#Boost My Bio: @Pitchwars

Hi, I'm (Pamela) Thompson McLeod, long-time high school teacher and middle school librarian. I am entering Pitch Wars this year for the second time. Although I did not get a mentor last year (with my YA manuscript), I learned so much about writing and made so many FRIENDS in the writing community. Twitter is a great place to find like-minded writers and people who love reading and writing. I stay away from rants and politics and love the #writing community #amwriting #5AM writingclub #writetip #writer #writers

This year, the manuscript I am entering is middle grade #MG: FAKING IT: 11yo Kyle enters an online recipe contest with a recipe he never even cooked. He is chosen to be a contestant on a junior chef show. Too bad Kyle is a fake. He can't cook. Not even one little bit. His BFF Addie suggests he learn to cook by watching YouTube videos. Kyle has three days and YouTube. With a little luck and sheer grit, Kyle makes it through early rounds, but it's heating up in the kitchen. Kyle is bundle of nerves when his chef father shows up as a judge. Suddenly, winning isn't enough. Kyle has to prove himself to everyone, including his father.

Like Kyle, I enter recipe contests and even won some big ones. Here is my winning Third Place recipe that gave me the idea for my story! And like Kyle, I create recipes. I don't cook them. At all. Ever. And they win! I won Second Place for an Italian Stallion Maria I entered. It was a double non-cook. I didn't make it, and nothing in it is cooked, yet it won Second Place in a COOKING CONTEST!

So, I'm a recipe junkie, a recipe contest enthusiast, collector of vintage 50's-70's cookbooks (Junior League cookbooks from cities in the South are  my faves), a writer of dreams and a CP to my BFF Leslie Rush who entered Pitch Wars with me last year. Leslie's manuscript was chosen by a mentor for Author Mentor Match and she is waiting for the agent round. Both of us are hopeful our stories will touch the lives of readers.

This is a photo of me with my American bulldog Bowdee (short for Beaudacious)!

I am entering Pitch Wars in August! If you've never heard of Pitch Wars, it's an event where never published manuscripts and hopeful writers enter their first chapter, a query and a synopsis of their manuscript to the site. Mentors will make their picks and announce their mentees. If I'm lucky enough to be chosen, my mentor will go through my story word by word and help me make it shiny and bright. After the story is polished to perfection, there is an agent round! If I am lucky enough to find an agent or if she/he finds me! I have a chance to get my book baby out into the world. Here's hoping the universe is listening. Universe?

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I review YA for School Library Journal and VOYA and judged YA Fiction for last year's Cybils. I am currently a literary intern and a YA librarian (and writer).