This means that I have, uh, ten days to complete Pitch Wars Stages two through four, which are: 2) Winnow this list down to four; 3) Write a query letter for those four; 4) Take another look at the first chapter of Click, potentially beating it into shape to be submitted to these fine folk.

It was already going to be an insane ten days.  School, by the way, starts in twelve.

I can do this.

Sure.

Anyway, just for shits ‘n’ giggles, here’s the shortlist of mentors I’m looking at:

• Jason Nelson
• Charlie Holmberg
• Sarah Henning
• Natasha Neagle
• Amy Reichert
• Rae Chang
• Dan Koboldt
• Julie Sondra Decker
• Whitney Fletcher
• Jami Nord

I am, at the moment, calling my reading comprehension into question– because this contest is fairly heavily tilted toward YA/middle grade authors, a lot of the 75 mentors aren’t looking for books for the adult market.  I thought I had done a decent job, like, noticing that while going through and creating the shortlist, but I just had to delete three people who very clearly say “only YA” or “Only MG” in their profiles.  So, uh, I don’t know what happened there.

Hopefully I’ll have picks by the end of the weekend.