GUTGAA Small Press Pitches!!!

Welcome, Pitchers!!! Welcome, Judges!!! Welcome, One and All!!!

Wish I had a trumpet fanfare for you!
Today my blog is honored to co-host the GUTGAA Small Press Pitch Contest! The entries in the ADULT category are conveniently listed on my sidebar. 101 pitches made their way through the emailing round on Friday and the hardworking, never failing Deana Barnhart sorted them all out into four categories. The other blogs co-hosting this week are Deana, Juliana Brandt and Ink In The Book. Due to the imbalance of entries, there will be a proportionate number of winners per category:

Adult: 31 (8 finalists will be picked)
YA Contemporary/YA Historical: 22 (5 finalists will be picked)
Other YA: 36 (9 finalists will be picked)
NA & MG: 12 (3 finalists will be picked)

The finalists will be narrowed down by wonderful mystery judges who will indicate their votes in the comments. Here are the mystery judges' names for the Adult entries on my blog:

Rose Cardinal
Slave to the Muse
Kinderella
Manchee

NOTES: Ties will be broken by other judges in the contest. Winners will be announced on Friday. Next Monday, Deana will post the 25 finalists on her site for the final round of judging. And if you have any questions, I will try to answer, but Deana is the most knowledgeable. This is so exciting! There are so many great books-to-be out there! GOOD LUCK!!!

GUTGAA SPP #32 - Bound and Broken

Bound and Broken

Paranormal Romance (Adult)

96,000 words

For years, Grey suppressed her psychic abilities with medication, but when she meets Sergei, a broody vampire, she decides she wants more out of life. Sergei makes her feel and shows her that even with emotions from strangers bombarding her, life is worth feeling if she can gain control over her abilities.

After more than a century, Sergei’s maker, the controlling vampire queen Mara comes back into his life. And she brought her sociopathic blood addicted companion, Tyr with her. Mara is still angry that Sergei walked out on her over a century ago. She decides that she will have him, body and soul.  

Mara beats and starves Sergei for a week, and when he is freed, Grey’s strong psychic blood is the only thing that can save him. The life-saving blood donation inadvertently leaves them soul-bound, and fighting two ancient vampires determined to torment them both.

Chapter 1 

BANG. BANG. BANG. 

Grey squinted against the blazing hall light and tried not to stumble down the stairs. The haze of sleep grew dimmer with each thud of a fist against her front door. Who would be knocking in the middle of the night? 

“Open the goddamn door.” The sound of her drunken ex-husband’s voice brought back memories of his false accusations and blame. She hesitated with her hand cradling the knob, staring at the peeling white paint of the door. Another project Jim had never finished. His fist pounded again. 

Stealing herself against his anger, she jerked the door open and shivered when a blast of cool fall air hit her. “What the hell are you doing here?” 

It must have been well after midnight. Not a soul stirred in Grey’s quiet, suburban neighborhood. The street lamp down the block cast enough light to allow her see Jim’s bloodshot eyes.

GUTGAA SPP #31 - Finders Keepers

Title: FINDERS KEEPERS
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 82,000

Query

After a near-miss with a nervous breakdown, Brenna Moriarity gave up magic, and her life has been much easier without it, thank you very much. And it's not like she's wanting for things to keep her busy. Between her duties as an on-air radio personality, hitting up Seattle’s clubs with her friends, avoiding a tyrannical coven leader, and keeping away from her delicious boss, there’s no time for practicing the craft.

But her gift won’t let her go so easily. See, Brenna can find things when no one else can. Things that may be better off lost.

Unbeknownst to Brenna, her best friend and fellow witch, Jared, steals Merwyn's Ruby, a gem so powerful that in the hands of a lesser witch, it can control the user, instead of the other way around. Brenna's on the verge of having to leave town to avoid joining the local coven, and he thinks if she can wield the ruby, the coven leader will have to leave her alone and she won't have to move. His plan dies a quick death when someone steals it from him. Now he’s desperate to get it back, and Brenna’s the only one who can help him.

Having a gem as dangerous and seductive as Merwyn's Ruby loose in the city is bad enough. Having it fall into the wrong hands would be even worse. Trapped by love and loyalty to her friend, Brenna agrees to help, even though the search may rip her sanity to shreds.

First 150

“No.”

“Brenna, come on. When have I ever led you wrong?”

