Query Kombat Preliminary Winners! (& Crit Opportunity)

UPDATED winners' list! Check to make sure your entry is still in. If not, email us.

THE WINNERS! (Or, people who got into the first round. The real winner will be the best query of the bunch!)

(Forgive me for any grammar mistakes, this post had to be rushed out for your viewing pleasure :D)




But guys, DO NOT think that if you did not get in, you were somehow inferior to them. As much as we tried to be unbiased, subconscious bias is undeniable. And, LET ME TELL YOU:


(I'll give you time to scroll down, look if you won, and come back here.)


If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know how incredibly, incredibly hard it was for me to make my 22 picks. I spent HOURS trying to make my picks. Out of about 210ish entries, we had to pick 64. And since all of you already are so involved with the writerly world, almost EVERY one of those 210 entries were request-worthy entries.

But we had the brutal task of cutting 75% of you all. And it SUCKED. Because so many of you were so tremendously awesome! One entry, especially, I felt horrible about cutting because it was sooo amazing but the word count was too low. Yes. It came down to stuff like word count, simple grammar mistakes/typos (we couldn't post that on our blogs), and other things like that. It got very nit-picky in the end.

Just because you didn't get in, doesn't mean you suck. It means you are awesome, actually, for posting in this contest.

Literally, yesterday night, I stayed up and had almost a depressed/sadness attack at thinking about all of you guys that were cut out. I know (and have talked to via Twitter and email and AQC) so many of you. And you are such talented writers. So I felt like crap.

And Mike proposed a critique to help you out, and I AGREE. This idea made me feel tons better, so if you guys didn't get in the contest, there is a chance for you to find out WHY you did not get in!

Post your twitter name and entry nickname in the comments of ONE of our blogs. We will critique as many entries as we can over twitter. I'm probably going to do it over Direct Messaging on Twitter. But trust us when we say: we will not belittle your entries. If we have crits we think might be slightly harmful, we'll DM them to you. But rest assured: they will be helpful and encouraging and positive!

They will also be general critiques, nothing in-depth. I have no idea how many crits we will be able to do. That all depends on how much time we have left over after formatting everything for the tournament. Please be patient with us :DD
Now, to get to what you've all been waiting for: the Query Kombat kontestants....

THE WINNERS (of the entry round)!!

Adult Kontestants:

Dangerous Politics: Adult Thriller
To Die For: Adult Thriller
Tall Ships and Magic: Adult Historical Fantasy
Mississippi CrazyPants: Women's Fiction
WytchCraft: Adult Urban Fantasy
New Entry to be Added
Nostalgic Dreamer: Adult Contemp. Romance
Like-Minded Individuals: Adult Thriller
History Hound: Adult Historical Fiction (2nd Entry)
McTavish Academy: Adult Urban Fantasy
Penny Lane Grows up: Women's Fiction 

Dr. Thermo: Adult Science Fiction
Sway Me Buble: Women's Fiction
The Decapitator: Adult Urban Fantasy
Meryl-and-I: Women's Fiction
The Fisherman: Adult Literary Suspense
Aztecs in Space: Adult Science Fiction
Zone Tripper: Adult Science Fiction
BeelzebubBasher: Adult Historical Fiction
The Swimmer: Adult Social Science Fiction
Champagne and Hotdogs: Women's Fiction

Young Adult Kontestants:

HeadScarfJazz: YA Contemporary

Lies and Lovers: YA Contemp. (in verse)

Repo Girl: YA Contemporary

BLINDED PASSIONS: Edgy YA Contemp.

TheSpaceMafia: YA Science Fiction

Minna Gray: YA Futuristic Fantasy

Not Odette: YA Fantasy

Burrito Thief: YA Fantasy

Elementary Girl: Alt Historical Mystery

DAMNED: YA Dark Fantasy

DreamPirate: YA Crime

Alien Prep School Confidential: YA Science Fiction

Denali: YA Science Fiction

Multitude of Death Stars: YA Science Fiction

Spirit Slayer: YA Southern Gothic
Misfit Apocalypse: YA Science Fiction
Broken Jar: YA Contemporary
The Little Red Head: YA Fantasy
BourneMW: YA Science Fiction
SharkyMalarkey:  YA Contemporary
Supergeeker: YA Fantasy
Colorblind: YA Science Fiction
Villainous Wizard: YA Contemporary Fantasy
FistsofFury: YA Thriller
Revenant: YA Urban Fantasy
SugarTales: YA Contemporary
Sillius: YA Contemporary
RedDryad: YA Paranormal Fiction
Tricks aren't for Kids: YA Contemporary
Bridget Meets Georgia in Homage to Jane: YA Romance

