Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig
Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard
A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Tag Archives: Aces Wild
Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2022
This post is sponsored by me and Home Field Advantage, available now in hardcover and ebook from Wednesday books and audio (narrated by Natalie Naudus and Lori Prince) by OrangeSky Audio!
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | Book Depository
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The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride by Hayli Thomson (July 19th)
Taylor Parker has always been a funny girl―but when she is accepted as a finalist for a diverse writers’ internship at Saturday Night Live, it turns her life upside down. If she wants a shot at winning in a little more than a month, Taylor will have to come out about both of her secrets: She wants to be a comedian . . . and she’s a lesbian.
With a mom who gave up a career in comedy to raise her, and a comedian dad who left for a younger woman, working in comedy is a sore subject in Taylor’s house. To keep her secret under wraps, she sneaks out to do improv and hides her sketches under the bed, and to distract from her anxiety about the competition, Taylor frequents Salem’s Museum of Witchcraft to pine for Abigail Williams from the back row.
It’s at the Museum of Witchcraft where Taylor falls deeper in love with the girl who plays Abigail Williams―Charlotte Grey, an out and proud lesbian at Nathaniel Hawthorne High. Charlotte radiates so much confidence in her acting and queerness that Taylor can’t resist her. So when Charlotte reaches out for help on a school project, Taylor readily agrees. As they spend more time together, Taylor sees what living her truth and pursuing her dreams could bring her, but Charlotte can’t understand why someone as funny as Taylor wouldn’t go all out to make the most of her opportunities. To live up to her own comedy dreams and become the person she wants to be, Taylor will have to find the confidence to tell everyone exactly who she is and what she wants.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound
Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2022
Exclusive Cover Reveal: Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt
Today on the site I’m thrilled to reveal the cover of an extremely exciting upcoming YA: the ace heist debut Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt, coming September 6th from Peachtree Teen! Here’s the story:
Six of Crows goes to Las Vegas in debut author Amanda DeWitt’s suspenseful casino heist, starring an entire crew of asexual teens.
Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do?
Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover. Gross.
Jack hatches a plan to find out what Carlevaro’s holding over his mom’s head, but he can’t do it alone. He recruits his closest friends—the asexual support group he met through fandom forums. Now all he has to do is infiltrate a high-stakes gambling club and dodge dark family secrets, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?
And here’s the wildly eye-catching cover, designed by Adela Pons with art by Víctor Bregante!
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound
A word from our author…
“Aces Wild isn’t a book I ever expected to write, and I never would have guessed that it would be my debut! When I first started putting the words on the page, I was intimidated by writing a contemporary story—how do you make real life exciting?! I wanted to write asexual characters, but I didn’t want to write a story about asexuality, and I wasn’t sure if that was allowed. As the pieces of the story came together, I realized how important they were to me, and how important I hoped they could be for readers someday. I would write a story about comedy and larger-than-life adventure and asexuality too, but not as something that the characters struggled with or came to understand, but as something that had brought them together.
I’ll always love this story because it’s fun and as flashy as its beautiful cover (look at that neon!), but also because it’s something I wrote during a very difficult time in my life, and so much of the love and understanding that kept me going then is held in its pages. Deep at its heart, Aces Wild is about understanding yourself in the face of loss and change, and the different types of love that help us along the way, if we allow ourselves to ask for it. It’s also about silly jokes and internet friends and blackjack too, so you could say that it has range. It means so much to me to have it out into the world, I hope readers enjoy it as much as I do!”
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Amanda DeWitt is an author and librarian, ensuring that she spends as much time around books as possible. She also enjoys Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragon-ing, and even more writing, just not whatever it is she really should be writing. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a Masters in Information and Library Science. She lives in Clearwater, Florida with her dogs, cats, and assortment of chickens. Aces Wild: A Heist is her debut novel.