I scowled at the wall, wishing Jared was in front of me instead of on the other end of the phone. I wanted him to see my face. “How about more often than not?”

“Look, just because there was that one time the spirit got loose and wrecked your mom’s pantry--”

“And the time where I had to go searching through your ex-girlfriend’s bedroom. And the time we had to break into the school. And the time you lost your keys at that party, only to remember you’d lent them to your brother, leading him to get in the accident...” Shit. Should not have gone there. “Jer, I’m sorry.”

The line was quiet except for the faint background noises on Jared’s end of the phone. “‘S okay, Bren. That was pure stupidity on my part.”

GUTGAA SPP #30 - Lies of the Ball

Lies Of The Ball
Historical Fiction
87,000

Query:

She’s a runaway slave.
The man she loves is the one who could destroy her.

Southern beauty Mercedes Albright lives in the prettiest plantation house Mississippi has to offer. She hosts the most beautiful parties in the entire South, and dances as though she were the belle of the ball. Mercedes is the most eligible bachelorette in town. And she has a secret that if ever found out, it would ruin her for the rest of her life.

Careful laid plans put Mercedes in good standing with the wealthy socialites of Vicksburg. To her downfall, the man she falls desperately in love with is the man whose father sold her mother years before at the slave market. Mercedes was bought by another man and sent to live in another town.

Returning to the place of her birth, Mercedes has only one thing on her mind: revenge on the family who stole her childhood and ripped her mother from her arms. She never intended to fall in love with her enemy. She never expected he would learn her true identity. Now, she’s on the run again, but this time, it’s for a different reason.

Lies Of The Ball is an 87,000 word historical fiction set during the Civil War era.

First 150 Words:

Tangled undergrowth and briars scraped at Mercedes' leg and snagged her dress. The woods closed in on her, twisting and turning the overhead branches into ghostly silhouettes. Climbing vines wrapped around the swamp dogwoods creating a canopy above her, blocking even the smallest slivers of moonlight. Something slimy brushed against her arm and she clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle a scream.

Wood smoke filled the damp air and squinting her eyes, Mercedes made out the flames of a small fire sputtering through the thick brush. She began to run away but tripped on a half-rotted log and fell into a clearing. The men on the other side stood in a circle, spewing filthy words.

“He won’t run no more,” one man said, throwing his head back in dark laughter.

Shadows danced across the ground and looking up, Mercedes froze in fright. A slave hung from a rope.

GUTGAA SPP #29 - A Place to Call Their Own

A Place to Call Their Own
Adult LGBT/Historical Fiction
54,000 Words

Query

The year is 1865.  Frank Greerson and Gregory Young have been discharged from the Army and are headed to their childhood homes..  They defied their parents in 1861 when they joined the Army.  After battling southern rebels and preserving the Union of the United States of America, the two men set out to battle the Kansas Prairie and build a life together.  Once they find their claim, they encounter common obstacles to life on the Kansas Prairie in 1866:  Native Americans, tornadoes, wild animals, and weather.  They help neighbors build shelters and harvest crops.

When a prairie fire destroys their crops and takes their neighbor’s lives, Frank and Gregory are instructed to find their son’s aunt.  Faced with leaving a destroyed claim, the railroad coming through their land, and dwindling funds, Frank and Gregory must decide whether to leave the place they've worked hard to make their own or fulfill their friends' dying wish.

First 150

Frank Greerson figured his words would clear his parent's dining room that morning, and they did.  His mother herded her grandchildren and their dishes into the kitchen.  His sister-in-law cleared the adults' dishes and escorted his sister out of the room.  All it took was a glare from his father for Frank's brother to take the two adult men with them.  As Gregory Young stood up, he glanced across the table at Frank.  Frank nodded his head slightly to indicate to Gregory it was all right for him to leave the room with everybody. Frank had to do this on his own.

Frank’s father, Paul Greerson, took a deep breath before he spoke.  “Son, I know I can’t stop you from leaving, but I am going to do everything in my power to talk you out of this.”

Frank didn’t look up from his plate.  “Sir, I’m going to Kansas and you can’t stop me."

GUTGAA SPP #28 - Covenanted

Covenanted

Historical Fiction

98,000

Query:

The year is 1637 and Scotland is a nation on the brink of collapse. The king is seeking to reform the church in defiance of the will of the people. In the midst of mounting tensions and civil unrest Jenny, a lowly farm girl, finds herself catapulted by one breathtaking act of defiance from vegetable stall-seller to national heroine.

