New Worlds, New Voices - SFF Shooting Gallery
NWNV "Shooting Gallery" provides writers with the chance to test market their best SFF novels and hopefully score a contract. Agents and TV/Film reps will check in and review work during 2022. AAC will edit beforehand as needed. For Algonkian alums only.
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Exposition and End Game This select forum thread is dedicated exclusively to Algonkian alums who wish to post sell sheets of their completed SFF novels, or novels-in-progress, for the purpose of showcasing them to literary agents and TV/Film reps. We will inform these professionals of new high-concept projects and invite them to stop by regularly during 2021. If they wish to request something immediately, or at a future date, they will either contact you directly, make a post, or else contact us. It is also possible they might wish to video conference with you. The scenarios are various, but all is casual. There is no set schedule. This is how we want this to wo…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
NAME: Laura Neibaur NOVEL NAME: BLOOD OF THE BELLFLOWER – BOOK 1: THE SIFTING GENRE: YA Science fiction WORDS: 105K COMPARABLES: Red Rising by Pierce Brown Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen The Other Side of the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke HOOK: Hunted by a dark political faction, Razzia and Hild must escape the boundary walls, discover and hone their preternatural abilities, and use them to fight Razbon before the Sifting Ceremony commences. PITCH: Razzia Vilhelm longs for the damson plum orchards, her tidy room, and crowded bookshelf. She wants to go home and never leave again. Never break the rules. Sh…
Last reply by Laura Neibaur, -
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Name - Shola Adedeji Title(s) - War Gods of Africa, The Hollow Glory of a Dumb Kingdom Genre - Alternate History Comps - • the “what if?” spirit of S.M. Stirling’s Black Chamber series. • the world building of Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Lions of Al Rassan. • significantly influenced by the originality of Octavia Butler’s Kindred. Hook Line - It is the 1300’s, an untested and naive emissary from a technologically advanced nation in Africa, inadvertently finds himself the only one capable of preventing a genocidal war set into motion by a murderous Pope and his Imperial Roman allies at Constantinople. S…
Last reply by Shola, -
Name: Safiya Maouelainin Title: ECLIPSE OF THE SNAKE Genre: Adult Contemporary Fantasy (with a touch of romance) – about 85,000 words Comps: THE BEAUTIFUL ASHES (Broken Destiny Series) by Jeaniene Frost BLACK WATER SISTER by Zen Cho (STORM AND FURY by Jennifer L. Almentrout - but for adult readers of YA). Pitch: Twenty-five-year-old Alila is an untrusting recluse with a debilitating power that makes her experience people’s illness and pain. To avoid triggering this inexplicable empath curse, she lives alone, manages an online business, and keeps her interactions with others scarce. When Alila runs into quirky and fre…
Last reply by Safiya M., -
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TITLE: The Requiem for Cain Book 1 of the Possessions of Eve Series GENRE: Adventure/Paranormal COMPS: Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris Supernatural Series by Keith R. A. DeCandido Immortal Eve of biblical infamy inhabits the body of a contemporary woman for her final visit to earth. She must go on a difficult and perilous quest to retrieve an ancient relic known as the Core Stone. It holds the secret critical to breaking the vampiric bloodlust curse put on her son Cain and his descendants. Though Eve can no longer free Cain himself, believ…
Last reply by Kimberly Luse, -
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Title: The Frozen War, Book 1 of The Dragonsilk Sea series Genre: Adult Fantasy with Romance elements (about 115,000 word) Comps: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, Cold Magic by Kate Elliot When raiders from the frozen South capture sea dragons with the power to teleport long distances, they go from being a local menace to a worldwide threat. After Astra’s village is pillaged by the raiders and her sister is kidnaped, she sets out with her fiancé, Taryl, to break into the enemy stronghold and save her sister. Before they can succeed, they are discovered, and Taryl is mortally wounded during their escape. In his final moments, Astra intertwines h…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Genre: YA Fantasy Logline: A spoiled noble girl with a good heart rebels against her parents to join a dethroned prince on his journey to build a team capable of reclaiming his throne and ridding the magical Islands of Rune of the injustices that plague them. Comparable to: It's can't think of anything with a similar storyline off the top of my head. I feel more comfortable saying I drew inspiration from Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Inuyasha, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, and Bridgerton. Pitch: A spoiled noble girl with a good heart named Josie has grown tired of the way her parents treat those beneath their station. While she certainly enjoys…
Last reply by Maria, -
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Last reply by James Charles, -
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Angie D Greenwyn adgreenwyn@gmail.com Fantasy/Horror The horrifying Lovecraftian love child of Neil Gaimen's The Sandman Comics and The Dark Crystal, set in a created fantasy universe. Hook Line: One god’s hunger for power comes at a mortal cost; with friends in jeopardy and a dying world in the balance a young girl must become the monster she feared to save the ones she loves. Pitch: On a mission to save her friends and family, naïve small-town girl Remeus Blakesley encounters a divine messenger on his death bed, who changes the trajectory of her life forever; entrusting her with an important parcel, Remeus is unwit…
