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Welcome to the third round of the 2013 Petit Fours and Hot Tamales Recipe for Success Write-Off Contest. We are open for entries today and again next Wednesday. Please read the complete rules by clicking the Contest TAB at the top of the page under the banner. Again, please read all the rules on the link above.
WHAT CAN YOU WIN Grand prize is a critique from agent Melissa Jeglinski of The Knight Agency of the first 20 pages of your manuscript and a two page synopsis. Four runners-up will receive a PFHT cookbook.
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S JUDGE:
A graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English with a writing concentration, Melissa began her career as an editor with Harlequin Enterprises. Looking to work with a variety of authors and genres, she joined The Knight Agency in 2008. With over two decades experience in the publishing industry, Melissa has fostered her clients to National prominence including a recent Newbery Honor. She is a member of RWA and AAR. Melissa is currently seeking projects in the following areas: Romance (contemporary, category, historical, inspirational) Young Adult, Middle Grade, Women’s Fiction and Mystery. Keep up with Melissa at The Knight Agency or Follow Her on Twitter
HOW TO ENTER In the comments box below this post, put your entry of the first paragraph or up to 100 words of your story. The first 100 entries posted AT or AFTER midnight, March 20, 2013, Eastern Standard Time, will be accepted. We will close this week’s round to entries after the first 100 entries or by 11:59 p.m. EST.
Please note: You are not required to post 100 words. You may post less. Instead of just saying the first paragraph, we give you the 100 word option because you may have started with dialogue. However, use word count or count each and every word by hand. Entries over 100 words will be automatically disqualified.
GENRES? Entries may be in any genre except for erotic, science fiction, or as otherwise noted. For purposes of explanation, we will consider erotic as any work that exceeds the “heat” level of the average Harlequin Blaze. PLEASE NOTE: NO POETRY, CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS, OR SCREENPLAYS.
WHO CAN ENTER Entrants must be unagented at the time of submission and not have published a work of full-length fiction (over 40,000 words) within the last 36 calendar months.
FIRST ROUND WINNERS From this first round of entries, we will choose 10 semifinalists whose names will be posted on Monday, March 25, 2013 by 8:00 PM EST in the comments section below today’s post. Winners will need to email us with contact information within 24 hours of their name being posted as a semifinalist. Remember, if you are not chosen from today’s entries, you may reenter the same work or an entirely different one NEXT WEDNESDAY!
And as a disclaimer, remember: By posting an entry, entrants agree to hold all members of PFHT, Melissa Jeglinski, and The Knight Agency harmless, including for any comments or criticisms including those posted on the blog by guests or others. Winning is not a guarantee of representation.
If you have a question that is not answered by reading the rules at http://petitfoursandhottamales.com/contest/ , please feel free to post it in the comments section, BUT enter anyway AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE RULES. If there is a problem, we’ll remove your entry. We don’t want you to miss the entry window, so we’d rather have a wrong entry we must remove than for you to not enter.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? ENTER IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW. List the genre, please (not part of the word count!). (Please note, if you have never posted a comment with us before, yours will be awaiting moderation. Don’t panic, it will still have an accurate time on it for your place in the contest.)
Have fun! Enter, and pass the word!
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by Debbie Kaufman
Hi, my ms is a contemporary romance.
The door to the office at the bank banged open abruptly. A man, half-a-foot taller than Annabelle Mendes, stomped out and snarled back over his shoulder, “Thanks for nothing. One hundred and fifty-some years of my family’s loyalty to Bitterman Bank and you’re smiling while saying no to me.” He bumped into Annabelle and turned quickly when her 18-month-old son released a cry. “Forgive me, ma’am.” He reached out to steady her. His hands were cold. That cold sent a shiver up her arms as she observed his soft worn blue chambray shirt and ridiculously long eyelashes.
Laura, This is great. Thanks for submitting.
I can’t wait to read all of today’s entries. Laura, good job…and good luck!
MIDDLE GRADE
My duffel bag and I stood next to the camp check-in tent. Mom and StepThad turned as a unit and headed for the car. Zoe tossed me my backpack.
Too light. I checked. The only thing left inside was Zoe’s Teen People magazine. My mouth fell open.
“Much more fun.” Zoe grinned.
“I was in the middle–”
“A Laura Ingalls Wilder biography.” She covered a fake yawn.
“But–”
“Grace. This is your week to be somebody new.”
She whirled and sprinted to catch up with Mom and StepThad, leaving me holding a stupid celebrity magazine.
Hi – my story is a cozy mystery.
Nothing ever happens on the remote Keweenaw Peninsula, a witch’s finger of land that crooks into Lake Superior, so when I agreed to serve as temporary, acting police chief it never crossed my mind that three weeks later I would be in Arvo Maki’s sauna staring at the dead body of the reigning St. Lucy.
Thanks again, PFHT! I don’t dare add another word to the entry!