In 17th century Edinburgh’s dank alleyways danger becomes her constant companion. She is forced to elude the bloody reprisals of the royalists she has spited whilst avoiding the destructive zealousness of the revolutionaries she has joined. Even worse, her past life refuses to relinquish her – a prearranged marriage to the young royalist, Thomas, will inevitably jeopardise her love for Jamie, the wily preacher boy who first drew her into the revolution’s intrigues.

Her place at the heart of Scotland’s tempest will endanger more than just herself. As war looms and the proud old nation tears itself apart, Jenny is faced with the starkest of choices – will she save her family, or abandon her principles?

First 150 words:

There should be thunder, Jamie Ness thought. There was rain. It beat down like Noah’s flood, pooling around the door and trying to soak its way in through the nest of thatch overhead. It was because God was angry, Jamie decided. Tonight He was losing one of His greatest servants. Surely mere deluge was not enough? Surely there would be thunder too?

“James,” rasped his father’s voice. The boy looked up, bitter thoughts dissolving. Even now one word from the old minister commanded him. Even now, bedridden, with lungs infected and body wasted, Jamie’s father dominated the room.

“Come,” Edward Ness managed through gritted teeth. Jamie hurried to the bedside. Across the room doctor Mortimer added more peat to the ailing hearth, ignoring them both.

“Well doctor?” Jamie demanded. “The verdict?”

Mortimer turned slowly from the fire, his expression lost in the thick, damp shadows of the croft.

“I’m sorry Jamie.”

GUTGAA SPP #27 - Dark Sand

DARK SAND
WOMEN'S FICTION/SUSPENSE/THRILLER
96,246 WORDS

ALEXA UNDERWOOD is going to uncover the truth.

A truth so dark, so sinister, that it will turn her world upside down.

Held hostage by a man known only as Thomas at a remote desert compound, Alexa is too sharp to believe that she is there to help repopulate the world following the Apocalypse. Other women at the compound have been duped by their captor and have already become pregnant.

But Alexa can see through the ruse; she can see that Thomas lacks compunction and will stop at nothing if it means money in his soiled pocket.

Alexa knew when she started unraveling Thomas’s shroud that she would be in danger. She just had no clue how much.

Alexa Underwood is going to uncover the truth. But she will have blood on her hands before it’s over.

CHAPTER ONE

God, it was hard to breathe.

Stinging, bitter smoke clawed at my nostrils, dragging me from a sleep so deep I could have been in a coma. My mouth was dry and full of cobwebs, and my tongue felt like an Eggo waffle that had been forgotten in the freezer sometime last year. At first I thought my lips had bits of paper glued to them. Then I realized it was just my skin, as it peeled away in curly little shreds from the tender tissue underneath. As the smoke seeped into my lungs, some corner of my groggy brain realized that whatever was burning smelled like rubber, or maybe plastic with a hint of kerosene. And it stank.

      Very slowly I cracked my eyes open. Suspended above my head was a curved ceiling of bright blue with an occasional dark silhouette reaching across it, grasping at something unseen.

GUTGAA SPP #26 - Or Not To Be

Or Not To Be
Women’s fiction
66,000

Query:

Anna Wixim is dead.

When somebody dies they don’t come home anymore. This is the lie that Eddie told his little son on the day his wife died. Still, four-year-old Joey waits for his mom to come home. He waits with a pack of Oreos, hiding under his bed.

After a quarter of a century, ten million minutes breathing the same air and sharing the same thoughts, it’s easy to stop communicating and take your closest friend, your other half, for granted, thinking that they will always be there. In OR NOT TO BE, Eddie struggled to love his wife while he knew she would die. He even knew when she would die. Eddie knew his wife’s deathday.

And he knew she could choose to come back to life.

On the molecular level, classical laws of physics like gravity, the need for a force to cause motion, and even inertia all fail. At the speed of light, the concept of time also changes. It can warp, stop, and wrap back around on itself. Anna knew all of this. She’d studied it and taught it in her life. In her death, she delves deeper and discovers that, beyond the atoms of our lives, after death there is only antimatter—the soul. Freed from the burden of her atoms, Anna’s soul travels at light speed and knows no time. She watches her family grieve and relives random bits of her life until she is presented with an unfathomable choice: Anna may choose to remain dead or return to the instant that her antimatter separated from her matter. She could go back to the man she loved who didn’t want her back.