New Adult Kontestants:

New Entry to be Added

O Captain, My Captain: NA Contemporary

Kicking Ash: NA Fantasy

Mid-Grade:

JungleVendetta: MG Science Fiction

Troglin Snot: MG Fantasy

WHISPERING WILLOWS: MG Fantasy

Too Many Legs to Play Baseball: MG Fantasy

Wishwell: MG Contemporary

New Entry to be Added

Zombie Barbers: MG Comedy

Strongarm Odyssey: MG Fantasy

One-Eyed Cat: MG Mystery

Eye Above You: MG Contemporary 

That's all, folks, for Round 1! Thanks for an AWESOME AWESOME journey. I've met so many awesome people on Twitter from the #QueryKombat and #QueryKombatSlush hashtags, and that alone has made this contest worthwhile :D I love the writer's community.

If you got in, congrats!!!!! You will find yourself in the first round on May 28th, on Michelle's blog. If not, and if you want a brief critique as to why you did not get in, then comment below with your Twitter username and entry nickname, and we'll shoot you a Tweet as soon as we can!

THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS! I LOVE YOU ALL.

(And wait until you see these entries. They are so awesomely fantastic. I picked about half of the YA ones, and some of the Adult! Woot Woot!)

And Your Favorite Books Are...?

I've been searching my bookshelves for something to read, and I've realized I want to read something like the books I love.

I mean I just want to experience the same thing I did when I read those books. I want to fall in love with a new book and obsess over it and think about it all the time.

(Maybe if there was an epic fantasy version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'd fall in love with that like I did over the episodes. I watched all three seasons in about five days. Yea. It was crazy. CRAZY AWESOME.)

Basically, I want to experience the thrill of opening a book, reading it, and realizing, "Oh gosh, this might be my new favorite novel."

Here are my favorite books (not really in order, I don't think):

• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (I LOVE THIS BOOK!! HE IS SUCH A GENIUS!!!! Read my review --> linky link.)
• The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (I can read the last few pages of this book a great many times. I just love it. It's truly amazing, everything that a contemporary should be, and here's my --> review.)
• Harry Potter by JK Rowling. Need I say more? Almost a must-read for those looking for INCREDIBLE characterization, plot, and world-building.
• The Catcher in the Rye (The more I think about it, the more this book becomes my most favorite novel of all time. Salinger did things with fiction that had never been done before (and I doubt will ever be done to the same level). HE IS A COMPLETE GENIUS. I think, even more than Hugo! His realism, characterization, voice, prose.... How did he do what he did? And it's all masked by the slightly 'unprofessional' stigma of YA literature. But Salinger...holy crap. He's awesome. And apparently, he has a lot more manuscripts left unpublished, and now that he has passed, they might be published (in accordance with his wishes)!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR THAT DAY!
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I mean, yes, I love this book. If I read something to its equal, I'd love it a lot. But it's not really on my favorite favorite list. The others on this list, I love more.

How about you guys? What are your favorite novels of all time? Share! I might read some of your suggestions and find a new favorite novel!

Query Kombat Judging and Commenting Info!!!

DATES and ANNOUCEMENT INFO:

We’re taking a break from our behind the scenes madness to bring you a few rules and suggestions on how the actual Query Kombat contest will work. But first, some dates. The post to announce the Kombatants will go live on Friday, May 24 unless we have it ready sooner. (It’s looking likely so I won’t bother mentioning a time. We are narrowing down the spots quickly so watch twitter for updates.) Nicknames will be used instead of names or book titles so I hope everyone remembers theirs. If you don’t, we’ll laugh at you. No names will be used in the matchup rounds either, only nicknames.

Regardless of how soon we announce the Kombatants, the first round will start onTuesday, May 28, right after Memorial Day. They will be posts on Michelle's blog! Michelle4Laughs will try to post all the match ups by 8:00 am EDT, but please don’t rush to comment for reasons spelled out under the judging section.

