Son of a pitch: The joys of writing
Last week I told you about my efforts to find representation for Darkest Rendezvous via upcoming pitch contests. Unfortunately the tweetfest that was #pitchmad didn't lead to any takers and that's ok. No matter how enthusiastic you are about your own work, sometimes it just doesn't ping on the radar of agents and publishers involved in certain events. Last week seemed to be aimed more towards picture book artists and YA works. This is why it pays to check out the agents and publishers taking part before diving into these things. Oh well, it was a fun experience and good practice and so onward and upward!
Today, I am taking part in another competition called Son of a pitch by posting the information you see below. This also gives you a sneak peak at the first chapters of Darkest Rendezvous which I hope you enjoy.
Title: Darkest Rendezvous
Age and Genre: Adult Historical Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 50,000
Query:
Set in alternate 19th century New York, Darkest Rendezvous is the tale of ethereal beauty, Miss Persephone Greaves, who is caught up in a rivalrous love triangle between a wicked Vampyre Count, a roguish Lycanthrope Chieftain and the miserly ghoul next door as she becomes key to a plot by renegade humans to destroy her world.
Count Nicodemus von Shroud, the newest lord of Manor Sanguine Ligurio, is as handsome as he is wealthy and has the eye of every eligible lady of New York's Famous Four Hundred but his heart belongs to the enchanting Miss Persephone Greaves. However, Miss Greaves is a Zombi, a civilized class of zombie recently elevated to the nethermost circles of the necroelite and though she is the daughter of a highly esteemed physician, she is still considered beneath the touch of the most powerful Vampyre clan in America.
Mr. Rufus Bane, chief of the Lupis Tribe, has also taken notice of the delectable Miss Greaves at Nightshade Manor’s latest Moonlight Ball and refuses to concede to his Vampyre rival for the lady’s affections despite her impending engagement to ominous Ghoul, Lord Lucius Newmont. However, insurrections and assassination attempts by Rufus’ fellow Lycanthropes may prove slightly distracting.
Miss Persephone Greaves’ first season is a bigger success than she could have ever dreamed. Resigned to spend eternity as bride to ominous Lord Lucius Newmont, her phenomenal beauty and charm seem to overcome the age old stigma her kind face for atrocities past, garnering ringing approval from New York’s famous Four Hundred. Against warnings from friends and the wishes of her father, Persephone finds herself falling for both the intense werewolf whose kisses set her body aflame and a seductive Vampyre whose gaze sends her mind reeling with wicked dreams.
While Persephone tries to decide her course of action, a mysterious illness starts killing human slaves, Lycanthrope tribesmen and the oldest and weakest members of the necroelite. When Persephone is poisoned, Rufus and Nicodemus uncover a plot to destroy the nation’s undead and must work together to expose betrayals and save their beloved.
DARKEST RENDEZVOUS is a completed 50,000 word historical paranormal romance that rings of a healthy blend of the Bronte sisters, Edith Wharton and Twilight. If your agency is interested in riding the wave generated by such books as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer, then this is the project for you!
First 250 Words:
Persephone Greaves stood in the dimly lit hallway and watched as the slaves lumbered by. Even in the mindless state in which the Undead allowed them to exist, Persephone didn’t trust humans. Everything about them from the way their grey skin hung loosely from their bones and gaping mouths to the milky unseeing eyes that always seem to be watching, waiting for something made her uneasy. Persephone wished her father would finish his examination of the Newmonts’ kitchen slave who had suddenly fallen ill so they could quit this place. Of course she didn’t have to hover in the slave quarters. Lucius Newmont was in his study but would gladly keep Persephone company in the parlor.
The Ghoul was ten years Persephone’s senior and even as a lanky youth, Lucius had been very serious and solemn. The Newmonts had lost their parents towards the end of the Civil War, before the humans’ defeat, and at 14 years of age Lucius took the responsibility of his and his sister’s welfare on to his ossified shoulders. Being business partners as well as neighbors, Dr. Sebastian Greaves assisted Captain Newmont’s children as often as Lucius would allow and so became like an extended family. Dr. Greaves would, on occasion, allude to a match between Persephone and Lucius but she simply was not interested.
Repulsive as Ghouls were, the Newmont siblings always made the effort to be fashionable. Lucius was tall, slender and always well dressed.