Told in two voices with a cushion of humor to ease the pain, OR NOT TO BE is a love story for the world’s thinkers, doubters, and geeks. Anna and Eddie struggle to reunite, relying upon the same ineffective communication that doomed their married life. By dying, Anna left Eddie, exactly as she might have done had she lived and naively believes she has escaped this difficult choice.

Ultimately, Eddie decides for her.

First 150 words:

The room smells like Oreos. The only sound is snoring and it comes from under the bed.

Of course, he is under the bed as usual. Whenever he was sad or scared, I told Joey to go there and I would always find him and protect him. Apparently, always is over because I can’t get to him now.

Joey wakes, rubbing his eyes. He reaches into the cookie wrapper and pops one into his mouth. My boy is stubborn. He won’t cry. He’ll wait for me under that bed. Indefinitely. Or until the cookies run out.

Yesterday morning Mommy got mad at Daddy. This morning only Daddy is here and he’s hiding downstairs. Not hiding like me, under the bed. But he’s not really home either. Mommy never came home last night. She must be really mad about the Oreos.

I know he is thinking about yesterday morning and breakfast.

GUTGAA SPP #25 - The Princess Paradox

THE PRINCESS PARADOX
Lighthearted Women's Fiction
90,000 words

Query:

Jaded by fairy tales, twenty-five-year-old Nora Roseberry has written off the probability that Prince Charming will come rescue her. Which is great. She's not interested in being saved. But fate is about to step in, offering this "damsel in distress" a shot at happy-ever-after.

When Nora takes her love life into her own hands by placing a want-ad in the local newspaper, she's shocked (but a teensy bit flattered) when roguish neighbor Aidan O'Neill comes-a-courtin'. Aidan's not the kind of prince who needs relationship help--evidenced by the sheer volume of maidens that cross his threshold. Besides, he doesn't go for women like her. He dates knockouts. Uncomfortable with his flirting and confused by her own foolish desire, Nora's almost relieved when Aidan reveals he answered the ad for his equally handsome brother Finn.

She quickly finds out Finn is everything fairy tales promised and more. Romantic, sincere, and ready to commit, he soon proposes--just when Aidan seems to have decided to change his ways and pursue Nora himself. Talk about crappy timing. Nora's the blissful princess being carried away by her handsome hero. With a wedding looming, a caustic-mother-to-be waiting to rip her to shreds, and a night with Aidan sprinkled with moonlight and magic, she needs to make a choice. And it will risk everything she's worked so hard to make fairy tale perfect.

First 150:

I wish I had the guts to tell my best friend I'd rather gouge out my eyes with a cocktail weenie than attend her wedding. Weddings, by nature, raise numerous questions if you’re single. People you don’t even know approach you as if it’s open season on any insensitive question they can muster. Aren't you involved? Did you just break up with someone? Are you a lesbian?

My answer to all of these is an emphatic "no." But explaining my feelings to Jillian, well, that just makes her more eager to hook me up with someone. Which is why I'm sitting here in dressing room I-lost-count, watching her zip up another beautiful Marchesa bridal gown, dreading this whole experience. I know exactly how today will end.

"Ohmigod, Nora. Look at me."

"You look…" I nodded, "breathtaking. Really."

"I do, don’t I?" she tittered.

"You do."

GUTGAA SPP #24 - Warder

Warder
PNR (Adult)
107,000

Query:

At twenty-eight, Mona Kubrek finally fits in when she’s chosen to be Warder, a job where she helps keep magic hidden from the human world and mortals safe from those who work it. The position highlights her skills, or lack there of, as only elves that can’t create their own spells but can manipulate others’ magic are picked for the task. Life is pretty good until she accidentally springs, then evades, a death trap. Now she’s dodging spellbound shifters intent on finding her and dealing with her body’s attraction to the half-elf investigating the destruction left in her pursuers wake.

Cart Dupree wants only to find the culprit behind the recent bridge collapse, do his job, and get back to his pack. From the start of the investigation, Mona dogs his steps. She’s reckless, especially when she puts herself and other lives in danger by jumping in feet first without a thought to her safety. But’s not her actions which get shifters killed, it’s the madman who sends them after her and spells them to get Mona or die.

