Agent Provocateur
Agent Provocateur
Agent Provocateur S2 Ep 06: Literary Agents Respond to Your Elevator Pitches
In this episode TRF agents Jennifer Chevais, Tasneem Motala, Natalie Kimber, Kathryn Willms, and moderator Sam Hiyate respond to your audio pitches, focusing on what we like and what could be improved. The pitches we review are: GOOD GIRL GONE by Larissa Benfey, UNTITLED by S.A. Baker, OUR NEVERLAND by Zenobia Crow, Fletcher's Bird by Danielle Zell, NOM DE PLUME by Lisa Marie Potter and Amanda Nelson and OF RUST AND STARDUST by Catherine Kraus.
Hi everyone, I'm Sam Hiyate and welcome to our show. For our last episode of the season, we thought we'd do something a little special. So for a couple of weeks now, we've put out a call for 60-second book pitches via audio. The response was fantastic. So we then selected six of those pitches, and on this episode, we're going to listen to them together with you. And four Rights Factory agents are going to give their opinion on what works in the pitches and what could be improved. Hello everybody. I'm going to introduce our panel of agents. First up, we have Natalie Kimber.
Natalie Kimber:Hey everybody.
Sam Hiyate:Uh, next up is Tasneem Motala.
Tasneem Motala:Hello.
Sam Hiyate:Kathryn Willms.
Kathryn Willms:Hello.
Sam Hiyate:and Jennifer Chevais.
Jennifer Chevais:Hello.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. So, well, here's a question. What do you guys think is one key element that every pitch needs. I'll start with Natalie.
Natalie Kimber:An awesome hook. Even if you take a compelling line from the manuscript, a short, punchy voicey, awesome hook, to start us off.
Sam Hiyate:Great. Jennifer?
Jennifer Chevais:Clear stakes. What's happening. Why does it matter?
Sam Hiyate:We've got a hook, we've got clear stakes-- Tasneem?
Tasneem Motala:Stakes are great. I agree. But I also feel like there's a difference between stakes in a plot and character stakes. If I can care about the character, I'm already in.
Sam Hiyate:Awesome. I'm gonna throw mine in, which is: I want to know why I should care about the characters. So I want to know, is this somebody that I should like, or is this like an anti-hero character, somebody that I should dislike? And I like, one of the reasons why I'm in this business is because I like to see people who have good values succeed against everything. And I always tell people that the meta-villain of every story is always the same thing, and that is despair. So there's got to be an element of hope. There's gotta be somebody that you like, and then you've gotta ultimately fight the villain of despair in every story. Kathryn, I saved you for the end because I figured you'd have an answer to this.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah, f or me, it's conflict. I think that-- it's such a screenwriting thing, but that's what screenplays-- good screenplays-- really get right is that central conflict. What is it that stands between the main character and their goal and, who, and if you have that piece, then you have the stakes and you have a way for a character to progress. And you have a story.
Sam Hiyate:Great. Okay. So first up we have Larissa Benfey. Let's hear her pitch.
Larissa Benfey:It takes a special kind of ineptitude to stumble into a kidnapping, but then to become an impromptu target yourself? Now that's just bad luck. For 15 year-old Lucy Warren, her abduction is just the tip of the iceberg or rather the rabbit hole into Wonderland. That is, if by Wonderland, you mean the criminal underworld of Boston led by a killer kingpin who'd put the Queen of Hearts to shame, and complete with a white rabbit who might just win Lucy's heart. Unfortunately for Lucy, there's no climbing out of the rabbit hole. There's no going back to her old life because that kingpin terrorizing the streets of Boston-- he's Lucy's new stepbrother, Ethan Burke. When a dangerous rival from Ethan's past resurfaces hell bent on hurting Ethan, Lucy discovers she may be the only person capable of saving her stepbrother, but the question becomes, does she want to? Good Girl Gone is a 90,000 word YA crossover, which at its core is a story about family. Lucy eventually realizes that family isn't the people you share blood ties with, but the people you'd shed blood for.
Sam Hiyate:All right. So I feel like this is a YA project, but it's not entirely clear.
Jennifer Chevais:I really liked the fact that she dove right into the character stakes really quickly and that there was a cross sort of mix with like a fairytale and bringing it it into the underworld. Which is, I mean, Wonderland is not actually that great of a place. And this was a really interesting cross for me.
