PITCH WARS MENTOR BLOG HOP & WISHLIST 2016

Hello! Ellie Terry here. I am unspeakably excited to be a MG mentor for Pitch Wars this year! You’ve got a lot of great mentors to choose from . . . and since I don’t posses magical powers or riches or fame . . . I can’t really give you a good reason to sub to me. (But I do make a delicious cheesecake from a secret family recipe that’s to die for. Just sayin’.)

So, about me. I was Joy McCullough-Carranza’s alternate mentee in Pitch Wars 2014 (and it literally changed my life) so I can’t wait to see what it’s like to sit on the other side of the fence. Speaking of fences . . . one of my most embarrassing moments from middle school was when I jumped off a chain-link fence during recess, but my underwear and tights got caught, ripping a humongous hole through both, and my friends had to help get me down. Since I was wearing a dress that day, I had to call my mom to bring me another pair of underwear. Okay. Moving on.

<—- <—- <—- This is me.

I spent eleven years querying (40 picture books and 5 middle-grade novels) before signing with my agent, Steven Chudney, so it’s safe to assume I know what querying and rejection feels like. You can read my HOW I GOT MY AGENT story by clicking here. In 2014, I entered Pitch Wars with a manuscript titled Pocket Full of Poppies. That manuscript is now my debut novel, FORGET ME NOT, which will be out March 14, 2017 from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan. It is a dual POV (girl/boy) contemporary novel (half verse/half prose) about a girl named Calli who tries to hide her worsening Tourette syndrome from her new school, while trying to convince her mother not to move them yet again, especially after becoming friends with the boy next door. I live in southern Utah with my hubby and three crazy kiddos, ages 13, 10, and 5. I teach baton twirling lessons, enjoy sewing dresses for little girls, love staring at the sky, and sometimes wish it was 1957. I pretty much only watch kid shows on TV and I’m just under 5 feet tall (about the size of a 12 year old) so that really helps when writing MG . . . um, let’s see, what else should you know about me??? I don’t like mean people. Like. At all. So don’t be mean to me, m’kay? I like to laugh. I love parodies. And I like to turn on loud music and dance in my living room when no one is watching. And now, the moment you have all been waiting for . . . MY PITCH WARS WISH LIST!!! (MG only.) ********************************************************************************************************************** YES, PLEASE: interesting settings, issue books (give me all the issue books!!!!!), novels in verse, summer vacations, make me laugh, make me cry, neuro-diverse, racially diverse, teach me something new, familial stories, friendship break-ups, first crushes, quiet stories, full of heart/emotion, fairy tale-esque, great voice, literary, multiple POV’s, stories with a hint of magic, true-to-life boy voices, realistic endings, anything akin to The Wonder Years (seriously, I LOVE that show).

GENRES I AM OPEN TO:

Contemporary
Magical Realism
Historical Fiction
Light Fantasy

Books I love:

LOVE THAT DOG, RAIN REIGN, A HANDFUL OF STARS, THE SUMMER BEFORE BOYS, ONE FOR THE MURPHY’S, SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY, MOCKINGBIRD, THREE BIRD SUMMER, WORDS WITH WINGS, A SNICKER OF MAGIC, HOUR OF THE BEES, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, OUT OF THE DUST, THE WAR THAT SAVED MY LIFE, ROMEO BLUE, ESPERANZA RISING, NUMBER THE STARS, BROWN GIRL DREAMING, THE WEDNESDAY WARS, PRINCESS ACADEMY, FAIREST, WINTERLING, THE SEVENTH WISH. ********************************************************************************************************************** NO, THANKS: stories over 55k, scary, bloody, depressing, graphic novels, a large amount of violence, super-heroes, paranormal, stories with animals as the main characters, gross humor. I am the WRONG mentor for Horror, Hard Sci-Fi, High/Epic Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Sports. ********************************************************************************************************************* ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE TWEET ME @ellieterrybooks. (The comments here on my blog are having issues.)