#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?

Everything Pitchwars 

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).

YA Pick: Spontaneous

Spontaneous
by Aaron Starmer
Dutton Books
2016
355 pages
ISBN: 9780525429746


Laugh out loud hilarious, Spontaneous will leave readers snorting with laughter.  Then they realize that they are laughing at a teenager  who just blew up. While that is not cause for laughter in a normal world, Starmer frames teens blowing up in such a comic way they it is instantly (spontaneously) hilarious. This kind of black comedy is rare in YA and done only by a few writers like Andrew Smith and Libba Bray.

When teens begin blowing up, Mara Carlyle  is present each time a classmate meets a  terrible demise. She has the record, in fact, of most teen blow-ups witnessed.  As time wears on, Mara treats it like combing her hair in the morning--just a part of life. Mara is glib, witty and chatty as the narrator and takes the reader on an entertaining journey through her senior year. While insensitive and blatant, Mara uses it as a coping mechanism against the blood and gore around her. Instead of breakups and make-ups, it's blow ups and clean ups. When it becomes obvious that kids from the senior class are blowing up and it's not some random thing that cannot be explained, the government gets involved and surrounds the city. The kids are now prisoners and then lab rats. What is causing the senior class of Covington High to blow up?  Is it something they ingested? Something they took in an illegal drug? Did they pick up a parasite? Is it a medical condition?

The agent covering the case is FBI agent Carla Rosetti who Mara secretly admires, even striving to be her best buddy. The agent lets her know that the government may indeed be involved. She gives Mara and her  bff Tess burner phones to contact her if they find out anything about the case.

Spontaneous is enjoyable and entertaining although some may find the ending disappointing as the cause of the blowups is never addressed. Readers will have to write their own ending to this novel.

Recommended for laughs! High school grades 9-up. Profanity, lots of sex, bad behavior, alcohol, drugs, partying like it's 1999--hey, they are all blowing up, you know.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

YA Pick: It's All Your Fault

It's All Your Fault
by Paul Rudnick
Scholastic Press
2016
304 pages
ISBN: 9780545464970

Unstoppable satire, perfect profanity, bad girl behavior, good girl sanctimonious speech, fangirl furor, teen trilogy madness, what more could you want in a YA book?

Good Christian, homespun and home schooled, knee socks wearing, family singing group songstress, Bible thumping Caitlin Mary Prudence Rectitude Singleberry is approached by her crazy Aunt Nancy.  Cousin Heller Harrigan grew up a kid show sensation, Anna Banana. Now cast as Lynnea, the Chosen Winglet, in the Hollywood blockbuster movie "Angel Wars," Heller is hitting rock bottom. She's out of control with boys, booze and drugs. Nancy begs Caitlin to take the job of "babysitter" until Heller gets off the press tour. It will be Catey's good influence that will keep Heller on the straight and narrow ( Yeah, right).

Chapter titles are hilarious! "The Highway to Heller" contains this gem of conversation. "No one under the age of eighteen needs a cell phone unless they're a surgeon, drug dealer, or a prostitute." To which Heller replies, "Wouldn't it be incredible to be all three?" The girls' chemistry is believable and laugh out loud funny. Catey tries to get Heller to lay off cussing like a sailor. She is so salty, she could out cuss most sailors! Catey tells Heller to say the name of any town in New Jersey when she wants to cuss. Like "Weehawken!" Heller tries and comes up with, "Go Teaneck yourself, you Dunellen piece of  ###$$$$$$ Mount Kittatinny!" Heller's ability to come up with spot on curses at every turn  is her greatest achievement!

Every time Caitlin is introduced to any "cool" Hollywood people, they always ask her the same question, "Are you homeschooled?" Her ubiquitous knee socks make quite the impression. Later, Caitlin finds herself reveling in the spotlight. She wonders if she is sinning by acting in such a n un-Christian way. She begins to crush on the male lead of "Angel Wars" and since he's on the same press junket, she sees him all the time.

Just when you think Heller is a possessed, evil, maniacal, crazy, rude sociopath, she comes clean. She admits to Catey the reason why she began to unravel. The spotlight made her life bigger than life, so that when the filming was over, she had all this energy and nowhere to put it. In fact, at her bleakest Heller planned suicide. She had pills, white wine, and weed all "...lined up on ...Buddhist altar..." which Heller says, "...was sort of like the menu for a suicide buffet , or an LA kid's birthday party, if you added a clown who'd bring flourless brownies and soy milk."

Once Heller admits that she missed Catey for all these years, they get along. Enter cancer patient Sophie. She convinces the girls to help her carry out her plan for exiting this life. When the girls attempt Sophie's wishes, hilarity ensues with  grand theft auto, tattoos, body piercings, gun toting, scaring off armed robbers who have a sawed off shotgun, weird hair, kissing a boy, and flashing a trucker.

The cover is clever and eye-catching. Nice job of packaging this hilarious romp!