Tacitly agreeing to ignore their mutual attraction, Mona and Cart band together to solve the case. The only information they have about the magic user who’s sending the shifters after Mona, and thus decimating the local Were pack, are cryptic messages from a mythical being. As each successive attempt to kill the pair comes closer to succeeding, and the death toll for shifters rises, the two race to decipher the clues before they become the next victims.

Warder is a stand alone novel with series potential.


First 150 Words:
Mona's right elbow throbbed with pain and both knees were stiff with a heavy cushion of swelling. Thank the goddess her elf blood meant she'd healed some already. She'd felt alarmingly like a human hockey puck a couple of hours ago. Now she was just bruised, battered and effing sore.


Which really sucked because her cell was blaring the military march she'd thought was 'fun' a couple of days ago. The idea of moving was far from appealing but she couldn't in conscious avoid the call. Too many people depended on her to help provide protection against spells gone awry.  Gritting her teeth she pushed against the couch with her good arm and wiggled to the edge. The pain wasn't too bad, slightly better than she'd expected.


The ringing stopped.  


She sat, ass half on the couch glaring at the phone. Just after ten in the morning and today was already ‘that kind of day.'

GUTGAA SPP #23 - Immortal Things

Title: Immortal Things

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Word Count: 90,000

Query:

        When an immortal alpha male from New Orleans searches for his rogue brother, he embarks on a torrid and illicit affair with a human, Kila. The instant attraction drags Kila into a clandestine realm that has hugged reality for centuries, one where shape-shifters prowl the earth while preying on humans. Powerful adversaries face Kila, vowing to destroy her while returning Ethan to his alpha duties.

        As the adventure escalates, the whispers in Kila’s head pull her to the place of her birth, exposing the most astonishing revelation yet. You see, Kila isn’t a weak, insecure human begging at the feet of immortals. She just happens to be their worst nightmare, and fated for a destiny most befitting of star-crossed lovers.

First 150 Words:

        “You look exhausted, Kila, are you okay?” Nicole McDuggar asked.

        “Just a horrendous night, is all.” Kila rubbed her eyes, and yawned.

        “Bad dreams again?”

        “Yeah. Those nightmares about. . . you know, I don’t even know what they are--wolves, monsters, something ravenous in a southern accent.”

        The young, olive skinned woman shivered. Kila pulled loose strands of hair back, and tucked them behind her ear. She couldn’t understand why her dreams were so daunting, stripping her of energy and wrapping her mind with a world so real that the remnants lingered even during waking hours. Her dreams felt like a calling-a rather graphic and disturbing one.

        “Are you feeling well? Hon, I’m worried about you. Don’t tell me you’re working late tonight.” Nicole shook her head, already anticipating the impending answer.

        “But of course. I’m a night person, always have been.”

GUTGAA SPP #22 - Ghosts Don't Wear Silk Stockings

GHOSTS DON'T WEAR SILK STOCKINGS
FANTASY PARANORMAL
70,666

QUERY:

Brianna Halloway aches for marriage and happily ever after but what she gets is one smokin' hot demon who promises immortality, a moody ghost who complains about her choices, and an ex-boyfriend who refuses to drop dead. Ghosts Don't Wear Silk Stockings is a paranormal suspense novel with a light-hearted approach to dating in a world where it feels like everything goes wrong. It is a bit of Stephen King meets Janet Evanovich and is targeted to the 20-something and 30-something female audience.

Dating to Brianna means finding out the man of her dreams isn't actually human and the family she believes is nothing short of ordinary actually harbors a secret curse from the days of the Salem witch trials which returns
to haunt Brianna just like the ghost named Greer who shows up at every inopportune moment. Brianna wants to say yes to Dan's proposal but first she'll have to endure losing her job, her apartment, and running from the violent ex-boyfriend that has returned from the dead with a vendetta to make her pay for choosing Dan over him. In the process, she'll learn that she actually holds the key to stopping two evil people from unleashing a flurry of demons into the human world.

FIRST 150 WORDS:

Dan Parker was six feet three inches and his own brand of delicious evil. Brianna Halloway had fallen for the wrong guy before. She'd been mixed up with married men, tangled in deceptive webs of womanizers and she'd even come across a few men that didn't know the proper way to treat a lady. But never in all her years had she come across anything supernatural. Dan was a first in that department.

