Like that Harry Potterish reference? Still love Harry Potter :-)
Tiffany Hoffman once more turns Twitterverse upside down by revealing mentee's ahead of the scheduled reveal day. AND I think she held my mentee reveal hostage for as long as possible in order to maximize on the Jason Momoa gifs and pics.
*somewhere the internet is dying from the injection of manliness*
Not that I was online to see it. Unfortunately, the disappointment fairy decided to bite me and I needed to disconnect from the internet to nurse the wound. I'll tell you in Friday's post why this rejection hit particularly hard, but for now I must celebrate.
I am so excited to work with Christina Fritts for the next two months on her novel Soul Bound. Hopefully she's just as excited to work with me, because I'll be honest, I'm not gonna make it easy on her.
Sorry hon ;-)
This was not an easy decision to make people. I struggled between my three (almost 4) favorites; the other mentors will tell you as much. But all of the entries made the decision extremely difficult for all of the mentors. Some might have resorted to bribery to have others pick up their favorites as well.
Bribery not of the Jason Momoa kind - which begs the question how'd that even work? :D
I felt really strongly about all three of my favorites, and all three could be helped in very different ways. If you're wondering what it was about these pieces that caught my eye, I guess it was a combination of a few things:
First and foremost, I go with my gut. It's silly, sure, but I adopted a certain mindset years ago about shopping: I only buy what I love, I can live without something I only like. Little did I realize how this one decision would change me and now I tend to operate in life this way as well. So, I fell in love with all three of my favorites.
I'm drawn to punchy, but lyrical, language. Varying sentence lengths. Feelings and images and settings that jump off the page by the words you use. I forgive run-ons and sentence fragments because I tend to write the same way.
I want action; emotional, physical, or the spiritual kind. I tend to skip over slow, drawn-out stories. I don't know why. My eyes are skimming over pages before I even think about skimming. It's another of those elusive preference things I guess.
Finally, I needed to relate to the character in some way, and more often than not it was the character's deepest motivation that dragged me into their world. Was this revealed on the pages? Nope, it was a combination of combining the query hints and the synopsis information to form the big picture.
I wasn't sure how to narrow it down - until it was suggested that I ask my potentials what they wanted from their mentor. What were they hoping to achieve with their piece? How could I help them make it stronger?
All three of their answers were amazing. Their responses were full of heartbreak over rejections (which we've all felt), the frustration of trying to break into a niche genre (and often being met with a canned response about the market), and the hope that someone sees the potential.
Well, I saw the potential in all three of them.
But I could only choose one of them.
Darn Tiffany and her rules!
Christina has a unique concept. Her story is dramatic and tense but tangible. The plot is full of several kinds of tension.
And I can't wait to help her make the subtle themes that she's trying to convey stand out.