Tasneem Motala:Yes, same here. I really liked the fact that it got into the protagonist stakes, really quickly and right away. And I don't know, I'm always a sucker for gang stories, criminal syndicates, underground stuff. So that was really interesting to me. I think that it's important, about the character stakes though, because I find that so many pitches I get, in my Query Manager tend to completely miss them and it's super easy to get invested and want to read the sample if I know what the stakes are. First, the one thing that I didn't really understand is the kidnapping at the start-- she witnesses one-- and then gets kidnapped, but then her brother is the crime Lord. So I was wondering how that ties in. I feel like that's just a question that needs to be like a bit more clarified for me, but everything else about this was amazing.
Sam Hiyate:Terrific. Jennifer, was there anything you thought could be improved?
Jennifer Chevais:I thought that the hook was a little confusing, like Tasneem, I wasn't sure exactly if she was the one that had been kidnapped at the beginning and then was abducted again by a rival crime lord. I had to listen to it a few times to catch exactly what was going on.
Sam Hiyate:What did you guys think of the title? I kind of like the title, though. Good Girl Gone. It's kind of like a play on Gone Girl.
Tasneem Motala:Yeah. That's what I thought too, actually. Just in terms of the title alone. I think it's interesting too, because it's Good Girl Gone and she has a new stepbrother who's a literal crime lord. So it's like, how did that happen? How did she go from good to like basically in the middle of all of this. That was really cool.
Natalie Kimber:Hey guys, it's Nat and I was going to jump in here because even though I look at mostly adult stuff, I do like YA from time to time, and this is a YA crossover. And first, I do like that the hook came right up front and it was interesting. Although I kind of agree with Tasneem and Jen that it doesn't tie in enough, or be explained enough, but it does kind of hit you right away. Other than that, I feel like Larissa covered a lot of ground here. She covered the word count. She covered the plot, she covered her main character, the title, which is great and does exactly what it should for the book. And I love that you have a character who starts off good. She gets into this situation where there's an obvious antagonist, her stepbrother, and then there ends up being other people who come around and make her revisit what she thinks is good and evil. And, you know, that's sort of, my enemy's enemy is my friend idea, where she might end up having a better relationship with her stepbrother towards the end. And finding out where her true alliances are or where her true sense of morality is. So that sounds like some themes that I would definitely want to read into. And this is something I would definitely want to see.
Sam Hiyate:Awesome. Okay. Let's move on. Next up is, uh, the, one of the, actually the shortest pitch we got, which is Scott Baker, let's listen to that one
S.A. Baker:Frankenstein from the creations point of view, but what would happen? How would he turn out? Someone broke the cycle of hatred violence and showed him kindness instead.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. So who wants to go first?
Kathryn Willms:Yeah, I'll jump in on this one. So I love a, what if scenario, um, and imaginative retelling, that's very fun and I love Frankenstein. Uh, I still think it's just one of those, uh, those smart texts that's emblematic of our, the debates of our time. Uh, so I thought the, uh, the thought experiment set up was, was great. Um, obviously this is quite short. Um, so I do think that, uh, you know, immediately you're like, what else happens? And, um, I think one of the things here I was like, is it, is it a buddy comedy? Do, is it like a retro sci-fi like everyone has a monster and they play with them is the monster like getting drunk of parties and causing like social anxiety. I'm like, I just was like, what is the genre of this book? What will happen? Like, am I, am I reading a, a comedy, a, a fable dressed up as a philosophical tree tease? Um, I just felt like I wasn't sure. And I think the big thing, and I think it's one actually that I see it in a few of the other are pitches as well. And I think it's something for writers always to think about in their pitches is what's the conflict there needs to be. It needs to be clear that there's going to be something that people have to overcome either internally or externally. And in this case, I'm like, if everyone's nice to the monster, it's unclear where the conflict is going to, uh, arise. So, um, I think that would be the thing that I would, you know, obviously I'm sure the author or the writer knows, but, uh, that was the thing I'd like to know in the
Sam Hiyate:Pitch. Awesome. Okay, Natalie,
Natalie Kimber:I agree with Catherine on almost everything. I don't really have much more to say, um, for, I always tell this to authors and use whatever you have. So if you have 60 minutes you, or sorry, 60 minutes, that would make for very long episodes. If you have 60 seconds for a pitch use up as much as you can and give as much information as possible. If you have a friend who's a great writer and you're not sure if you can, you know, ask for their blurb, no, use it, use everything you got whenever you're going forward into this business.