July 2021 Deal Announcements
Children’s Fiction
Author of I THINK I LOVE YOU ‘s debut THE SISTER SPLIT, pitched as a reverse Parent Trap, in which a young girl teams up with her future step sister to create a plan full of hijinks that will stop their parents from getting married, so she doesn’t have to move away from the city and leave her best friend – a girl – she’s starting to develop feelings for behind, to Kelsey Horton at Delacorte, in an exclusive submission, for publication in spring 2023, by Penny Moore at Aevitas Creative Management (world).
Alex Kahler writing as K.R. Alexander’s GALLOWGATE, set in a school for banishing wayward ghosts, where a haunted boy finds forbidden magic, otherworldly foes, fierce friends, and queer romance, to David Levithan at Scholastic, for publication in spring 2023, by Brent Taylor at TriadaUS Literary Agency (world).
Adult Fiction
Hayden Stone’s AN UNEXPECTED KIND OF LOVE, pitched as Notting Hill but queer, in which an uptight bookseller stumbles headlong into a relationship with the actor whose movie is filming in his family’s struggling shop, to Heather Howland at Entangled Embrace, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2021 (world).
Booker winner for SHUGGIE BAIN Douglas Stuart’s YOUNG MUNGO, a portrayal of working-class life and a suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men born under different stars—a Protestant and a Catholic—who should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, again to Peter Blackstock at Grove/Atlantic, for publication on April 5, 2022, by Anna Stein at ICM (NA).
Author of SEVEN SUSPECTS and A KIND OF JUSTICE Renee James’s BEATNIKKI’S CAFE, in which a middle-aged transgender business woman tries to keep a low profile, but when a goon assaults her business partner, she reduces him to a bloody mess—and suddenly, she and everyone close to her are targets of a revenge-minded thug who is ruthless, clever, and unbound by any moral code, to Michael Nava at Amble, in a nice deal, for publication in March 2022, by Tina Schwartz at The Purcell Agency (world English).
Bronwyn Fischer’s THE RED FERN POEM, pitched as a queer CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS or a modern THE PRICE OF SALT, following a first-year university student and an older woman whose unexpected interest in her sparks an all-consuming and insidious love affair, exploring youthful self-consciousness, self-delusion, and self-definition, to Abby Muller at Algonquin, for publication in spring 2023, by Sam Hiyate at The Rights Factory (world, excl. Canada and UK).
Lambda Literary Award Finalist, GLAAD Media Award winner, and author of REAL QUEER AMERICA Samantha Allen’s PATRICIA WANTS TO CUDDLE, a contemporary horror comedy novel pitched as queer Grendel for the Instagram era, following a group of contestants on a reality television dating competition as they compete for love, and their lives, while on a remote island that’s home to an elusive and woefully misunderstood creature, to Sareena Kamath at Zando, at auction, by Leila Campoli at Stonesong (world English).
Author of HOW TO LIVE IN DETROIT WITHOUT BEING A JACKASS Aaron Foley’s BOYS COME FIRST, about the lives of 30-something Black gay men navigating love, life, and career in Detroit as they confront their evolving friendship and individual hiccups, including workplace micro-aggressions, bad Tinder dates, situationships and frenemies, while attempting to maintain their Blackness in America’s comeback city and the ever-changing expectations of homosexuality in structures largely architected by white gay men, to Anne Trubek at Belt, in a nice deal, for publication in May 2022 (US).
Young Adult Fiction
AJ Mason’s KLOUD 9, a queer space opera graphic novel about a lonely orphan trying to keep himself afloat with odd jobs, and an extraterrestrial star soldier who, after falling in love, are forced to go on the run and flee the solar system, joined by a motley crew, illustrated by Dominic Bustamante, to Erika Turner at IDW Publishing, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2023, by Britt Siess at Britt Siess Creative Management (world).
