Finally, The Pitch

Schwoo!!! I’m back home. Went back to work this morning and I already miss the spoiling I received at the Florida Writer’s Conference over the weekend. I made sure my alarm woke me at 5 am so I could attend the 7 am writing prompt class. For the most part, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A writer’s heaven where you get to drink plenty of coffee without digging into your change pocket and food is served to you. Not to mention, all the wonderful seminars you can attend. I’m still floating on cloud nine. But I must deliver the other news (happy dance, happy dance…jump up and down, clap your hands, happy dance). The pitch.

I missed my first appointment at 9 am, on Friday morning. Traffic on I-4 kept me from moving at a fast pace but I had no clue when my appointment would be.

Once I got to the Marriot I had to check-in, drop my luggage off at the room (really had to check out the fabulous feathery pillows…love their pillows…if I could I’d stuff them in my suitcase), grab a coffee, and check in at registration.

My heart sunk when I heard I’d missed my appointment with Emily Ohanjanians from MIRA books (she’s beautiful, patient, and sweet…really she is) but the Good Witch was looking out for me and I was rescheduled for the next day. I made sure I was early for that one.

Before the appointment, I made sure I practiced my pitch on any soul that leant me an ear. Bought a book in the process from a new author (will be promoting her on my blog…work on that another time), she leant her ear to me, had to return the favor, you know (looks like a good book anyway…a book I’d read).

Okay, I checked in and waited. Thank God not for long, because I think I would have shivered myself into absolute nothingness. When they called my name, I forgot to think about my shoes but I did remember to press my index finger into my thumb….OMMMM!!!! My knees didn’t buckle or anything. Wow! I surprised myself.

We greeted each other. I extended my hand to Ms. Ohanjanians and she accepted. We both sat and the conversation went something like this:

“You’re such a pretty lady,” Ms. O said, “You’re eyes are beautiful.”

“I thought the same about you,” I said.

Ms. O. looked at my badge clipped to my shirt, pulled out a pencil, and wrote out my name. When she finished, she folded her hands on top the pad. I guessed it to be my cue to start.

I cleared phlegm from my throat and said, “My novel is at 80,000 words. The genre is Young Adult Crossover Paranormal.”

“Uh-huh.”

I did my best to maintain eye contact and said, “Lila is the main character of my story (couldn’t tell the difference between antagonist and protagonist at this point). She’s eighteen years old and wherever Lila goes her Gram goes…but Gram is dead. You see, Lila is a psychic medium but never listens to her intuitive abilities. Instead she listens to her Mother who has coerced her into marrying an undesirable guy. En route to the honeymoon, Lila and the groom stop off at a diner. It is there Lila decides that there is “no way she can have sex with this guy” after a small argument over who would be the keeper of the wedding cash they received for gifts. So she grabs the cash without him noticing and excuses herself from the table under the pretense that she’s not feeling well to her stomach. She high tales it back to the restroom still dressed in her wedding dress and ill-fitting wedding shoes. From there, she escapes out the bathroom window into the Ocala, Florida woods. This begins a dangerous adventure where Lila learns to trust her intuition and her power within to overcome people and obstacles of danger.” After this sentence I stopped because this is what I practiced (I followed the advice of a book…she wanted more…I did give her more...she liked it).

Anyway to make a longer story short, Ms. O. informed me that I had too much action and not enough romance. Her knowledge is in marketing novels with heavy romance.

Okay, so I bent the ear of an agent, Robert Brown, of Wylie-Merrick Literary Agency. Halfway through my pitch, he stopped me and requested my entire manuscript to read. OMG…I about lost my jaw on the floor.

That’s all for now folks. Anybody, have any tidbits on their novels?

Shelly