He lit a cigarette and gave her a sultry stare. He was still sitting in her bed, a sheet pulled just high enough to cover a perfect set of toned legs. His chiseled chest sprouted dark hair mingled with the occasional grey sprout that gave him an air of distinction. His dark Mediterranean skin echoed memories of pictures she'd seen in a magazine of gods. He was handsome; there was little doubt of that. He was more than handsome, he was
drop dead gorgeous.

GUTGAA SPP #21 - Running Home

RUNNING HOME
Adult Paranormal Thriller
80,000 words

Query:
Ellie never thought she would have to choose between her best friend and her destiny.  But there was never a choice.  They were both Chosen.

Fate ruled Ellie Morgan’s life.  It took her family away, and made her feel like a missing puzzle piece.  She succumbs to a life of solitude in a small New Hampshire town where she feels safe.  She survived life without living it.

Now Fate is ready to give back.

Nicholas French answers the questions in Ellie’s restless soul.  Nicholas sees that there is a place she hasn’t found yet.  She doesn’t belong in this world.  She is destined for greatness. This is what it means to be Chosen.

Nicholas has already been claimed by Fate…he is a vampire. Denied choice of victims, these vampires are death angels, given Chosen humans to “save” from another more terrible end.  Nicholas and his vampire family are tortured by lingering thoughts and feelings of their victims, rationalizing that they are heroes in the end.

Ellie is Nicholas’s Chosen in a different way—it is his fate to Create her.  She is destined to be a vampire of great importance.  A mystical connection causes them agony when apart, confirming that Nicholas is her destiny in more ways than one.  Finally feeling a sense of purpose and belonging, Ellie gives in to the need to be with her would-be Creator.  Nicholas provides her heart the home it has longed for, and she begins to see the greatness in herself as real.

But Nicholas has another Chosen… Ellie’s best friend.   And there’s not much Ellie won’t do to keep her safe.

Ellie Morgan drowns in trying to reconcile the otherworldly connection with the vampire who would make her a hero, and being forced to make unthinkable choices.

First 150:
“I don’t want to dress like a human cupcake,” I pulled my arm away from Kat as she veered me in the direction of Katrina’s Boutique.

“But Ellie, there’s a sweater sale.” Kat smiled, even as she pleaded. She was unaffected by the wind and snow we had to trudge through to navigate downtown Ossipee that day.

“I’ll be at—“

“Birch Tree.  I know.”  Widening her smile more, she fluttered away in a swish of lilac wool, sunset hair, and peony perfume.  She knew it wasn’t in season, but would never wear a different scent.

I shook off the biting cold, my boots pelting the floor with snow.  More wet clumps dropped from my hood, and I wiped sloppy, black strands of hair from my cheeks with mittened hands.

The string of bells on the door caught my sleeve, making them jingle too long.  I felt loud, irritating the comfortable world around me that had been my go-to place since being an awkward teenager.

GUTGAA SPP #20 - Blackout

Title: Blackout
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 98,696

QUERY:

People say God doesn’t ask more from you than you can handle. Well, those people never got drafted into a millennia-long battle because the angel of death needed a new body for his lieutenant. Malcolm Anders is a math teacher and a part-time gymnast, at least when he isn’t cleaning the blood off of his hands after waking up over another body. He struggles to keep his sanity and his life while a supposedly divine spirit, Saraqael, wages a holy war using Malcolm’s body. Saraqael costs Malcolm his stability, his plans for the future, and
the woman he thought he’d be with forever. Malcolm seeks the help of a priest to get his life back and expel his unwelcome celestial visitor, but what they discover only draws Malcolm deeper.

The demon Andras, Saraqael’s eternal foil, has chosen Philadelphia for this century’s uprising. His infernal legions possess the weak, the angry, and the criminals. With an army of demon-possessed puppets, Andras plots to disrupt the divine plan and begin Armageddon before the world is ready. Using Malcolm, Saraqael hunts down Andras’s legionnaires one by one, leaving Malcolm terrified of the day when the cops show up at his door wanting to ask questions about a dozen unsolved murders. When the demons discover Malcolm’s identity, they
bring the fight to him and kidnap his friend and wannabe lover, Pae, forcing Malcolm to change the rules and bring Saraqael into his waking mind. Together, Malcolm and Saraqael fight to save Pae, Philadelphia, and the world in the midst of a city that doesn’t even know it’s under siege.