Author of THE CAMINO CLUB Kevin Craig’s BOOK OF DREAMS, in which a young man is given a book by a mysterious bookseller and falls into its pages, and must find an escape before he becomes a chapter in its horrific narrative; and WHERE IS ETHAN SINCLAIR, in which two young men try to solve the puzzling disappearance of a friend by studying his blog, only to unravel a mystery that sets them on a path to fight for justice for their missing friend—and hopefully bring him home safe, to Annie Harper at Duet, in a nice deal, in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2022 (world). Rights: MJ Courchesne at Gryphon Publishing Consulting
Rose Szabo’s WE ALL FALL DOWN, the first book in the River City duology, about a city where magic used to thrive and four queer young people are cast as archetypal figures—the maiden, the hero, the monster, and the witch—in an age-old ritual that will revive the flow of magic, even though none of them quite fit the roles thrust upon them and in the end discover that they can only stay true to themselves, to Trisha de Guzman at Farrar, Straus Children’s, in a very nice deal, in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2022, by Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency (world English).
Author of ENTER TITLE HERE (as Rahul Kanakia) and WE ARE TOTALLY NORMAL Naomi Kanakia’s JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE, about an Indian American trans girl who transfers from her prestigious all-boys’ school to the sister school that she’s always idealized, and has to decide whether she’s content to be treated like a second-class citizen or whether to risk her place by demanding that her school live up to its own principles, to Stephanie Guerdan at Harper Teen, for publication in spring 2023, by Christopher Schelling at Selectric Artists (world).
Amanda DeWitt’s ACES WILD, in which a character pitched as a modern asexual Kaz Brekker assembles a crew of ace teens he met through fandom forums and leads them on a Las Vegas heist to prove his incarcerated mother was set up by a rival casino owner, to Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2022, by Cate Hart at Harvey Klinger (world).
Lambda Literary Award finalist and author of RUNNING WILD Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s NO STOPPING US NOW, pitched as Mrs. America meets A League of Their Own, where a 17-year-old girl whose chance encounter with Gloria Steinem inspires her to fight for her public school to actually follow the new Title IX law, facing a menacing coach and navigating her feelings for a fellow teammate in the process; a story about the joy of sports and the power of sisterhood based on the author’s own activism as a champion athlete in 1970s Portland, Oregon, to Kat Georges at Three Rooms Press, for publication in spring 2022 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passage, by Reiko Davis at DeFiore and Company (world).
Editor of KINDRED Michael Earp, ed.’s fully illustrated untitled YA queer fairy tales anthology, which interprets original fairy tales with a queered ideology, questioning the heteronormative culture from which these traditional stories come and how that is perpetuated when left unexamined; contributors include Amie Kaufman, Mackenzi Lee, Dean Atta, Will Kostakis, Lily Wilkinson, Sophie Gonzales, Alison Evans, Alexandra Villasante, Abdi Nazemian, Gary Lonesborough, and James Brandon, to Meg Whelan at Affirm Press, by Ben Fowler at Abner Stein, on behalf of Taryn Fagerness Agency and Linda Epstein at Emerald City Literary Agency (world).
Non-Fiction
Journalist, critic, and host of Crooked Media’s podcast Keep It Ira Madison III’s PURE INNOCENT FUN, a collection of essays that explores popular culture of the 1990s and earlier through the author’s perspective and lived experience as a Black, gay TV writer and cultural critic, to Jamia Wilson at Random House, at auction, by Erin Malone at William Morris Endeavor (NA).
National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Michener Center for Writers fellow ‘s LEG: THE STORY OF A LIMB AND THE BOY WHO GREW FROM IT, a memoir that grapples with family, disability, illness, and coming of age in two closets–as a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy–while exploring with trenchant humor what it means to “transform” when there are parts of yourself you cannot change, pitched in the vein of Ryan O’Connell meets David Sedaris, to Zachary Knoll at Simon & Schuster, in a pre-empt, by Hannah Brattesani at Friedrich Agency (NA).
Slate journalist June Thomas’s WHERE ARE ALL THE LESBIANS?, a cultural history, celebration, and critical look at queer women’s communities in the second half of the 20th century, to Seal Press, at auction.