H8: YA Modern Fairy Tale: EVERY CINDERELLA HAS HER MIDNIGHT
TITLE: EVERY CINDERELLA HAS HER MIDNIGHT
AUTHOR: Amy Zinn
AGE CATEGORY: Young Adult
GENRE: Modern fairy tale
WORD COUNT: 83,000
PITCH:
Seventeen-year-old Hazel is the youngest godmother L.A. has seen in eons, but that’s no excuse to fall for her client’s ‘Charming’. After all, fairy godmothers don’t make their own dreams come true.
FIRST 250 WORDS:
Wedding cake toppers are as varied as couples are themselves. You’ve got the high fivers, the piggybackers, the couple at the altar each with an ear to their cell phones, and the couch potatoes. And then there are the lucky ones—those who really are in impeccable, unshakable love.
Two pairs of beady, unblinking eyes stare back at me from my nightstand. My mother’s been foraging again and found me an addition to my collection. I cup my hand around the woman’s chiseled gown and bring it in for a closer look.
She smells like 5th and Grand. Rubino’s Italian Bistro. No doubt this figurine was mixed up in the dregs of one of Rubino’s paninis earlier today. My mother is one of the elite dumpster divers of the world. Some people have a weakness for puppies in boxes out in front of grocery stores. My mother has a soft spot for inanimate objects, items left on sidewalks next to handmade cardboard signs that say, “I need a home,” or “Free junk.”
The figurine’s not bad though. The couple faces forward, with the bride leaning up against her groom. He has his arms around her waist and she reaches back to touch his cheek. I picture them watching their band play, swaying to the music together. They look like they’re in love. I know he’s glued to her, but it seems he would hold her just as tightly on his own.
Then again, how would I know? Being in love is not in my job description.
H9: Adult Contemporary Women’s Fiction: DESIGNER YOU
TITLE: DESIGNER YOU
AUTHOR: Sarahlyn Bruck
AGE CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Women’s Fiction
WORD COUNT: 92,000
PITCH:
Pam checked every box: marriage, kid, career? Check. When her husband dies suddenly and their DIY empire goes on life support, Pam must fix the relationship with her troubled daughter and save the family business.
FIRST 250 WORDS:
Pam had been the one who’d found him. Thank God she’d made the gruesome discovery. If she’d been held up in traffic or stopped someplace else on the way home, Grace would’ve arrived first after school.
Pam would never have forgiven herself.
Now, a mere twenty-four hours later, she could no longer avoid it. It felt too soon, too unreal to share the unavoidable news with their legions of followers. She closed the door to her home office, sat down at her laptop, and forced herself to type.
It’s with a sad, heavy heart I must inform you, our faithful readers: Nate died yesterday.
She paused after she typed that sentence. Her husband would’ve hated having his death announced on their lifestyle blog. Better than on Good Morning America or in the pages of This Old House. An inappropriate giggle escaped Pam’s lips, immediately followed by more tears. In one day, she’d cried more than maybe her whole life. She grabbed a Kleenex and blew her nose. This was the hardest thing Pam had ever written, but it was necessary. Their fans deserved to know, and the full story needed to come from her.
You may have already read about it in the ‘People’ section of the newspaper, or heard about it on a brief report on the local news last evening, or this may come as a complete shock to you. It did to me. And I’m still in shock. I haven’t fully absorbed the fact that Nate is gone.