It's Time for Pitchwars 2016!! Yay!!

Pitchwars 2016! Yay! This is my second year entering, and I'm super excited about it! At first I wasn't going to, but then I just decided, hey, it's worth a shot.


So, about me:

Me looking serious

I'm a Pennsylvanian who grew up in South Carolina and lives in Oklahoma but goes to college in Pennsylvania. I'm a sophomore high school history education major, which means I study teenagers and dead people. That's basically what I write about, too. I'm also a professional photographer. You can see my pictures (and sign up for a photoshoot! I'm really affordable!) here: http://photosbyrachelanne.blogspot.com

Follow me on Twitter: @whatshewrote
Instagram: @tulsan_rachel


Favorite authors: Susan Cooper, Cornelia Funke, N.D. Wilson, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, Maggie Stiefvater Lemony Snicket

I love Stiefvater's and Cooper's atmospheric writing styles and Tolstoy and Austen's characterizations. So I'm basically a stylistic mashup of them all.

Favorite movies: Hugo, The Hundred Foot Journey, Bridge of Spies, The King's Speech, Princess Bride (I directed a parody film of it at my school, actually), Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version), Young Victoria, Les Miserables, Meet the Robinsons

Fandoms: Tintin, Star Wars, Star Trek, Les Mis (I have a folder on my computer dedicated to Les Mis memes), Phantom of the Opera, Raven Boys

one of my favorite internet things ever 

Fun Facts about me: 

1.  I'm part Japanese and part Cherokee and a tiny part Jewish as well and proud of it all

2. I'm a member of my college's marching band and I can't play an instrument, I didn't audition, and I don't have to march or wear a uniform (I play the camera)

3. I'm related to Milton Hershey (as in Hershey's chocolate) and there's a 80% chance he stole my family's famous chocolate recipe for himself

4. I own a fat cat named Joash and a hyper beagle puppy named Machen. If you choose me as your mentee I will send you therapeutic fur baby photos and videos

5. I am an expert in historical fashion. Anyone reading this post who has questions about historical fashion from any era, hit me up

6. I host #YayYA!! Check it out, right here on this blog. Mentors Monica Hoffman and Joan He are among our past participants!

ABOUT MY BOOK

Title: The Red and the Scarlet

Genre: YA Historical Fantasy

Comps: Les Miserables, Mulan, Jonathan Strange, Shadow and Bone, Burning Glass 

Setting: Fictional Slavic/Asian continent in our world, 1811(the era of Beethoven and Jane Austen and Napoleon and War and Peace)

Main character: 18-year-old Fyr. Basically a bounty-hunting POC Anne Shirley with some extra grit and sarcasm. She has anxiety and PTSD but I don't really discuss this directly because those things weren't recognized in her day and age as medical problems.

Main character's brother: 12-year-old Asaan. He's supposed to be a special hero (or so his sister hopes) but he'd rather just play the piano than save the world. (He's usually a beta favorite!)

So this story has siblings and friendship and SLOOOOOWWWWW BURNING hate to love romance. It also has war with lots of cannons and late night heists and spies and secret organizations and dances and pirates and natural disasters and mythology and riots and fireworks and concerts and resurrected heroes and a bad guy inspired by Aaron Tveit.

I hope that sounds at least somewhat interesting.

Now it's just time to watch the #PWTeaser feed!