Pitch Madness

No posts for three months and now two in one day! I also entered Brenda Drakes Pitch Madness. To follow, check out #PitchMadness on twitter. She has an amazing line up of support and agents who will eventually see the best entries.

Here's my 35 word pitch and 250 word first page:

Title: MIGHTY MIKE AND THE ALIEN PEZ DISPENSER
Genre: Middlegrade Sci-fi/Adventure
Word Count:42k

Pitch: Dedicated to all things science fiction, eleven-year-old Mike tests superpower infused alien candies in hopes of escaping bullies. He ends up in a remote control versus laser battle to save his friends—and worst enemy.

Excerpt:

Mike crept toward the swings, one eye on Brutus, the keeper of The List of Kids to Be Pounded After School. Brutus and his two cohorts leaped and hollered on the basketball court, absorbed in the bloodiest game of basketball ever. So far, they focused on bruising themselves instead of their usual targets at Grover Cleveland Middle School. Mike peeked through the monkey bars. Still safe.

The List wasn’t a physical list, of course. It lived in the head of Nathan Simms, the biggest kid in sixth grade. Failing to call Nathan by his self-chosen nickname of Brutus guaranteed an entry on The List. Even the teachers found it easier to call him Brutus.

Mike didn’t know how he’d landed a permanent entry on The List. He wasn’t ugly, poor or stupid. Brutus didn’t say a word when Jordan—the most popular sixth grader, with skin the same coffee-color as Mike’s—spewed milk from his nose. Instead of calling Jordan booger-breath, Brutus tagged Mike with a humongous, drippy spitwad.

No one picked on Mike’s best friend Carlos either. But then Carlos was always picked first for team sports and had two older brothers. Big older brothers.

Dashing from the monkey bars to the merry-go-round, Mike stubbed his toe on a bump and nearly face-planted in the gravel. He scrambled to his feet and tried to walk casually. His eyes flicked back and forth from the uneven ground to Brutus snatching the basketball from his second-in-command Cole. Cole retaliated by elbowing his buddy in the chest.