All Things Brenda – Heather Cashman

GUARDIAN OF SECRETS by Brenda Drake . . . Release Day and Giveaway!

Posted by heathercashman in All Things Brenda

Today is the release of Brenda Drake’s GUARDIAN OF SECRETS (Library Jumpers #2)! Be sure to enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter below!

Title: GUARDIAN OF SECRETS (Library Jumpers #2)
Author: Brenda Drake
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: February 7, 2017

About the Book . . .

Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens. Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it. And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him Dzex,dz since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia. Maybe. If she survives.

Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1): Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2): Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

KIRKUS REVIEW SAYS . . .

Magic and mayhem return to the world’s libraries in this YA sequel.

. . . Drake’s (Thief of Lies, 2016, etc.) continued love affair with libraries, through Gia’s appreciation for their beauty and architecture, both grounds the worldbuilding and fills real libraries with a sense of potential wonder. With magical trials, political uprisings, strange beasts, monster-filled pocket dimensions, prophecies, and high school, the . . . the author manages to bring all the pieces together in a cliffhanger conclusion that should have readers eagerly awaiting the next installment.

A fantasy that embraces its love-triangle motif and deftly manages to create a believably fragile political system at risk of collapse—unless the heroine can save it.

Brenda Drake

Brenda Drake is a New York Times bestselling author of Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1), Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2), Touching Fate (Fated Series #1), and Cursing Fate (Fated Series #2). She grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. She hosts workshops and contests for writers such as Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag, #PitMad. When she’s not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment). Look for her upcoming novels, Thunderstruck, Seeking Fate (Fated Series #3), and Assassin of Truths (Library Jumpers #3) coming soon from Entangled Teen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

13 Jan

Announcing Pitch Madness 2017 . . . Candyland Edition

Posted by heathercashman in All Things Brenda

The Pitch Madness submission window will be open for 24 hours on February 24!

What is Pitch Madness? It’s a contest held every March, where writers enter for a chance to win requests from the participating agents. Writers submit a 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of their completed manuscript on submission day. Then a team of readers choose the top sixty (60) entries to go onto the agent round. Though Pitch Madness has a game theme, the next contest will transition to more of a critique based contest with agents simply requesting in the comments of the entries’ posts instead of having the agents play for requests. Also, hosts will coach our team members, helping them polish their entries and first pages.

We’ll have an agent introduction post up next week.

The submission window will be open from 12:01 AM EST on February 24 until 11:59PM EST. You should have plenty of time to get your submissions in. There is no limit of how many entries will be accepted. Please note: All entries sent before or after the allotted times will be deleted.

There will be 60 finalists moving onto the agent round. Pitch Madness will accept Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult completed fiction, novel length (no novellas) completed and polished manuscripts only. This time around we will not accept non-fiction. Only one entry per writer this round.

What do you need to enter? A 35-word (max) pitch and the first 250 words of your finished manuscript. If the 250th word falls in the middle of a sentence, go to the end of the sentence. I will post formatting instructions before the submission window opens. There will be a form on the submission post to enter your pitch into.

Pitch Madness will be on six blogs and each blog host will have a co-host helping them choose their top 10 entries.

We’ll have a small team of first readers ranking the entries for the host round.

All the twitter fun will be happening on the hashtag #PitchMadness!

Meet our first round readers …

Jami Nord

Website | Twitter

Phone monkey, former Lit Agent intern, freelance editor for @Chimera_Edits, & writer under a pen name. Bi, pagan, nerdy, & liberal. I don’t bite, promise.

Kerbie Addis

Twitter

Writer. Feminist. Slytherin. Bacon mage. Future librarian. Lit agent intern. Army wife. Lover of dark stories & dark lipstick. #PitchWars co-mentor. #WNDB

Mary Anne Marlowe

Website | Twitter

Author of SOME KIND OF MAGIC @KensingtonBooks Feb ’17 * Repped by @mike_hoogland at @DGLM * #PitchWars Mentor, Whovian, & Sassenach

Samantha Joyce

Website | Twitter

Author of the LOVE IN DISGUISE series. FLIRTING WITH FAME and DEALING IN DECEPTION out now from Pocket Star! Repped by @KatRushall of ABLA. Broadway Geek Girl.