64 Kombatants (this includes the Free Pass winners) will be paired into 32 posts for the first round. Yes, we will try to match age categories together, though not genres. (A YA Contemporary may be pitted against a YA Fantasy.) We will try to put all adult entries into one bracket and so forth. This will totally depend on numbers. As you can imagine, we received fewer NA entries and more YA entries. We’ll do the best we can to make the matchups fair, but we are not limiting our Kombatant picks by requiring so many of each age group. We are picking what we think are the best entries. Remember we are victims of subjective tastes as much as the next person. Great entries will be left out. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the game.

And I seriously mean that. If you follow me on Twitter you'll see how torn up I am about saying no to so many AWESOME entries. If I were an agent, I'd request, but I've had to say no due to small typos and the like because, well, we can only let in 1/4 of the entries we received.

The matchups (except for age category) will be chosen randomly. We will set the matchups entirely by who the Kombatants are next to in the winning picks file. This means it will probably sort out by the date and time you entered.

In the event a Kombatant has to drop out of Query Kombat there will be two possibilities. If they drop out before the first round begins, they will be replaced with an alternate QK contestant chosen by Mike. (Alternate Kombatants will not be announced beforehand. We don’t want people hoping someone drops out. We may announce them after the contest ends.) If a Kombatant drops out after the contest has started, their opponent automatically advances to the next round. Any Kombatant that receives an offer of representation will please notify us so we may withdraw them. Receiving a full request or partial is not grounds for withdrawal.

If you get into Round 3 and are paired up with a mentor, YOU CANNOT FOR ANY REASON DROP OUT for the rest of the contest! The mentor will have helped you for nothing, and you'll have stolen a spot from someone else who would have benefitted for, it.

   After the first round, entry matchups will be determined by the brackets. Kombatants will be randomly assigned to a bracket based on their age category. Again it will come down to your order in our winning picks file.

JUDGING:

Our fantastic judges will cast their votes under assumed nicknames in order to vote honestly and freely. (Go here to see the nicknames they have chosen.) Voting for the first round will take place from 8am Tuesday, May 28th to 8pm Monday, June 3rd  EDT.  (For more information on the dates of other rounds, go here.) The winners of the first round will be announced on June 4th.

Judges will vote as follows: VICTORY: Kombatant’s nickname  They may or may not leave a detail reason regarding their choice. However much feedback they give is completely up to that judge. There are a lot of entries to read and a lot of rounds to go through. This is a long contest. But we’re sure the judges will do a fantastic job of sharing their thoughts.

To prevent favoritism, the judges have agreed not to vote on matchups containing a friend, CP, or Beta. Due to the length of this contest, certain judges may sit out a round as needed due to Kombat fatigue.

In the event of a matchup vote tie, the round host will cast the tie-breaker vote. In the first round that will be Michelle4Laughs and so on.

Now here comes the unique and important part!  We would like the judges’ votes to be easily located. Therefore, we are asking the judges to place their votes as a reply to the first comment in each matchup post. As soon as all the matchup posts are live, one of the hosts will go through and make a first comment. Something like: This comment is reserved for judges’ votes. Please do not reply to this comment unless you are a judge. Then the judges can do their thing and leave their votes as replies to that comment.

BUT in order for this to work, people cannot rush to comment. The round host has to have time to get the first comment up on all 32 posts of the first round and subsequent rounds. No matter how excited you are to share your feedback, please give the host time to get the first comment done before you comment. Any comments posted before the judges’ section will be deleted.

We understand that everyone is human and votes may not end up in the proper spot. All judges’ votes will count no matter where they end up.

COMMENTING:

Due to the nature of head-to-head competitions, commenting is a delicate subject. We don’t want feelings hurt and we don’t want people leaving angry. 32 people will be knocked out in the first round. That is brutal. And like any contest of this nature, the results will be subjective. Wonderful entries WILL be eliminated. We want every entry to get as much feedback as possible, so we will allow open commenting.

Therefore, especially in the first round, we want a ton of comments. And we want those comments to be super constructive and helpful. In other words, be specific. Don’t just rave about a Kombatant’s entry, tell them why you liked it. Mention things like the query set out the mc’s motivation and stakes clearly, the query had a super voice, the query was confusing because…, the pages really showed the mc’s personality because…, the pages felt flat because…, the concept is unique because…

Please no ‘cheerleading’ comments in the first or second round. (Friendly cheerleading will be allowed in the final rounds.) In the early rounds, if you want to cheer on your friends or CPs, do it on twitter. Try and give equal time to both Kombatants in a matchup. Don’t let someone remain left out. If you see a matchup that isn’t getting many comments, we ask that you jump in and do your stuff.