Last reply by AD.Greenwyn, -
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Kathleen J. Waites’ debut novel, The Faithful Ones (95k, upmarket fiction), is based on a true family story. The intertwined saga of a Philadelphia Army recruit’s sudden, baffling fall from grace and his devoted sister’s decades-long mission, to uncover why and restore his honor through the telling of his story, dovetails with national World War II-related events never explored in fiction. In 1941, nine-year-old Mary Hohlfeld bids a tearful goodbye to her beloved older brother Edward when the pacifist-leaning Civilian Conservation Corp veteran reluctantly heads to boot camp and almost certain war. Months later, Mary sits outside the Philadelphia State Mental Hospita…
Last reply by Kathleen, -
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Author: Ryan Ball Novel title: Field of Night Genre: Science Fantasy Comparables: Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Thor: Ragnarok Hook Line: After making a desperate deal with a charismatic alien to save his mother, a young man must gain power quickly to protect his friends, family and humanity from the alien’s manipulative schemes. Short Pitch: Samer Azza, once a college basketball standout with a bright future, desperately needs a way to pay for his mother’s medical care. His luck takes a turn when Tar, an enigmatic alien emissary, shows up offering the chance of a lifetime. Samer will battle other chosen recruits to earn a place in Tar’…
Last reply by rkball, -
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What happens when your vocation as an Executioner keeps you from finding love? Finding happiness while lopping off heads sends this unusual woman into a partnership she never saw coming. This is a 79,000 word Speculative Romance. Maigrede is proud to follow in her family’s footsteps to act as the Executioner, but it is forbidden for women to perform the task so she must keep her identity a secret. One day, she arrives at her hidden home to discover Philip, an injured nobleman. Against her instinctual need for isolation she finds herself falling in love with him. All is well until he discovers the truth about her job. Forced to make a choice between her heart …
Last reply by Theresa Flynn, -
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Name: O.O Owoyemi Title: THE GIRL WITH THE PAINTED WOLVES Genre: Fantasy Comparables: City of brass; Black Sun Hook Line: To avenge her mother, Tella must break the promise she made when her mother died. Short Pitch: Set in 18th Century West Africa. Princess Tella desires two things: overturning the false charges Ga brought against her mother and finding the perfect chance to kill Ga, the most powerful man in Eyeo Kingdom. While she waits, she learns that Ga has rigged the King’s trial, a septennial event held to determine if the sitting King has the favor of the gods. If the trial is unsuccessful, her father will be sentenced to death.…
Last reply by Peju, -
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Author: Cheryl A. Arko Title: Touch of the Elegrian Genre: Science Fiction, complete at 89,000 words Comps: TOUCH OF THE ELEGRIAN is set on a future human colony world and would appeal to fans of Lois McMaster Bujold. Told from the point of view of a near-human alien like Julie Czerneda’s Sira di Sarc in her CLAN CHRONICLES, the story features a protagonist who manipulates technology using mental abilities similar to those wielded by the main character in Gerald Brandt's THREADER ORIGINS. The backdrop to the action shows the clash between opposing cultures reminiscent of ALIEN NATION. Hook Line: In the aftermath of a First Contact gone t…
Last reply by Cheryl Arko, -
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Author: Michelle Henrie Title: Thistle Mountain Witch: A Cricket O'Calleigh Tale Genre: YA coming-of-age fantasy in an alternate 1920s Appalachian Mountain setting Comps: The Nature of Witches meets the Gold Seer trilogy with The Godfather in THISTLE MOUNTAIN WITCH: A CRICKET O'CALLEIGH TALE, complete at 88, 000-words. Hook: A mountain gal rejects her silver magic birthright and escapes the feuds for the city, where she learns to wield her magic to oppose the mob boss. Short pitch: Sixteen-year-old Cricket O’Calleigh fails to claim her ma's silver mine and shuns her magic gift for fear of going mad like her dead ma. While defenseless, a rival…
Last reply by MichelleHenrie, -
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Author: Joy Renee McKinley Title: The Radical Mage Series Title: The Dark Resistance Genre: Fantasy YA Comps: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and A Song Below Water: A Novel by Bethany C. Morrow Hook Line: A teenage girl caught in the middle of Brooklyn’s civil unrest is forced to reckon with her newfound magical abilities and decide what her role in the underground magical uprising will be, or else all of New York City will be decimated. Pitch: 16-year-old Nia is done with being the family peacemaker, caught as she is between her father’s duty and her brother’s fury. With Brooklyn consumed by civil unrest, all Nia wants is a quiet night without si…
Last reply by Joy, -
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THE SHREWDNESS is a whodunit mystery wrapped in a post-apocalyptic conceit. Imagine the dystopian milieu of Tom Perotta's THE LEFTOVERS or Emily St John Mandel's STATION ELEVEN meets the clue-chasing of Tana French's DUBLIN MURDERS series. In a world remade by an invisible malevolence called The Shrewdness—anyone who gets farther away than ten feet from another person vanishes permanently. Now, two years after the disappearances began, humans are tethered together, solitude has become obsolete, and everyone must travel, live, and work in threes or more in order to survive. But life beats on; the setting maintains a veneer of normalcy even though the world has been r…
