Pitch Perfect - The Art of the Elevator Pitch

The elevator pitch is one of the most important elements in promoting your manuscripts successfully. Picture this: you are searching for a publisher, taking an elevator when in walks one of the top literary agents in the country. What do you do? Do you freeze up when she makes small talk or do you knock her socks off with a perfect pitch, snag her business card and score a meeting?

This isn’t a pitch to seal the deal and earn representation right there in that small, confined space. Did I mention elevators are a close second on my irrational fear list behind escalators? I digress. The whole idea behind the pitch is to keep the agent interested. If your thirty to sixty second “tell me about your book” can hook them, it’s accomplished what you’ve wanted it to do.

Chuck Sambuchino, author of Create Your Writer Platform, discussed the idea of perfecting a pitch for fiction. He asserted that to hook your audience, in our case the literary agent inside the elevator, you just needed to offer the narrative arc in the most creative way possible.

Nina Amir who blogs at the San Francisco Writer’s University blog, mentions the following steps Chuck outlined when making your pitch perfect: share details, offer a tag line,  and introduce the man characters, something interesting, the inciting incident, and the hook. Sounds pretty simple right?

I gave it a go for my next two novels and came up with the following:

Manuscript One:

Charlie Flynn wants nothing more than to keep her head down and do her job, but her meddling sister Mikki keeps interfering with her love life. After several ill-fated attempts, Mikki finally gets the match right. Unfortunately Charlie’s dark, domineering, and divine looking perfect date ends up being her new boss, Declan Pearse. She fights her attraction, but Declan brings those feelings out in her that she thought she had long buried, and she falls headlong into a dangerous, dark romance that leaves her bound by her desires. 

Manuscript Two:

All of her life Lana Aherns wasn’t someone who fit in. At twenty-four people often looked at her oddly for spending time in an old man’s diner, for driving an old lady’s car, and for owning a bookstore, but she liked her quiet life. She meets Michael, a handsome, mysterious stranger, and she feels like he is the person she’d been waiting her whole life for, maybe even eternity.  But their happiness is threatened by that very eternity, and Lana has to make a choice in order to be with Michael forever.  

 

Leave a comment letting me know which pitch works better for you.

Music Can Inspire Words

Watching "Later...with Jools Holland" for the first time ever and Florence + the Machine are performing as is Mary J. Blige. Mary's song "Need Someone" is perfect inspiration for a scene in my upcoming novel about other worldly soul mates. Actually so does the Florence + the Machine song, No Light, No Light". Both also remind me of someone special.

I love when music inspires my writing. What about you? Do you write with music in mind or do certain lyrics set your creative fire ablaze?

- GeekGirl

Monday Mouthful: Green Tea Rice with Cherries & Vidalia Onions

Usually for the Monday Mouthful, I feature something about my writing, but today I want to post this terrific recipe that I need to try. We are incorporating more vegetarian friendly recipes at chez geek girl, so I hope to give this a try soon.

This recipe is an original from Amie Valpone over at The Healthy Apple:

Green Tea Rice with Vidalia Onions & Cherries

Author: Amie Valpone

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Serves: 4

 

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan

Ingredients

• ¼ tsp. sea salt
• ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup long-grain brown rice
• 1½ cups green tea, brewed and chilled
• 1 large Vidalia Onion, finely chopped
• ¼ cup dried cherries
• 2 cups loosely packed fresh baby spinach
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
• ¼ tsp. fresh orange zest
• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh basil

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, boil green tea with salt and pepper. Stir in rice; return to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer; cover and cook for 20 minutes then remove from heat and add onions, cherries and spinach. Set aside, covered, for 10 minutes.
2. Transfer to a large mixing bowl; add remaining ingredients. Gently toss to combine.
3. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

Serving Size: ¾ cup Calories: 115.8 cal • Fat: 1.7 g • Protein: 2.5 g • Carbs: 23.2 g • Fiber: 2.4 g • Sugar: 5.9 g • Sodium: 119.8 mg

Hump Day Hunk: Who Knew Bird Tattoos Could Be So Hot?

I've been pinning different tattoo designs for a swallow bird on Pinterest lately. I think the swallow or some incarnation of one will be my next tattoo. I thought they were always quite feminine in design, until I stumbled across this one:

 

 

So what are your thoughts? Think a swallow tattoo on a man is for the birds or swoon-worthy?

What Will Your Verse Be?

Geek Girl and her amazing mom

My mom loved to enjoy life. She loved to travel, go to wine tastings, read a good book, enjoy good music, but when time allowed she loved to sneak off to the movies with me. One of her favorites was Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams.

I found it a bit ironic, that while she was struggling this week after many health issues, I kept seeing the new Apple commercial that featured one of her favorite section of dialogue where Robin Williams’ character John Keating quotes Walt Whitman. It’s as though she has been sending me a message all week, to remind me that we are all important. We all have something important to contribute to our world.

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for.

To quote from Whitman,

“O me, O life of the questions of these recurring. Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

What will your verse be?

Today, I honor my mother’s life. She contributed quite a verse or two to the powerful play of life. She contributed many verses to my father’s life, my brother’s life, my life, and the lives of my children. She also impacted many lives through her years as a teacher. In the quiet hush of a chilly Western New York morning, she passed from this earth, placing a final signature on her verses.

I hope I can honor her always by remembering that I too am contributing my own verses, and I hope she is looking down smiling on how I finally figured out which verses were mine. I love you my beautiful, amazing, strong mom!

Here's the Apple Ad in case you've missed it. It will give you chills. I hope it inspires you to figure out what your verse will be.

 

Book Review: Changed by You - Natalie S. Taylor

Changed by You, is a terrific debut novel by Natalie S. Taylor. Ms. Taylor deftly weaves a beautiful story about two people trying to overcome the loneliness that comes from past experience. From the first encounter between Grace and Trevor in the coffee shop to the last moment as they reach Maine, their love story unfolds beautifully. The plot twist near the end is well worth the surprise. Ms. Taylor brings compassion and tenderness into the character of Trevor Stone, something refreshing in romance these days, instead of the dark, brooding male. Of course he is not without his past, but it doesn’t make him angry. He lovingly helps Grace come to terms with her entire past and it is a poignant thing to read it unfold. I highly recommend Changed by You and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Taylor’s future work.

Blessed Bliss

 

My Beloved Archangel Michael --

 

The bliss

the uncluttered and divine peace

I had found

in the shadow of Your wings

was unlike any other

secret place I've known

In that delectable warmth

of Your

unconditional love

where nothing was taboo

and

everything was sacred

I am forever thankful

for those stolen moments

of blessedness

You tattooed on

my soul.

 

         --- Your Ashlynn