Here are the links to the host blogs and their co-hosts for the contest …

Team Ice Cream Sea hosted on Brenda Drake’s blog …

Brenda Drake

Twitter

NYT bestselling author of YA fiction. Latest, THIEF OF LIES & CURSING FATE. Next, GUARDIAN OF SECRETS 2/7/17. Rep’d by @petejknapp #PitchWars & #PitMad Creator

Monica Hoffman

Website | Twitter

Team Gumdrop Mountains hosted on Heather Cashman’s blog …

Heather Cashman

Twitter

All things wordy, generally nerdy. Editor at @CornerstonesLit. Agent intern. #SCBWI member. Assistant to @brendadrake #PitchMadness #PitMad #PitchWars

Nikki Roberti

Website | Twitter

YA Contemp author rep’d by @sztownsend81 of @NewLeafLiterary, @BrendaDrake‘s assistant, #PitchWars Mentor, @StarkEditing Query Editor, Awarded Playwright

Team Peanut Brittle House hosted on Pintip Dunn’s blog …

Pintip Dunn

Website | Twitter

New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. RWA RITA® winner for Best First Book. The FORGET TOMORROW series; THE DARKEST LIE; GIRL ON THE VERGE (Jun 27).

Darcy Woods

Website | Twitter

Counts laughter as exercise. Lives to swoon. Award-winning YA author of SUMMER OF SUPERNOVAS (Random House/Crown). Repped by @cjdrayton.

Lollipop Woods hosted by Rebecc a Weston’s blog …

Rebecca Coffindaffer

Website | Twitter

Author, shipper trash, all-around nerd. Freelance copy editor at http://www.rawestoneditorial.com . Making my own fun since 1983. Repped by @lara_perkins.

Marieke Nijkamp

Website | Twitter

#1 NYT bestselling author of THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS (Sourcebooks Fire) | Dreamer | Wanderer | #WNDB | Secret Agent: @suddenlyjen, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

Team Licorice Castle hosted on Sharon Johnston’s blog …

Sharon Johnston

Website | Twitter

DIVIDED & SHATTERED: Open Heart Novels out now with @CityOwlPress #PitchWars mentor. #LoveOzYA

Jeyn Roberts

Website | Twitter

Author of the Dark Inside trilogy, The Bodies We Wear and When They Fade. Vancouverite. Animal lover. Destroying words in a coffee shop near you.

Team Peppermint Forest hosted on Wade Albert White’s blog …

Wade Albert White

Website | Twitter

Author of THE ADVENTURER’S GUIDE series. #PitchWars Mentor. Member of @TheSweet16s. Also, I own one pretend cat and one real one.

Timenda Wertz

Blog | Twitter

Middle Sschool science teacher, SF/F geek, Ravenclaw, equal parts football & Broadway fan, Pitch Wars MG co-mentor, represented by Elizabeth Kaplan of Kaplan Literary

Here’s the schedule for Pitch Madness …

February 24: Pitch Madness submission window opens for 24 hours

February 24 – March 5: Pitch Madness Slush Readers sort the entries

March 6: Pitch Madness Draft – Hosts pick their top entries

March 6 – 14: Hosts coach their teams

March 16 – 17: Agent Round

March 23: #PitMad Twitter Pitch Party (Even if you made it in, didn’t make it in, or didn’t enter Pitch Madness, #PitMad is open to everyone!)

That’s it for now. Look for our agent announcement post next week and join us on Februrary 24 when the submission window opens!

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04 Feb

Thank You, Brenda Drake!

Posted by heathercashman in All Things Brenda

Most of the writing community is supportive, helpful, ready with advice, but few give more to our industry than Brenda Drake. I’ve watched her help so many writers find agents, help with revising their manuscripts, and get requests for submissions. Over and over she spends her own precious time giving to the rest of us.

It is my honor to be her assistant!

If you want to improve your writing, visit her blog here and see what information you can glean from rejections, mentors, and advice.

Brenda is the author of two novels: Touching Fate and Thief of Lies. Not only is she an amazing mentor and all-around superhero, she’s a great author. Click on the link above to buy one of her books. They’re great reads!