Sam Hiyate:So my thoughts on this is he says Frankenstein, but what if nothing bad happens? Well, the thing is, there's no story if nothing bad happens. Um, this is the moment which is like Frankenstein is created. Everybody loves him and they all live happily ever after or the end. So a, a story needs some kind of, um, a series of obstacles. Like Catherine says a conflict. We need bad things to happen. Otherwise it becomes like maybe a, a fraction of an episode of star Trek where you could argue that data is kind of created and then everybody's nice to him. And then he's like, I'm gonna just be part of the team like everybody else, which is kind of that star Trek data. So, so okay. That, I think that's, it let's move on to, uh, next up is Senoia Crow.
Zenobia Crow:Hi, I'm sonno Crow a rider originally from Kate San South Africa. Now living in Seattle was today. I want to pitch my novel Al Neverland. The story follows my ever so idealistic protagonist, 22 year old Finlay James who discovers a love that feels like he's looking down the barrel of a gun and waiting for the trigger to go off. It's truly a journey of self discovery as he learns that, no matter how much he thinks he has something one way or the other life is gonna end up hitting you in the face and it's either gonna hurt. So it's gonna feel so good that you'll never wanna let it go. And that leaves Finn in a position where he makes decisions that end up hurting innocent people and him questioning whether, you know, everything he thought he wanted is truly for him.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. So ZNO Crow, uh, uh, we've got a few people here. Let's Natalie, let you go first.
Natalie Kimber:Um, so this one, um, I like an idealistic protagonist in Finley, James 22 years old. Um, I feel like this explanation kind of kept me going and you set up pretty high aches, you know, looking down the barrel of a gun and waiting for the trigger to be pulled. Um, something I love that you said was, uh, talking about a pain that, that either hurts or it feels so good. You can't let it go. And the idea of something that hurts so good, I think is really appealing. But overall for all the things I love about this, I still have no idea what's going on with Finley James. And what I think you need is just specifics. Where is Finley James, and what is he doing? What, um, what's his occupation? What is he pursuing? How is he meeting those, these people or these getting into these relationships? Um, why do we want to be on his side? Um, beyond that, I think the title is great and you've got a lot going for you in this pitch. It sounds really enticing. And you've said it in this beautiful language, but it's still too vague.
Sam Hiyate:Okay, Catherine. Yeah,
Kathryn Willms:I, I, I agree, Natalie. I think that this has, this has some style to it and this, this nice kind of, sort of evocative language and, and she does a great job of evoking a, a character, um, and you know, having a great main character who's this conflicted person is excellent. Um, but there's just no context here at all. I had the same questions on like AFIN as rules. He traveling the world is gonna futures. He the past, like all the questions. So I just think adding a few more, few more, that sort of contextual information would be helpful to me.
Tasneem Motala:Okay. So this, this pitch specifically I actually had in my inbox and I passed, I feel like it has, you know, that evocative language, that edgy kind of feel to it with clear character who we know is an idealist and is running into all these problems. But because of the lack of specifics, um, because I had no idea what maybe he did for a living or if he was in school or if you know, or even just where, where Finley is in life. Like, you know, is he living by himself? Is he living in a completely different country? All of these things we're not there. And so therefore it kind of just sounded edgy, but with no substance that I could latch onto. So I could understand him as a character beyond the fact that he's an idealist.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah. I feel like he has internal conflict, but he doesn't, it's not clear what the external conflicts are in his life without, without that context
Tasneem Motala:Ex. Exactly. Exactly.
Sam Hiyate:Exactly. Well, clearly there's shotgun. There's shotguns involved.
Kathryn Willms:Are they metaphorical shotguns? I want to know what kind of shotgun is it.
Jennifer Chevais:It almost feels like it is, um, it's everybody right now. Like every single person on the planet is Finley because we don't have enough details yet. So like that just the that's the way it feels like it could be me. It could be Catherine, it could be Natalie. We've all, we've all had these same sorts of idealism and, um, you know, been in tough situations, but all of our situations are unique to each of us. So, and we need to know more,
Sam Hiyate:But here's a question when you guys fall in love, does it feel like you're staring down the barrel of a shotgun? No,
Tasneem Motala:Of course
Natalie Kimber:Can Points for voice on this big points for voice. Um, I think everybody was captured and I don't mean accent. I mean, just the voice of the language and the pros of your pitch were great. I'd say ZNO, if you wanna add more details and send it to myself or Catherine we'll have a look.
