Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Pitchwars Wishlist and About Me Bloghop



Welcome Pitchwars hopefuls! I'm so pleased to have you here and to share my wishlist with you. Giving feedback to other writers gives me such a buzz.

First little bit about me. I'm a fantasy writer from Melbourne, Australia now living in London. I worked in publishing for many years until I left two years ago to become a freelance editor and writer full time. Under my own name I've had two novels published with Random House and self-pubbed a novel and a short story. I'm repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. This is my Goodreads profile. As my "day job" I work as a biographer for Story Terrace and as a freelance developmental editor. You can see my 5-star feedback on Upwork, where I do some of my editing work.

I'm also a secret contemporary romance author with one of the big houses and I've got three romances out this year. A fourth historical novel is on submission with my publishers at the moment, and I'm so excited about it!

I'm here to help you with the big picture issues: characterisation, structure, plot development and voice. Is the point of view working? Is the structure working? Are the characters behaving in a believable in and in-character manner? What can we improve to make your book the one agents and publishers keep reading?

It can be scary showing other people your work, and even scarier asking for feedback. I still get nervous when I know people are reading my work! Because I've been on both sides of the table, getting editorial notes and giving them, I understand the need to be constructive and sensitive at the same time. You want to be sure that the person giving the feedback gets what you've written and cares about it before they launch into all the things they think you should fix.

Pitchwars Wishlist

Because I work and write so widely across genres I'm pretty open genre-wise. It's the style of writing that I most connect with. I like scenes with a lot of emotion and characterisation, and high stakes moments. Unusual ideas and scenes capture my attention, and twists on usual tropes.

  • Both SFF and contemporary genres. I write and work freelance across both of these.
  • SFF novels with lush settings, unusual main characters and strong plot arcs
  • SFF that is primarily character-driven. I'm all about digging into the emotion and characters in a books, and that goes for all genres.
  • Paranormals, especially if there's a strong romance plotline. PNR is coming back after lull in the industry. 
  • Historical settings. I love history. Twentieth-century right back to ancient times. And historical settings combined with SFF/PNR? Yes please. 
  • Stories influenced by fairytales and myths, with twists on familiar themes.
  • Crime elements. I love crime novels and mystery, especially with unreliable narrators.
  • Villains who are the stars of their chapters. Villains who scene-steal. Villains who make you love them just a little too much. 
  • I do a lot of gaming so if you've been influenced by the tropes and worldbuilding in Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Destiny etc, I'm your gal.
  • Worldbuilding that is law-based and thoroughly reasoned. I'm not so much into magical realism.
  • Did I mention I'm also a contemp romance author? I love any story with a strong romantic plotline and a happy ending. 
  • But I also love it if you can make me cry. You cruel, cruel writer.
Got something and you're not sure if it'll suit me? Hit me up on Twitter. 

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