We don’t want this contest to only be about having fun or winning. We want all the entries to receive helpful advice to make their queries and page stronger. Please remember this and be kind and thoughtful. Writers are amazing people; they go out of their way to help. We’re sure we can count on you.

Enough preaching. Here are some more commenting rules:

We would like each Kombatant to give feedback on at least 6 matchups. You’re on your honor system here, we won’t be monitoring this. We’ve got enough to do. (lol!)  We’d also like each person who entered Query Kombat to leave at least one comment on a matchup, but feel free to do many more! And please we ask that Kombatants who are eliminated, come back and leave comments on the next round. We still want to hear what you think.  We need you to make this contest a success!

Kombatants, please don’t comment on your own entry, whether that is to thank people or to explain/rationalize your entry. There will be so many comments, that we ask you to wait untilthe last day of voting to offer thanks or congratulate someone, or leave any other type of comment on your own entry. If you want to thank people before the last day of voting, twitter is the place.

We’re sure there will be ‘no hard feelings’ comments. If there are, they will be deleted. We warned you you’d need a thick skin. We don’t want a trend of people apologizing before they give feedback. That just takes up more time and space. Give constructive (not destructive) feedback and apologies are unnecessary.

Getting knocked out of the tournament or not getting picked to be in the tournament is no indication of a story’s quality. We received roughly 215 entries to fill 61 spots. ONE missing comma could have taken you out of the running. Really. This did happen a few times (more like typos and grammar mistakes). To those in the tournament, the decisions we have to make are going to be unimaginably difficult. But remember, of 215 entries, YOU were chosen to be in the tournament. Whether you’re out in the first round or the fifth, that means something.

All the hosts are very excited for Query Kombat to start, and we hope you are too. Feel free to leave us questions in the comments or just shout out your excitement. Follow us on twitter for more updates. Now back to making picks.  

Query Kombat is OPEN!!! Submission Guidelines!

CONTEST IS NOW OVER! We got over 200 entries; thank you so much guys! We might make is an annual thing!

IT OPENS TODAY IT OPENS TODAY!

WINDOW IS NOW OPEN!! Read below for more details. BUT GUYS, GO. We have had 53 submissions in less than 30 minutes! Get yours in before we reach the max of 225 entries!

For full details on the whole point of this contest, how it'll work, what it is, and more, click here. For a list of the agents participating, click here. For a list of the judges and mentors, click here.

The submission window will open at 11AM EST on Monday, May 13th (that's today!) and close at 11AM Friday, May 17th OR WHEN WE RECEIVE 225 ENTRIES. You may submit entries for two manuscripts (in the same email) but we will only consider the second entry if less than 64 entries are received. (64 is the number of entries that will actually get into the contest.) Kontestants will be revealed May 24th and the tournament will kick off on May 28th on Michelle’s blog.

In order to enter the contest you MUST follow formatting guidelines, follow our blogs, and submit during the contest window. All entries that follow those guidelines will be considered. In the event that we receive more than the available spots, hosts (that's Mike, Michelle, and I!) will be assigned a group of queries and pick the best of their group. We will also select a few alternates. Sixty-four queries will enter into the tournament.

Send entries to: QueryKombat (at) yahoo (dot) com

Formatting guidelines:

Times New Roman, 12pt font, single-spaced with spaces between each paragraph. No indents or tabs. PLEASE.

Subject line of the Email: A short, unique nickname for your entry [colon] your genre (audience included). Do not skip this step or your entry will be deleted.

Example: Dumbledore Fan: YA Fantasy

For the nickname, make it as unique as possible so that there are no duplicates. These will be the names used in the tournament brackets and post headings so keep it PG-13 and try to have it relate to your story in some way. Nicknames are limited to 25 characters!

***The four Free Pass winners should include “Free Pass” before their nickname in the subject line to ensure their spot.

In the body of the email (bold where bold):
(YES. Include the words 'Name,' 'Email address,' 'Entry Nickname,' etc., put a colon after them, and BOLD THEM. We want to just copy and paste from the email address with as little hassel as possible :)

Name: SC Author
Email address: SCAuthor@xxx.com

(Neither of the above will be posted -- it is just for us admins to use.)