Tasneem Motala:Yeah. I think, I think those details would really help the pitch and really help us want to read more of the sample.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. Uh, I just thought it was like the cutest accent ever, but that's me. Um, okay, so let's move on.
Natalie Kimber:Great accent. Great accent for
Sam Hiyate:Sure. Next up is, uh,
Natalie Kimber:And she should absolutely narrate the book when
Sam Hiyate:She should narrate the audio book. Right. Actually that should be absolutely. That should be, um, uh, well negotiated. Um, next up is Danielle Zel. So this is AYA book.
Speaker 10:When Eve's mom said a, her hometown of fallen Arizona was hell Eve. Didn't know what she meant. Literally as a neuro divergent teenager who struggles with sensory processing problems, all Eve wants is to fit in, but fallen doesn't seem to be more accepting than the dozens of other towns she's lived in. When Eve goes searching for a missing friend, she is launched into a war between good and evil. A war led by two opposing families, the handling who she's staying with, and then notoriously evil Fletcher family. When E falls in love with the Fletcher and finally finds belonging with the, within the Fletcher clan. She quickly figures out that nothing is as simple as good versus evil. Now with the door to hell hours from being opened, Eve must stand up for what she believes in and give it all up complete. At 67,000 words, Fletcher's bird is a young adult contemporary fantasy inspired by a Grims fairy tale of the same name. It's like ties meets vampire diaries with a bit of verse sprinkled in.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. So who wants to go first on this one Ty's name?
Tasneem Motala:Okay. So, um, I like the idea, I actually do know of the rims fairy tale that it's based on. Um, also because me and Jen researched it, but, um, uh, it, it's kind of interesting because I like the idea of the neuro divergent protagonist. I like the idea of a new town and a new area that they're trying to fit in to. Um, and it's kind of ends up being like the other hands that they've been through before. The thing that I think would really help this pitch is again, the personal stakes because sh um, the protagonist goes looking for this friend, but we don't know anything about this friend, why it's important that she goes looking for her, why, um, why she goes on this little journey to do that. And we don't anything about the two families either. We just know that at the start they're introduced as good and evil and that later on, it's more gray. Um, so I feel like one of the things that would really help is establishing why it's important, she's searching for the friend and what is happening surrounding the gates of hell opening up and why that is happening. Cause that kind of felt like it was just thrown in there despite us knowing that this place is literally hell. So I feel like if that those two things were just kind of explained a little more, um, in terms of the stakes of them and why we care about these characters, it would be like, perfect.
Sam Hiyate:Okay, Jennifer, anything. Yeah,
Jennifer Chevais:I, I agree. Like I really liked the beginning and, and the fact that the, the town where they're at and I found it a little humorous that it was in Arizona, but, um, that it's literally hell and, uh, and then I, I really like the, the opportunities of having, uh, like a neuro divergent main character again, though, um, character driven. We don't know why she's why the friend is so important. Um, and, and then there was this part of me that was like, is this a Rome and Juliet retelling or is it something else? And so when it came back to being part of, or inspired by a grim fairy tale, I was a little surprised at the end, but I also really liked the thought of the verse, which was mentioned at the end.
Sam Hiyate:So it kind of the idea of a kid going to a town that is really hell. I feel like she has to be responsible for opening it otherwise, what are the stakes to the story? Anyway, that's just my own. I feel like that's probably in there, but she didn't describe it that way.
Tasneem Motala:Yeah. Like if, if something was said for why the gates of hell are opening or what the stakes are around that happening, um, I'd be a lot more compelled. Yeah.
Sam Hiyate:Like if some, if I moved to a town and they said, great, you're here now because of what you did, the gates of Heller opening, you better fix this. I'm like, holy, I better fix it. Otherwise, if they're like, Hey, welcome. By the way, tomorrow, the gates of Heller opening, just, I thought you might wanna know, then I'm not as invested in closing those gates. Unless of course it would be to my advantage if the gates of hell opened up, I guess that would be another way of looking at it if I was some kind of demon person, but I didn't know. It they're like, by the way, it's opening for you, you're, they've been waiting for you. Oh, thanks. Thanks for that.