Paul Rudnick has just  taken his place among witty YA writers Andrew Smith and Libba Bray.

Highly, highly recommended grade 9-up. NOT for middle school. Profanity, sex, drugs and rock and roll.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Spy Sequel Pick: Evil Spy School

Evil Spy School
(A Spy School novel)
by Stuart Gibbs
Simon & Schuster
2015
322 pages
ISBN: 9781442494893

Stuart Gibb's Spy School books are  always a fun, rollicking trip with spunky, funny protagonist 13-year old Ben Ripley, aka secret spy. Ben's sense of humor keeps the reader entertained. Taking many swipes against the CIA, the government, and grown ups in general but who happen to be in charge and are also terribly incompetent, Ben says, "...the CIA was run by the government, where incompetent people didn't merely avoid being fired; they were often elected to high offices." Commenting on being in middle school, Ben states, "Junior high was mind-numbingly dull, socially distressing, and potentially dangerous..." and his teachers, "...were dumber than dirt." He tells of one Mr. Godfrey, a history teacher, "...who hadn't known when the War of 1812 took place."

Ben is ready for another year at Spy School but gets kicked out after accidentally blowing up the principal's office. Frenemy Erica seems to know more than she's letting on and Ben intends to find out what she's hiding, but before he can, he's kicked out and sent home. SPYDER kidnaps Ben and takes him to Evil Spy School, recruiting him as a rogue agent. Ben agrees to help them, but he's actually going undercover to see what SPYDER is planning against the agency. Flying blind and with no help, Ben remembers his spy school lessons. He has to act like a spy and not get caught. And he has to hope the cavalry is on the way!

New characters video gamer Nefarious and gymnast Ashley sign on to SPYDER and Ben wants to help each of them but doesn't know how without exposing his cover.

Humorous, clever, kid-friendly and entertaining, Evil Spy School shines!

Highly recommended for readers who love the series, espionage, spies, double and triple crosses, and laughing at the government.

Grade 6-up. No profanity. No adult content. Stuart Gibbs walks the fine line between humor and digs without jumping into the gutter. Kid friendly reading.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Funny Pick: Spy School

Spy School
by Stuart Gibbs
Simon & Schuster
2012
304 pages

Just released March 6, 2012


I have 5 copies to of this exciting new book to give away here

Clever, comedic, cute, charming, witty, punny, and sensational, Spy School is seriously entertaining and delivers chortling, mad fun. Readers will laugh out loud by the incompetence of the nation's most skilled special agents and roll around the floor aching with side-splitting laughter as a twelve year old boy is able to take down the entire elite team of agents and hide out from surveillance and capture.

Ben Ripley is a "normal" 12-year old middle school boy--he's trying to survive his geeky phase and stay alive another day. On a normal, mundane day, he arrives home to find a CIA spy in his living room. James Bond sauve and debonair look-alike Alexander Hale explains that the CIA wants to hire Ben--they have been watching him for some time. Ben can't believe his luck! How did they find him? --Agent Hale explains that due to his 728 searches of the CIA website, Ben has caught their attention. Hale offers to send Ben to Spy School--all very hush-hush and top secret, of course. Ben's parents think he's off to attend Science Camp.

The moment Ben steps foot onto the grounds of the Academy, bullets start whizzing through the air. Someone's trying to kill him! Then, he's attacked in his dorm room by an armed assassin, but Ben fights him off in the pitch darkness using only his wits and a well-aimed tennis racquet.

The school is covering something up and it's up to Ben to find out what it is before he's hunted down and killed. With the help of Erica Hale (Alexander Hale's daughter), Ben searches for clues and puts himself in danger as a target for someone who trying to kill him and steal the secrets of Pinwheel--a top secret program that Ben is supposed to have invented--someone planted that lie in his files hoping to catch the mole at the Academy.

This gem of a spy story featuring loveable, nerdy kid Ben will amuse tween and teen readers. The mole and the mole's story set up for a sequel quite nicely. Readers will cheer as Ben is able to catch the mole and outsmart the adults, the administration and all the CIA agents.

Some of the funniest lines are when Ben asks Agent Hale if the Department of Education knows that there are test questions on their standardized tests inserted by the CIA. Hale responds, "I doubt it. They don't know much of anything over at Education."

When Ben meets Erica, he is speechless by her beauty and describes it by saying,"She even smelled incredible, an intoxicating combination of lilacs and gun-powder."

Professor Crandall in defending the CIA quips, "The people who run the CIA might be incompetent, paranoid, and borderline insane, but they're not psychotic."

Chapter titles are dripping with CIA chic, too. Titles include, "Intimidation," "Ninjas," "War," "Surveillance," "Ambush," and "Detonation" to name a few.

Highly, highly recommended grades 5-up. This is the funniest book of the year and I predict it will be on many state's recommended lists and Best Books of 2012.

No language, no sex, just good old funny spying and espionage.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.