First 150 Words:

I snapped out of it Thursday morning with a pain in my jaw. Someone had punched me in the face. The adrenaline coursing through my veins was all too familiar. Damn it. The man underneath me moved. Wait, he
wasn’t dead yet? That was a first. My victim clawed at the ground, desperately reaching for… oh shit, a gun. So much for trying to stop.


I hit him hard in the back of the head. It was frighteningly exhilarating. Despite my history, violence is kind of a new thing for me. Blood splattered out beneath him. Something cracked. He screamed.

Why? Why can’t I just go out to a movie like a normal person, you know, one who goes right the hell home after the show ends? I hit him again. I’d like to be merciful, but by now I had faith that I was here for a reason. Besides, it’s not like I could just get up and apologize.

GUTGAA SPP #19 - Dragon

DRAGON
Adult Fantasy
72,000 Words

Query:
The dragons are dying, victims of merciless attacks by a foreign clan. The dragon council, desperate to replace the females they've lost, uncover eighteen-year old Maayin - the last female capable of breeding a full-blooded dragon. Maayin, who has spent her life far from any dragon, is horrified by the claim that, despite her human appearance, she is a dragon. She agrees to go with them on one condition: they must bring her home when they're proven wrong. The old dragons laugh at her demands but a younger dragon, Jaimin, agrees.

Once imprisoned in the mountain lair, the evidence against Maayin quickly mounts up. Still, she struggles to believe the truth. Then she begins having feelings for Jaimin, who teaches her to accept her dragon heritage and, for the first time, Maayin feels like she belongs. Although ancient law deems it too dangerous for their two kinds to breed, being unable to choose Jaimin as her mate is only the beginning of Maayin's troubles.

When Maayin discovers the council's plans to mate her with another dragon, by force if she refuses, she flees - landing right into the hands of the enemy clan. There, she discovers other dragon females, kept captive until they're too old to reproduce. The same fate will be hers if she doesn't escape. But escape means being with the dragon the council has chosen, leaving her with two choices: convince Jaimin to fight for her, or return to her human life and forget everything she's learnt to be.

First 150 Words:
Maay hummed as she worked the old loom, the dull clack of wood a lullaby to her ears. Sunlight blazed into the solarium, its normally stifling heat cooled every so often by a gust coming through the open windows.  She cocked her head to the sound of footsteps echoing from down the hall. Men. It had to be, for their boots hit the stone with such a racket and the occasional, punctuating clink of metal.
Frowning at the woven threads before her, she idly looped another through the strands. It sounded like guards. What would they be doing here? Not many men came to this quarter of the castle, mostly servants with their soft shoes and the irritating habit of blending into the background.
She glanced over her shoulder, perusing the room. Her gaze settled on the plants that separated the solarium from the other rooms and screened the bulk of the sunlight from those entering.

GUTGAA SPP #18 - From Halvmane's Shore

From Halvmane's Shore
Adult Fantasy
80,000

Query:

Perhaps once he changes the course of history, Andren can let go of his self-loathing.

In the recent past, Prince Andren fell victim to a curse that turned him into a monster. Fortunately he'd already won the heart of Eiva, a canny sorceress, and she lifts the spell. Choked by the evil things he did during his transformation, he flees to the mainland. What he finds there are different races and nations all living in poverty and fear, victims of their ruthless dragon emperor.

Andren is outraged. He makes it his goal to unite the nations--who so far have been bent on quarreling with one another--in war, and take out the most powerful being in the known world. At a time where guns are being invented and dragons are losing their magic, perhaps Andren can end the dragon age and start the age of man.

First 150 Words:

Andren smiled politely for hundreds of guests, being the good prince he was supposed to. They cheered, but then of course they cheered, they were drunk. That and they didn't know what he'd done, no matter how much they liked to think they did. Blood was on his hands. His smile faltered, but no one noticed. They kept cheering. He took a drink from his silver goblet to give himself an excuse to break eye contact with the crowd.

“Hear, hear,” cried Alrik, who was standing next to Andren. He took a drink as well, and everyone else in the dining hall followed suit. “Yes, we're all very glad he survived. When the Fallen took him a few months ago, I was grieved that I'd lost the last of my family. I thought surely Deus had cursed me, that I would live alone. But with the fall of the Fallen he has returned my brother to me, and I am eternally grateful.”