Entry Nickname: Dumbledore Fan
Title: Dumbledore to the Rescue!
Word count: 77,000
Genre: YA Fantasy

Query:
Dumbledore rocks. He really does. So when he uses the Resurrection Stone to talk to Victor Hugo, Dumbledore didn't expect what was coming next.

Jean Valjean was a wizard! He was the previous owner of the Elder Wand, and in order to find out why his wand is malfunctioning, Dumbledore must use the Time-Turner to go back in time and find out just what happened to the wand when Jean Valjean was its owner.

But there's a catch: on the Time-Turner. Since it's a necklace-type thing. So it has a catch. And Dumbledore must open the catch before he can wear the Time-Turner and save the day.

(Only include the meat of your query. No bio. Queries may be up to 350 words, but 250 is strongly preferred. Names and emails address of Kontestants will not be posted. NO tabs or anything. Just a simple line break :D)

First 250 words:(Don't include the chapter title and please, don't stop in the middle of a sentence. You can go over/under a few words to make it end at a sentence, but don't abuse this power. Also, no paragraph breaks or tabs. Just line breaks.)

All queries submitted are FINAL. We will not edit them in any way, shape, or form. Please read, reread, and rereread your submission before you hit send. Unless you make it into the third round, you will not have another opportunity to edit your query or first 250 words. You have several days to polish your work. Take advantage of it.

Competition will be fierce. You are going up against the best in your age group! (We're trying to get the brackets set up so each bracket is a different age group, but that all depends on the numbers of entries and stuff. Fingers crossed!)

Put on your thick skin and get those submissions—Ready! Set! Go! GO GO GO!!

And we are #QueryKombat on Twitter, I'm  SC_Author over there, so drop by and tweet us!

Query Kombat is ALMOST HERE! (Also, Judging Details)

Submissions for Query Kombat will start on Monday, May 13^th and that’s, like, no time at all! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But you guys will need a refresher of the submissions guidelines and format and stuff. So read below!!!

Entries sent before the submission window  opens (read on for more details) will be deleted unopened. Entries that don’t follow the guidelines will also be deleted.

Confirmation emails will be sent to ensure we got your submission and it didn’t end up in Hogwarts (although how awesome would that be).

The three judges, Mike, Michelle, and I have very different tastes so we'll get an awesome diversity of selections into the contest :DD REMEMBER! We have agents participating in this contest (10 of them!) that represent all of the age categories except PB (MG, YA, NA, and Adult), so we'll have an awesome rainbow of a contest :)

Fun prize-winning stuff!

If your query and first 250 words are chosen, by us, for the Query Kombat contest, there will be up to eleven judges going through the rounds. (The very same cool judges we boasted about last week.) As the contest is a March Madness type deal, the judges will vote "Yes" or "No" for your query to advance into the next round (your query will be pitted up, randomly, against another query in your age group).

Kontestants get to invent amazing nicknames, so naturally the judges want one, too! So our judges will be commenting and voting as their dual-personality self. To recognize our wonderful judges and know the vote is legit here is a list of the names they’ve chosen:

Ultraviolet

SavageBlue
Goldilocks

Pepper

Storm
Hedgehog

Flame

Sacredbis

X-Man(uscript)

Dragonfire

Interrobang
LittleMynx

Who is who? That would be telling, but perhaps you can figure them out. Yes. We are teases.

Commenting on the entries is allowed and encouraged! Cheer everyone on! The first comment in each post, however, will be by either Michelle, Mike, or I, and it will be the comment to which the judges will reply and cast their votes (it'll make it easier for us to count up votes). Non-judges cannot reply to this comment XD

Now, onward to the fine and gory details:

The below is just another overview of the contest for those who missed the details before.

The tournament is open only to unagented writers seeking representation. Your manuscript must be complete, polished, and ready to submit. Submissions for MG, YA, NA, and Adult works will be accepted. No picture books or non-fiction.

For full details, click here.

The submission window will open at 11AM EST on Monday, May 13th and close at 11AM Friday, May 17th OR WHEN WE RECEIVE 225 ENTRIES. You may submit entries for two manuscripts (in the same email) but we will only consider the second entry if less than 64 entries are received. (64 is the number of entries that will actually get into the contest.) Kontestants will be revealed May 24th and the tournament will kick off on May 28^th on Michelle’s blog.

In order to enter the contest you MUST follow formatting guidelines, and submit during the contest window. All entries that follow those guidelines will be considered. In the event that we receive more than the available spots, hosts (that's Mike, Michelle, and I!) will be assigned a group of queries and pick the best of their group. We will also select a few alternates. Sixty-four queries will enter into the tournament.

