So after my success with PitchWars (one mentor liked my query and first chapter enough to request the full manuscript!), I've decided it's time to start putting All It Takes out there for the world to see, in the form of querying and entering pitch contests etc.
The first of which is Son of A Pitch, hosted by CQ author Katie Hamstead! The first round calls for entrants to post their query and first 250 words for peer critiquing.
Here's mine for anyone who has time to critique it, and I'll be off visiting the other entrants!
Title: All It Takes
Category and Genre: Adult, contemporary romance
Word Count: 120,000
Query:
In ALL IT TALES university student Megan Green finds herself pregnant after a rare one-night-stand with womanizing cage fighter Kian Murphy.
Still trying to get her head around the
unplanned changes to her life, Megan has to deal with Kian’s demands for a
paternity test. She takes his request as a personal insult, causing a gulf
between them.
After Kian blows up at an interviewer on
live TV, Megan is left questioning if he’s really the type of person she wants
to raise a child with. Spiraling out of control, Kian returns to old bad habits
of drinking and lashing out; landing himself in hospital.
Faced with the possibility of losing Kian,
Megan admits her feelings for him. But Kian, who has just agreed to return to
therapy for his anger issues, insists he’ll only end up hurting her.
When the stress of graduating and looking
for a new job cause complications in the pregnancy, and Megan is admitted to
hospital, Kian realizes he can’t keep pushing her away.
As the baby’s due date approaches, and their
feelings for each other grow, Megan and Kian are left questioning what the
future holds.
ALL IT TAKES is a dual-POV adult,
contemporary romance about responsibility, love and self-discovery that is
rooted in my personal experience of becoming pregnant in my early twenties;
complete at 120,000 words.
“Come on, Meg. It’s almost Christmas. If that isn’t cause for celebration I don’t know what is.” My best friend Stacey looked up at me from behind long lashes, her baby blues pleading with me. The puppy dog eyes worked on men without fail, but I’d known her for eleven years. Her charms had no power over me.
Still, the lure of a night of drinking and dancing couldn’t be ignored. We’d been slaving away at uni for months. We deserved a night out.
“All right, but let’s not make it a late one, okay? I’ve got work in the morning.”
“We’ll go to O’Neil’s. There’s a band playing; it’ll be fun.”
“Oh no, not O’Neil’s. That place is a dive.”
“I like it.” Stacey pouted. Another trick she used to get her own way. I could see why men found it adorable, and I knew men were exactly what she had in mind.
“You only want to go there because it’s where all the gym junkies hang out, and you’re hoping to snare one.”
“Have you seen some of the guys that go there? There’s this one, Josh Browne, he’s an MMA fighter and OH.MY.GOD. You should see his body.”
I laughed and shook my head. I could appreciate a hot body as much as the next girl. Hell, I’d been charmed by a pair of biceps and a few well-placed tattoos in the past.
“Okay, we’ll go to O’Neil’s. You can pull a fighter, and everyone will be happy.”
