SMOKE CITY NARRATORS
NOVEL PITCH & 1ST FIVE PAGES CONTEST
We're pleased to announce our 2009 Contest Judge: Cindy Dyson, author of THE LAST QUERY: A New Approach to Crafting a Novel Query Letter.
Dyson shows how-to hone in on the most intriguing qualities of your
novel and your life, even if you lack writing credits, and shape them
into a unique query.
Her query letter hooked Agent Marly Rusoff, who sold Dyson's first novel, AND SHE WAS, to Harper Collins.
Her nonfiction credits include many magazine articles, five nonfiction
YA books and three literary biographies in Harold Bloom's BioCritiques
college library series. Dyson grew up in Alaska and now lives in
Montana, where she's working on her second novel. Learn more about her
and her writing process on these websites:
1st Place - $150: SECOND CHANCES … Theresa J. GRANT … Newaygo, MI Pitch: Four dead girls, three years in hiding, two men with secrets; for forensic anthropologist Jo Birch, one second chance.
2nd Place - $75: CHIN LEE'S PLACE ... Vance H. WHITE ... Niceville, FL Pitch: Reporter Robert Gage turns detective in this hard-boiled thriller set in San Francisco on the eve of World War II.
3rd Place - $40: The BODY of HELEN ... Tracy KORETSKY ... Berkeley, CA
2009 Honorary Mentions
HM #1: MY NAME is SADIA by Erika Dusen TAMINDZIJA … Arlington Heights, IL Pitch: A young slave navigates the 16th century Islamic World and struggles to regain her family.
HM #2: In the SHADOW of the LONE STAR by B. J. BATEMAN … Damascus, OR Pitch: In 1938 Texas, a runaway white girl finds work and
love in a colored nightclub, cultivating friendships and inciting
violence.
HM #3: The THIRD STEP by Ginger MARCINKOWSKI … Pella, IA Pitch: Two countries, two rivers, and her father's funeral cause a woman to confront the incestuous past that's haunted her life.
HM #4: KILLING RABBITS by Mary Ann KOHENSKEY … Maryland Heights, MO Pitch: Joe Detrie runs away from an abusive family but returns to rescue his younger brother and kill their father.
2009 SEMIFINALISTS by TITLE ONLY
The BODY of HELEN
CHIN LEE'S PLACE
The END of ALL ROADS
The FIRST YEAR
IN and OUT of MADNESS
IN the SHADOW of the LONE STAR
INVISIBLE VAMPIRE
KILLING RABBITS
LETTERS from the DEAD
MY NAME IS SADIA
NO LIFE but THIS
RISEN
SECOND CHANCES
SHADOWS of the COMANCHE
SOMEWHERE HOME
The SOUND of INK
THICK and THIN
The THIRD STEP
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