Send entries to: QueryKombat (at) yahoo (dot) com

Formatting guidelines:

Times New Roman, 12pt font, single-spaced with spaces between each paragraph. No indents or tabs. PLEASE.
Subject line of the Email: A short, unique nickname for your entry [colon] your genre (audience included). Do not skip this step or your entry will be deleted. Example:

Dumbledore Fan: YA Fantasy

For the nickname, make it as unique as possible so that there are no duplicates. These will be the names used in the tournament brackets and post headings so keep it PG-13 and try to have it relate to your story in some way. Nicknames are limited to 25 characters!

***The four Free Pass winners should include “Free Pass” before their nickname in the subject line to ensure their spot.

In the body of the email (bold where bold):

Name: SC Author

Email address: SCAuthor@xxx.com
(Neither of the above will be posted -- it is just for us admins to use.)

Entry Nickname: Dumbledore FanTitle: Dumbledore to the Rescue!
Word count: 77,000
Genre: YA Fantasy

Query:

Dumbledore rocks. He really does. So when he uses the Resurrection Stone to talk to Victor Hugo, Dumbledore didn't expect what was coming next.

Jean Valjean was a wizard! He was the previous owner of the Elder Wand, and in order to find out why his wand is malfunctioning, Dumbledore must use the Time-Turner to go back in time and find out just what happened to the wand when Jean Valjean was its owner.

 

But there's a catch: on the Time-Turner. Since it's a necklace-type thing. So it has a catch. And Dumbledore must open the catch before he can wear the Time-Turner and save the day.

(Would you believe it, I just cranked that query out! I like it better than my actual query, to be honest....)

(Only include the meat of your query. No bio. Queries may be up to 350 words, but 250 is strongly preferred. Names and emails address of Kontestants will not be posted.)

First 250 words:

(Don't include the chapter title and please, don't stop in the middle of a sentence. You can go over/under a few words to make it end at a sentence, but don't abuse this power.)

Simple, huh?

All queries submitted are FINAL. We will not edit them in any way, shape, or form. Please read, reread, and rereread your submission before you hit send. Unless you make it into the third round, you will not have another opportunity to edit your query or first 250 words. You have several days to polish your work. Take advantage of it.

Competition will be fierce. You are going up against the best in your age group! (We're trying to get the brackets set up so each bracket is a different age group, but that all depends on the numbers of entries and stuff. Fingers crossed!)

Put on your thick skin and get those submissions—Ready! Set! Go on Monday, May 13!

AND. YOU GUYS. This contest has knocked this post (Why 50 Shades of Grey is a Bestseller) out from the top slot on my 'Popular Posts' widget over on the right of this blog. That post has been number one for almost a year now. That's kind of insane!

Updated Judges List for Query Kombat!

UPDATE:

Terri Bruce is not able to join us for the tournament as anticipated. But we've brought two more judges into our fabulous ensemble. Please welcome Darci Cole and Jennifer Malone. (Cue applause!)

Brenda Drake
Brenda writes young adult and middle grade novels. She runs contests and holds workshops on her blog .Look for her debut young adult novel, LIBRARY JUMPERS, coming February 2014 and its sequels February 2015 and February 2016 from Month9Books.
Check out her site
Find her on Facebook

Rhiann Wynn-Nolett
Rhiann writes YA/NA fiction and is thrilled to be represented by Stefanie Lieberman of Janklow & Nesbit.
Check out her blog
Follow her on Twitter
Find her on Facebook

Angie Sandro
For Angie Sandro, writing is as necessary as breathing. She is represented by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary, LLC.
Check out her blog
Follow her on Twitter
Find her on Facebook

Mindy McGinnis
Also participating as a mentor
Mindy McGinnis is the author of NOT A DROP TO DRINK, coming 9/24/13 from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins. She is also a YA librarian and overactive blogger at Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire.
Here's her site
Find her on Facebook

Lizzy Charles
Lizzy Charles, represented by Jamie Bodnar Drowley, is a YA contemp romance author who loves characters brave enough to face themselves, adventure stories, and anything with a thread of romance. Look for her debut novel, PRIMER, Fall 2013 from Swoon Romance of Month9Books.
Check out her blog
Follow her on Twitter

