Birthday Blowout First Page Contest with Victoria Marini

To celebrate my birthday, I'm having another agent-judged first page contest! Rather than celebrate me getting a year older, I thought I'd pay it forward and give you guys another chance to get your work in front of an amazing agent.And who, might you ask, is the judge?

Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency!

Here's the 'About Me' info from her blog Rapid Progressive:

Photo by James S. Rand

BASICS
By day (and most evenings, and the occasional Saturday) I’m the newest associate literary agent at the Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency (www.gelfmanschneider.com). I began taking on clients in 2010 and I’m aggressively building my list. I’m looking for any and all kinds of YA (especially thriller, noir, horror, sci-fi/fantasy, dystopian and paranormal) Middle Grade, memoir (but I’m very picky), pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction (edgy contemporary, romantic suspense, or urban fantasy, please).

MY WISH LIST:
In YA I tend to go for the darker stuff. I love fast-paced, high-tension YA, but voice is paramount. I’m looking for the quadruple threat: voice, character, story, world-building.

I’m always on the lookout for Contemporary YA with a great commercial hook. I want a classic YA horror in the vein of Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike. I love Middle Grade with an element of magic, like Coraline, Juniper Berry, and Zombie Tag. I want to be frightened. I want a Gothic tale. I’d love a YA Noir mystery; something like Sam Spade in High School. If you’ve written a ghost story, I’m your girl! I want a tricky game of cat and mouse, a dystopian with an interesting hook, tension (of all varieties), a re-imagined tale, and another world so real I could live there.

I’m interested in time-travel and the intricacies of the space-time continuum, love, forensics, mythology, covert operations, medicine, engineering, nanotechnology, mysterious disappearances, weird science, awesome sidekicks, sexual tension, and all sorts of bits and bobs. I tweet about aforementioned bits and bobs, here

In commercial women’s fiction, I need a romantic element with an interesting hook. I tend to gravitate towards magic and/or mayhem. I’m into paranormal romances and thrillers, Urban Fantasy, and edgy mysteries. I love The Hollows series, for example.

Please note, that while I have my wish list, some of my favorite books (both published and unpublished) were ones that came by surprise. What you really need to remember is this: I want to read something I’m willing to lose sleep for.

MY STYLE
I think of myself as a futur-agent. This means that I am in the business of managing authors’ careers. I’m a saleswoman, a counselor, a consultant, a social networker, a marketer & branding assistant, a digital optimist, and whatever the changing market will require. I am highly collaborative and responsive. I do my best to maintain an open door policy and to make sure my clients know how valued they are.

ON THE FLIP SIDE
By night, I am a lover of music, sleep, baked goods, friends, animals, travel shows, exercise, food and beer. I’m your friendly neighborhood positive thinker and purveyor of quirk.

You can also check out her bio on the Gelfman Schneider website here and Casey McCormick's Agent Spotlight on Victoria here. You can also follow Victoria on Twitter @LitAgentMarini.

This contest is only open to YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.

So here's how the contest will work:

1. Be sure your work fits into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
2. Sign up on the link below.
3. On June 25th, post your title, genre, word count and the first 250 words on your blog for critique.
4. From June 25th through June 26th, hop around to the other contestant's blogs and critique their first 250 words.
5. On June 27th, come back to my blog and post your final entry on my dedicated contest entry blog post. Be sure to include:
1. Your email address
2. Title, genre, wordcount
3. Your polished first page (250 words) Don't stop in the middle of a sentence.
4. Where you follow me
5. Where you spread the word

That's it!

Victoria will read all of the first pages and select one for a full request (which will include at least a partial critique). She will also request partial for the runners up that she selects!

Contest rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog and/or Twitter
2. You must spread the word, via twitter, fb, blog post, whatever.
3. Your work must be complete.
4. Your work must fall into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
5. You do not have to participate in the critique portion of the contest, but why would you miss the opportunity to polish that baby until it shines before Victoria reads it?