REGENCY HISTORICAL ROMANCE
The number ten had a soothing quality, ten being, after all, the most perfect number, the basis not only of the entire decimal system, but also, according to Pythagoras, the whole of human knowledge. Simply counting to the number brought a sense of clarity and calm to Daphne Farrington’s nerves. And given that her brother was about to make the biggest mistake of his thirty-five years, counting to the numeral seemed the most effective way to collect all the serenity she could muster.
Romantic Suspense (political plot)
Evan preferred to hide in the spotlight. Openness offered the perfect camouflage. People rarely scrutinized events unfolding in front of their eyes. Visibility inspired reliability. A late afternoon meeting was less likely to raise eyebrows than a private caucus at a more discreet hour.
Evan’s attention darted around his pub. His lair. His domain. They were alone.
Senator Walter Ramsey’s hand trembled as he lifted the glass, but his firm tone and volume carried an undeniable air of pride. “Never tempt your ambition. You won’t ever recover from even the slightest slip, or hope to satisfy the hunger you awakened.”
Contemporary
“I was wondering if you’d allow me to escort you to the wedding.” The question took Jillian by surprise but what a wonderful surprise! She sat quietly, not moving.
“It’s not a hard question, just requires a yes or no answer.” She felt panicked. On one hand she wanted very much to go with him. On the other she knew she shouldn’t. The silence continued.
“Jillian…hello?”
I’d love to go with you.” She smiled brightly and wondered how she could do such a horrible thing to him.
My manuscript is a contemporary romance.
Cassidy Brynn had experienced many firsts in the past two years since the car accident. Her first night home from the hospital. Her first steps for the second time in her life. Her first visit to Jordan and Skylar’s graves.
And here she was again—another first. First time in the bridal shop where she’d bought the wedding dress she never had the chance to wear.
The pain in her leg, her back, and her past tugged her toward the exit, but she gripped the armrest of the chair, anchoring herself in a sea of sparkling, satin fabric.
Contemporary Romantic Suspense
No doubt about it. She was going to run.
Aidan groaned. Yep. Because that’s what happened when you volunteered to do a favor for a coworker, he admitted. Not even for his partner – just a fellow marshal in their field office wanting a few days vacation. “Just keep an eye on her, Aidan,” Ed had requested. “No big deal. Seems a little antsy.”
Antsy. Yeah, right. Antsy was drumming your fingertips on the steering wheel while waiting for a red light to change. Grace Anderson blew past antsy like an F-4 tornado bearing down on a trailer park.
YA Contemporary
My mother lost her mind today, and I’m going to hell.
Some people call it North Ridge High School, but believe me, it’s hell. I drive past it every week on the way to my counselor’s office.
Sparkly girls, whose cheeks have all been kissed by the sun, spill out its front doors. Boys with shaggy haircuts surround them, toting lacrosse sticks and backpacks slung over one shoulder. They look comfortable in their skin, like they walked off the cover of Seventeen or out of a Hollister advertisement.
“Emilie.” Mom’s voice interrupts my mental rant, and I flinch.
These all sound great. Fun to read.
Romantic Suspense with Paranormal Elements
Lathaniel Montgomery stood outside the auditorium doors trying to quell the plague of grasshoppers gnawing his gut. His throat opened; he felt like puking. How was he going to manage being in an audience full of people, full of their smells, full of their memories?
He hated how nothing in his life was normal. He hated the fucked up sequence of genetic code that enlarge the olfactory regions of his brain. He hated that he smelled everything. And he especially hated the ability to smell the energy imprints of people’s memories. Memories that could overwhelm him and annihilate his reality.
Contemporary Romance
“Remember when we stole pizza from the Bluebells? This is the same thing.”
Violet trudged through the mud, her boots suctioning the moist ground.
“No, Kath. We were living on a diet of tinfoil bananas. This here,” Violet dropped her hold on the makeshift satin rope, spinning in a circle to encompass the full madness of what they were doing, “will land us in a lot more trouble than cleaning out the latrines.”
Kath yanked her taffeta dress up her thighs, then froze. “Don’t look now,” she whispered, “but trouble just showed up- all six feet of him.”
I love all of the entries! There is one book in here I would buy right now just from the 100 words they posted. (wow!)
THIS WEEK’S SEMIFINALISTS!
First, I would like to encourage everyone who didn’t final to enter again next week. If you only knew what fractions were resorted to in determining the last semifinalist this week, you would be sitting at your computer at 11:59 p.m Tuesday waiting for the clock to strike midnight to post your entry!
So here, NOT in any particular order, are our 5 semifinalists.
1. Hoyle
2. Kelley
3. Meyer
4. Bailey
5. Yost
Congratulations, and expect an instructional email from me no later than tomorrow morning.
ONLY one more week, folks. Tell your friends, polish your entries, cross your fingers, etc.