. If my house was raided, I would be dead without question.

Heavy knocking assaulted my door and my heart stopped. The oxygen fled the room in an instant. This was it. I was going to die. The Enforcers would come in, find my stash of contraband, then shoot me on the spot…if I was lucky. My heart pounded relentlessly against my ribcage. It felt like little razors lined the inside of my throat, drawing blood with every ragged breath. I shakily climbed the steps to the main level, covering the opening to my hidden room with a floor tile and a rug, in case the Enforcers at my door were less than thorough. The barrage on my front door continued, and I stopped for a moment at the entry, took a gasp of air, then opened it.

Curiosity Quills 1st Page

~Pitch Live! Post here!~

Be aware, peeps, that I will eventually be posting blog entries that are unrelated to contests! I have 3 such entries, I promise! But not this one. This one is for an awesome contest.



Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest First Page

 

All right, all you minions and super villains from the spookiest writing contest around. Here be the first page from Corrupted. Do your worst!

The tracker in my forearm began to beep at 3 a.m., yanking me from a peaceful sleep. I stared at it for a moment, wondering whether the GPS or microphone had prompted the warning. When the words, “…the gunpowder, treason, and plot…” came fuzzily through the television, I concluded it was not a malfunctioning GPS and panicked, leaping from my broken down couch to turn off the television. ‘How did it unmute?’ I wondered, frantically searching for someone besides myself to blame. My eyes came to rest on the loathsome remote, which I had apparently fallen asleep on, forcing the volume to rocket out of control. I never watched television…edit- interesting television… with the volume on, but chose to read subtitles, because any buzzword repeated too many times would undoubtedly trigger an inquiry and a Screener to monitor me for days, until The State realized I wasn’t a threat. Or worse, it could trigger a full-fledged investigation. If my house was raided, I would be dead in a heartbeat.

My heart stopped in my chest as, seconds later, my door was assaulted by heavy knocking. It seemed that someone had wrenched the oxygen from the room. This was it. I was going to die. The Enforcers would come in, find my stash of contraband, and shoot me on the spot…if I was lucky. My heart pounded against my ribcage relentlessly. It felt like little razors lined the inside of my throat, drawing blood with every ragged breath. I shakily climbed the steps to the main level, covering the opening to my hidden room with a floor tile and a rug, in case the Enforcers at my door were less than thorough. The barrage on my front door continued, and I stopped for a moment at the entry, took a gasp of air, and opened it.

Pitch Live!

Title: CORRUPTED

Genre: YA Cyberpunk

Word Count: 77,000

(Note: I recommend maximizing this video so you can read the words at the beginning...unless you have a tiny-word-reading superpower. :-P  Also, if you just see a huge blank space, give it a sec. I swear the video will appear.)

REVISED Query for CORRUPTED ~The Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest~

So0o0o0o, after some amazingly awesome minions stopped by and critted my query, I have put it through some major reworkings. Thanks oh so much to all of you! You're fabulous, and I <3 you. So, without further ado, here it be.

~The Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest~

Dear Super Villain,

Implanted shortly after birth with a device that tracks her every word and move, Rynn 713 has learned to live a life of quiet rebellion. A Seller in the day, but a Cyber Hacker in the shadows, she is content with meaningless hacks for the best coffee and latest hairstyles, hiding behind stacks of illegal books and movies, and longing for the Book Seller next door, whom she can never have.

But when her friend and the disabled daughter she has been hiding away are brutally executed because of Rynn’s careless mistake, she can no longer blind herself to reality. And when the Seller’s District is raided and all their treasons are exposed, she and the Book Seller are faced with a choice: run, fight, or die. But how do you run when they know everything you say and everywhere you go? And how do you fight when the only weapon you have is a computer? In one move, Rynn is hurtled into an underground world where hope and passion are the only ways to survive and hacking is the only route to freedom.

CORRUPTED is a YA cyberpunk with a heavy dash of romance. It is complete at 77,000 words. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Brianna R. Shrum

Query for CORRUPTED

~The Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest~

Dear Super Villain,

Implanted shortly after birth, as all Citizens are, with a device that tracks every move she makes and listens to every word she speaks, Rynn 713 has learned to live a life of quiet rebellion. A Seller in the day, but a Cyber Hacker in the shadows, she is content with exploiting meaningless glitches in the system (hacks for the best coffee and forbidden hairstyles), hiding behind stacks of illegal books and movies, and longing for the Book Seller next door, whom she can never have.

But when her friend and the disabled daughter she has been hiding away are brutally executed because of Rynn’s careless mistake, she can no longer make herself blind to reality. And when the Seller’s District is raided and all their treasons are exposed, she and the Book Seller are faced with a choice: to run, to fight, or to die. But how do you run when they know everything you say and everywhere you go? And how do you fight when the only weapon you have is a computer? In one move, Rynn is hurtled into an underground world where hope and passion are the only ways to survive and hacking is the only route to freedom.

Thus far, most of my work has been written in the form of lecture notes on a chalkboard and speed-read by the victims, er, students in the middle school writing classes I teach. This is my first novel.

CORRUPTED is a YA cyberpunk with a heavy dash of romance. It is complete at 77,000 words. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

 Sincerely,

Brianna R. Shrum

 

October Contest Craziness

Well, apparently, contest season is upon us, fellow writers! I entered Brenda Drake's fantabulous Pitch Madness contest a while back, and it was oh so fun. (Though my husbamd probably disagreed, as I was basically OBSESSED and could speak of nothing but said contest until it was over...and even still, when it was over, it comprised a large percentage of my talking points for a while...) So0o0o0o, I'm going to be entering some more contests in the very near future which look aMAZing. (Not necessarily entering all of these, but wanted to give a helpful list anyway ^_^)

The Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest- Helps and crits for creating your subs package and a chance at publication from Curiosity Quills? Yes please! Enter as a minion and get help from Super Villains. The fun starts today! (10/8) and subs start 10/31. Join the dark side.

Hook, Line, and Sinker- Bunches of agents, some awesome blogger/authors hosting, and a fun format!  *Contest Info Link here.*   *My pitch in zis contest up for critique here.*  (Subs on 10/13)

Pitch Live- No doubt the scariest contest on the list (fitting for October) is Pitch Live! Pitch your MS on video for the chance to get offers from agents! Here be the link. (Subs on 10/15)

Trick or Treat with an Agent- Trick or treat? Hopefully treats for everyone! Costumed agents, awesome pitches, and treats! Quick! Go sign up! Hither. (Subs on 10/24)

Spooktacular Pitch Contest- Two great agents competing for your pitches in the Spooktacular Pitch Contest! o0o0o0o0oh, spooky. Spook it.

Pitch On- Wanna get your pitch seen by an awesome editor? Then you should probably get your pitch on! Do itttttt! Get it on, peeps. (Subs 10/15)