Mike Anthony
Mike Anthony loves writing about the tough stuff.  Whether it's YA, NA, or adult,  he enjoys dragging his characters through hell to toughen 'em up a bit. He's interested in reading anything with quirky characters, or that teaches a hard lesson. And if you can make him laugh, you've won his heart.
Follow his blog

SC
He is a YA and adult writer currently working hard(er) on a YA Fantasy about a teenage girl living with all the pressure and currents of an underwater world. In terms of authors, he is a HUGE JK Rowling and Victor Hugo fan. And he's a guy. Look at his icon. It's so hard to make that clear when you go by "SC"
Check out his blog
Follow him on Twitter
See what he's reading on GoodReads

Phoenix Sullivan
In the corporate world, Phoenix was a professional writer and editor for 23 years. Before that, she was a registered veterinary technician, working with small animal clinics and wildlife rehab centers. Today, she lives on a small farm in North Texas where she writes thrillers and fantasies. She also serves as the general manager of Steel Magnolia Press, an author consortium anchored by New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Jennifer Blake and Christina Skye.
Check out her blog
Steel Magnolia Press

Summer Heacock

Summer is a writer of Women's Fiction and whatever else pops into her head, but a reader of anything she can get her hands onto. She exists as a mommy, wife, writer, geekling, and is repped by the fabulous Sarah LaPolla of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Check out her blog
Follow her on Twitter

Darci Cole
Darci Cole is a stay-at-home-mom of two perfect little boys and wife to the best husband in the world. Her home is *always* spotless and lovely, ready for visitors day or night. She loves Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Marvel movies, Mythbusters, and being Mormon. She is an Editorial Intern for Entangled Publishing, and spends her massive amounts of free time writing YA Fantasy, prowling Twitter, and reading for her incredible critique partners.

Michelle Hauck
Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Her epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure, is being published by Divertir Publishing in May 2013. Her short story, Frost and Fog, was chosen by The Elephant's Bookshelf Press for their summer 2013 anthology. Check out her blog
Follow her on Twitter
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Jennifer Malone
She is a wife, mother of five, and author of paranormal, zombie and fairy tale fiction. She is best known for her series The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter
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Query Kombat Progress Report

Well, I was going to make some changes to my blog design as, in a previous post, I asked if I should. I wanted to make the posts' backgrounds a bit white/cream colored to break up all the blue, but I tried and it looked completely horrible (like a construction-paper box stuck over my blog). So that's not happening. Sorry guys :(

ANYWAY.

Query Kombat Progress!

The judges have gotten all of their nicknames and I picked mine too, after a bunch of thinking and tossed-out ideas. I was GOING to go with Humbledore (Victor Hugo + Dumbledore) but I felt that would be too obvious, so now I've got a very secretive name that I like. The judges will be voting "Yes" or "No" for one query on each Query Kombat post, and we decided to keep the judges' voting identities a secret so you won't hate them for the rest of your lives.

The email account has been set up for a while now (QueryKombat (at) yahoo (dot) com) and we've got folders and stuff so Michelle, Mike, and I can split up the pile into three and pick the queries we want in the tournament. A BUNCH of planning has already happened.

There are a good number of announcements over Twitter under the hashtag #QueryKombat. Nothing too big (you'll see the big announcements on our blogs) but small progress reports.

A lot is happening behind the scenes, guys! I cannot thank Mike and Michelle enough. They have done SO MUCH and this contest wouldn't be possible without them. It's way too much work for one person, and we three make an awesome team. You should see our email stream. It's like teamwork gold right there.

But this contest is all about you.

We want to see your queries. We want to see your first 250 words. I'll do a "What I Like and Don't Like from the Submissions" type thing over Twitter so you won't be out of the loop and you'll see what I think works and doesn't work. But it all comes down to you guys!

Submission window starts one week from now, Monday the 13th! I KNOW. IT'S CRAZY!

Are you guys excited? I AM.

Get your manuscripts ready, and hone those query and first 250 words to perfection!

And remember. Voice voice voice. That'll be the secret to getting in the contest. I could tell, from the beginning, which entries would get a large number of votes in my "Become an Agent" contest just by the voice. If you are debating whether to revolve your query around plot or voice, make it more about the voice (but do keep the main plot elements in there--it's all about a balance). A bland play-by-play rarely entices anyone.

Go go go guys!

OH! It was Adele's 25th birthday yesterday (May 5th)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are an awesome person and singer.