MY 2020 PITCHWARS MENTOR WISHLIST

DOWNLOADABLE PLAIN TEXT PDF OF MY WISHLIST

ParisWyntersWishlist

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Hello potential mentees! I’m Paris Wynters and this is my third year as a mentor for Pitchwars. Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to spend three months revising their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch/first page and can request to read more.

This year I will be focusing on the ADULT CATEGORY.

ABOUT ME:

I write Romance and SFF. I’m represented by the wonderful Tricia Skinner of Fuse Literary Agency. I'm also the author of HEARTS UNLEASHED, ISSUED, MATCHED, and LOVE ON THE WINTER STEPPES (January 2021). I live in New York with a wonderful teenager who plays travel hockey. I am multiracial author who is also disabled. I am also a full-time teacher and have my M.S. in Biology. I am a Search and Rescue technician and canine handler. My canine partners live with me, and yes, I do have HR in my house. Makes for interesting conversation and adds a creep factor to those who visit. I love to travel, ride street bikes and dirt bikes, and pretty much do active and X-game type activities. I’ve been on a shark dive, practice trapeze, participate in Crossfit, I used to compete in Figure, practiced Muy Thai and Kali for seven years, and took airplane flying lessons. I love video games, Deadpool, and am a huge fan of Halo. Though, there will be hell to pay if 343 follows through on this Cortana/Master Chief love story, and if they make her good again. I have also completed a mentorship with Tessera Editorial this past summer.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR:

Abbreviated version: sci-fi, romance, horror, thrillers, paranormal, adventure stories like something similar to Tomb Raider or Black Sails, and anything to do with Search and Rescue. You can find more out below.

SCI-FI

I'm looking for all your sci-fi. I love it. I read it. I devour it. That being said what I would really love to see in my inbox is a story similar to Fringe.

To give you a sense of my tastes, here are some sci-fi novels I adore:

• To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (omg, I was lucky to have read this)

• Expeditionary Force series

• Ghost in the Shell

• The Martian (read it 5 times)

• Annihilation

• Planetside

• Seveneves

• Gideon the 9th

ROMANCE

I LOVE ROMANCE. I write it, I read it, I devour it. I am okay with ALL heat levels. The only tropes I don't find myself getting behind are insta-love or secret baby if it was done out of spite. Also, romance must have an HEA/HFN for me and no cliffhanger endings. Here is what I am looking for when it comes to romance:

• Contemporary

• RomCom

• Fantasy Romance

• Sci-fi Romance

• Erotic Romance

• Paranormal Romance

• Seasoned main characters (meaning at least 38 years old)

• I would love a spooky theme built in or something like witches in a contemporary world

What I'm NOT looking for in romance:

• erotica

• Inspirational romance

• Romantic suspense

• Dark Romance/Kidnapper/Human Trafficking stories

To give you a sense of my tastes, here are some romance novels I adore:

• The Kiss Quotient

• Kelly Siskind Books

• Kathryn Fox Books

• Tessa Bailey Books

• Beach Reads

• Nina Crespo Books

• Bromance Book Club

HORROR

The only caveat here is don’t include gore for the sake of gore. But I would love to find a manuscript featuring DOLLS or GRAY ALIENS (like Fire in the Sky) or something like the movie Signs. I love Stephen King books...all of them.

THRILLERS

Give me dark thrillers. But something along the lines of A Simple Favor or You. Give me that edge of the seat feeling that borders on possibly being horror. Also, I absolutely loved The Girl in 6E series (Erotic Thriller).But I don't want Gone Girl or anything like the Alex Cross books.

OTHER GENRES AND STORIES I WOULD LOVE TO SEE:

• Paranormal

• Light/Humorous Women's Fiction

• Adventure Story (something along the lines of Tomb Raider). NOTE: would be open to historical adventure stories like Black Sails or an Indiana Jones.

*NOTE ON NA: I will take a look at NA with the intentions of aging it up to Adult.*

Marginalized voices

I would love to see manuscripts from writers with diverse backgrounds, and I’m committed to uplifting voices of all kinds.

**If you’re writing marginalized characters (mostly this applies to POV characters) and you don’t share that marginality yourself, I'm going to be cautious about selecting you.**

Other books I enjoy:

• Dexter series

• Unwind

• American Psycho

• Most Stephen King Books

• The Girl in 6E series

TV Shows/Movies I like:

• ​Dexter

• Lucifer

• Grey's Anatomy

• Brooklyn Nine Nine

• American Horror Story

• Firefly

• WestWorld

• Lost in Space (love new Robot)

• Dollhouse

• Bitten

• Alien (all of them)

• Supernatural

• Dr. Strange

• Pan's Labyrinth

• Black Sails (thanks to a sub I received last year)

• The 100 (my heda = Indra kom Trikru)

WHAT I'M NOT LOOKING FOR

• GENRES I AM NOT LOOKING FOR (please don't waste one of your choices)

  • Women's Fiction that isn't light/humorous

  • Fantasy

  • Suspense

  • Mystery

  • Nonfiction

  • Graphic novels

  • Memoirs

  • Historical

  • Erotica

  • Dark Romance

  • Crime/Police Procedural

  • Romantic Suspense

• YA, MG

• No COVID stories

• Eating Disorder manuscripts 

• Zombies

• Manuscripts involving rape/sexual assault/abuse

• Family sagas or multi-generational manuscripts

• Inspirational or religious-themed manuscripts

• Manuscripts involving abortion and stillbirth 

• Main character is a proud drug user or struggling with addiction.

• Anything that's already been published. A self-published book is considered published.

• If I've critiqued/read your manuscript before, I kindly ask you choose another mentor.

FINAL THOUGHTS​

Skills

• Developmental Edits focusing on for structural issues, character development/consistency, overall plot arcs/holes, world-building, and cohesiveness.

• Helping to understand Deep POV and how to apply it.

• Hands-on mentoring

• I’m constructive, thorough, BUT to the point (I’m blunt).

• Brainstorming/someone to bounce ideas off of when trying to fix a problem area or for when you get stuck.

Communication Preference: Email is my preferred method especially with time change differences and schedules. I’m open to Zoom or Google Meet, but it would have to be scheduled as I do have a full time job and other responsibilities (I am on the East Coast so timing would be after work hours).

Thank you for reading, and I can't wait to see your words in my inbox! If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me on: 

Twitter: @pariswynters

PW Forum: http://pitchwars.proboards.com/thread/2409/2019-paris-wynters-adult-mentor