Entry #1






Genre:  Adult Literary

Title: The Orchid Girl’s Chase

Word Count: 87,000

Hogwarts House: Anggreka would be a sorted into the Gryffindors because it takes guts for a 13-year-old village girl to leave the jungle of Borneo to save her family, fight for miracles and overcome the cultural “curse” of her disability.

Pitch: Muslim Borneo teenager Anggreka’s mom dies giving birth to her sister. Disabled—missing one arm—Anggreka leaves her village home to find their polygamous father, their only hope for staying out of an orphanage.

First 250: 

“Heaven is located at the bottom of a mother's foot.” ~Indonesian Proverb

The Borneo village of Kembang, Indonesia, 2004

Anggreka:

Sometimes you just have to do something to make the curses go away. Even when you’re just thirteen. Especially when you’re the reason for them.

I’ve pictured this birth in my head a million times. Mama’s smiling her face wide open, staring into the eyes of her perfect baby, and the curses are floating out the window like ashes from the stove fire.

Please, far away and never ever come back.

You can see me, too, in my picture. I’m white and glowy like I’m full of all the magic wishes that come true. And you can hear me chanting to thank Allah for overlooking my haram sin and giving me my miracle anyway.

But Mama’s screaming breaks the picture into a million pieces. Her eyes roll all wild like maybe there’s a demon chasing his tail inside her. And her hair, stringy with sweat, ropes around her neck, and you think it’s about to turn into a snake that wants to squeeze out the last of her happiness. Then she presses her back against the foam mattress on the floor, thrashing like there’s some battle inside her between giving up or fighting back.  

“Fight, Mama,” I whisper. I wish I could just shout it and that my words would fly out as Tidung tribal swords to cut through all the pain. But I’m supposed to be hiding.


Other Team Hufflepuff Entries:



MG: FORT SMYTHE AND THE RUBY HEART


YA: BRAIN DAMAGE


YA: CUSTODIAN


YA: HER GOLDEN CRIMES


YA: THE DROWNING OF MOLLY WHITFORD


YA: THE G.A.P. PROJECT


YA: THE DEVIL DON'T LOVE YOU

YA: ECHO CHAMBER HEIST




Request System:


10 Points – Query and first 10 pages = Petrificus Totalus
25 Points – Query and first 25 pages = Protego
50 Points – Query and first 50 pages = Stupefy
100 Points – Query and first 100 pages = Sectumsempra
200 Points – Query and full = Expelliarmus

8 comments:

  1. Ooh, curious to read more of this one -- 20 points! Please send the pages to patricia@marsallyonliteraryagency.com, and make sure to mention PitchSlam in the subject line of the email. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stupefy! Please send your query and pages as a word document attachment to my personal inbox (whitley@inklingsliterary.com). And if you don't mind, could you also include your query letter on the first page of the word doc? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. 200 Points – Query and full = Expelliarmus

    You can email me at the email in my signature line further below

    To tell you a little bit about our literary agency, which closes more deals for authors than any other agency worldwide: tridentmediagroup.com

    Trident Media Group (TMG) is a prominent literary agency located in New York City that originally formed in 2000. TMG represents over 1,000 bestselling and emerging authors in a range of genres of fiction and nonfiction, many of whom have appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers Lists and have won major awards and prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the P.E.N. Faulkner Award, the P.E.N. Hemingway Award, The Booker Prize, and the L.A. Times Book Award, among others. TMG is one of the world’s leading, largest and most diversified literary agencies.

    For more than ten consecutive years, TMG continues to rank number one for sales according to publishersmarketplace.com in North America. TMG is the only U.S. literary agency to consistently be in the top ten in both UK fiction and UK non-fiction and has ranked as highly as number one in UK fiction deals.

    I look forward to hearing from you.

    All the best,


    Mark

    Mark Gottlieb
    Literary Agent
    Trident Media Group, LLC
    41 Madison Avenue, Floor 36
    New York, NY 10010
    (212) 333-1506
    tridentmediagroup.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Posting on behalf of Laurie McLean:

    Sectumsempra!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Posting on behalf of Nicole Resciniti: 200 points!

    ReplyDelete

Instagram

@kymburleevan