Last reply by AmyFeds, -
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Samantha Mineroff | Dreamscape | Slipstream/Fantasy Comps: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, Cake meets It's a Wonderful Life Hook Line: Suppose there was a society where Dream Makers, incorporeal beings responsible for giving human dreams, who must follow one main rule—never meet your dreamer. But depressed, 23-year-old Sasha Hayes, who’s recently been having nightmares, can’t accept the good dreams they create. A noxious fog interrupts them, making it nearly impossible to understand her and what kind of dreams she needs. A Dream Maker risks his existence to find out what she needs. It’s not until her last sleep cycle tha…
Last reply by Samantha, -
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Name Adam Fout Novel Title Frost (70,300 words) Genre Near Future Science Fiction Comparables Glow by Tim Jordan and Dare to Know by James Kennedy Hook Line After entering a Dallas rehab in 2071 for a new drug called frost, a broken addict on his final attempt at sobriety discovers he and his friends are being drugged by the head counselor and struggles to escape with his friends (and his newfound sobriety) intact. Short Pitch Axel is addicted to frost, a drug that literally freezes users within 36 hours unless they take more. He uses to self-medicate the pain of an abusive childhood…
Last reply by Adam Fout, -
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Author: A.B. Davis Title: Nightmarist (Stanchions Hollow #1) Genre: YA Fantasy/Horror Comp Titles: If the forest in the The Hazel Wood (M. Albert) had more grotesque, bloodthirsty creatures, and was being traversed by the cast of The Darkest Minds (A. Bracken) while being hunted by the killer in There's Someone Inside Your House (S. Perkins).... Hook Line: An unstable teenager, plagued by the brutal murder of his parents, must face the reality that his lucid nightmares are real creatures that must be destroyed before they consume the human world. ______________________________________________________…
Last reply by Andy Davis, -
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Title: Blood Animus Pitch: 97k scifi thriller V.E. Schwab’s VICOUS, Dark Phoenix, and John Wick. In a world where bloodlust is currency, humanity is loose change in a mercenary’s pocket. In 2039, ever since she was orphaned on the criminal infested, tropical island of Toppanga, twenty-three-year-old mercenary Alex Mercer searched for the answers to her past. After leaving the island, she’s presented with a high-risk contract that offers a different payment – information about her parents and her past. Alex and a group of assigned mercenaries must apprehend the elusive rogue soldier Maximillian Roivas. As the mission progresses, Alex feels somethi…
Last reply by KM1922, -
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Name: Laird Harrison Titles: Only the Millennia Will Cure Her Messing with the Multiverse Exotic Matter Genre: Upmarket Science Fiction Comparables : The Midnight Library by Matt Haig The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu Hook Line: Deprived of funding because of his awkwardness, physicist Pascal gets money from an unscrupulous time traveler who wants his help returning to the future. Short Pitch: On the verge of a pathbreaking discovery, brilliant physicist Pascal Rahali has neglected to publish. Socially awkward, he has lost his funding. So, he can’t ignore investor …
Last reply by Laird, -
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J.T. Strand Finding Lucifer Speculative (supernatural horror) COMPS: The Hunger by Alma Katsu and You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce HOOK LINE: Tormented by nightmares, a young professor must stop a shadowy figure, who achieved immortality through cannibalistic ceremonies, before he is consumed by it. Ben is a young professor who has just moved to the countryside, while his girlfriend, Jen, is on fellowship abroad. Coping with loneliness, Ben experiences episodes of sleepwalking and sees a shadowy figure in his dreams which turns all pleasant memories into wicked ones. While up nights, he befriends raccoons by leaving them scraps of food. Sleep-depriv…
Last reply by J.T., -
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JOSH SCARALIA Book Title: Void Decay: Theseus Earth Genre: Space Opera Comparables: Cibola Burn meets A Memory Called Empire Hook line: Upon completing a journey of centuries to colonize a new star system only to shockingly discover a strange human civilization has preceded them, a disillusioned and desperate young woman learns that the secret to the survival of humanity depends on joining the right side in a war fought with weapons of dark alien magic. Short Pitch: Victoria Cortez saw the four-year journey to colonize Tarres as a perfect escape from her dead-end life on Earth. How could she know that humans on Earth, where a millenniu…
Last reply by JoshScaralia, -
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Name: Gerrit Hansen Novel Title: The Power of Ancients Comparables: Throne of the Crescent Moon (Saladin Ahmed); The Poppy War (R.F. Kuang) Hook Line: Possessing power beyond far beyond his mentors, a tribal villager forsakes magic to overcome a murderous immortal by raising rival immortals long thought dead. Pitch: Maruli, a young Javan villager from the hated Jupami tribe leaves his remote jungle home to study a form of magic he hopes will help save his people from the island’s nemesis, Dahat, a member of the powerful race of Ancients that’s nearly extinct. However, the magic requires grinding up special stones that elders insist are the dead remains…
Last reply by GerritHansen,