Jennifer Chevais:Oh, a different, a different kind of chosen
Sam Hiyate:A different kind of chosen. Yeah. So I'm just saying none of that was clear from the pitch, even though I, I think probably a little, uh, you know, I'm trying to keep it open an open mind about the, the storyline. Okay. Um, thanks everybody. Next up is, uh, uh, two writers. It's collaboration. Uh, it's an adult romance story and it's a Lisa Marie Potter and Amanda Nelson.
Speaker 11:Hi, my name is Lisa Marie Potter, and I am co-writer with Amanda Nelson. We're pitching a contemporary romance titled non plume. This manuscript is a PG 13 mashup of themes, similar to beach Reed by Emily Henry. And the kiss quo by Helen Huang, right in a romance is hard when your life is a tragedy. So when Molly hires a male companion to help her with her book, she sure their chemistry is nothing more than research that is, is until they meet up in Las Vegas. And you know how the saying goes, what happens in Vegas?
Sam Hiyate:Okay. Who wants to go first on this one?
Kathryn Willms:Um, well, I, uh, you know, I kind of, I, I always wanna know what happens in Vegas, so you, you have hooked me. I wanna know what happens in Vegas. Um, so, so I like the cliff hanger of it. Um, and I love a romcom if, if that's in fact what this is, it's a little bit unclear to me, um, what it is. Uh, and I love, well, she,
Sam Hiyate:She gave some coms.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah. The coms are very romcom S or romance. Um, uh, so, so that's great. Um, and those are great comps. Um, I think I, with this one I had, like, I just had questions again. Um, like I'm like, what's a male companion. Do I need one to write a book? Um, and I, and the, just that word companion, I just didn't know what to do with it. I'm like, is this a, is this like an 80 year old woman and a 25 year old writing coach and they've gone to VA, you know, I, I was just trying to think of, like, in which case I'm in, like, let let's go. Uh, but, but I do think that this kind of speaks to maybe what I thought was maybe bit of the issue with the pitch was, I didn't know what the conflict was. I didn't know whether was a conflict between these well, why can't these two people be together? Um, is there's a, are they with somebody else or is there an age gap, or I just wasn't sure. Or, or I wasn't sure if the conflict happens when they're in Vegas, in which case the yada yada, what happens in Vegas is a big yacht. You know, I would like that gap to be a little filled with some details about what does happen in Vegas. Um, so I think that what are the other, you know, there's an internal in, in incompatibility or a conflict outside of, um, sort of that relationship. Uh, I think having a little bit more about that would be, um, help the intrigue level.
Sam Hiyate:I think casting notes would help. Like if you said Richard GE was the, well, I guess the old Richard GE the earlier Richard GE the muse, the male muse companion and a young Julia Roberts was the writer, you know, then you'd have, you could figure out where that might go. But, um,
Natalie Kimber:Sam, I'm not sure that the editors nowadays even know who Richard here is anymore.
Sam Hiyate:Oh my God, I'm, I'm feel so old and dated. Um, so in terms of wrong, like, I guess the idea, usually you have opposites attracting, right? That's the thing. And Catherine, I think that's, what's missing here. Right? Um, I think they might have it in the story cuz they seem to know your genre and what they wanna accomplish, but what we're not getting is, uh, the series of obstacles that they're gonna have to overcome for this to be interesting. Um, having something secret happening in Vegas is a, a good tease, but we still need more. It's not, there's not enough around what I could be, but Catherine, I have to say, I love your age gap idea. Like if a it's Harold and mod go to Vegas and Harold is like the writing coach, like that is awesome. That, that, I mean, that would be a great story.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah. Yeah. I feel like any, yeah. Any story in Vegas, like it always gets weird. So I I'm, I think that, you know, we can, we can, well, I hope it gets weird in Vegas, but uh, yeah, I do wanna, I do wanna be able, I want my imaginations sparked at this moment.
Natalie Kimber:Well, I wanna say, um, you guys have me giggling for sure. Especially Sam with your Richard gear idea. Um, but also, um, I thought that, that this covered, you know, a lot of ground, um, you have a, some cool comps right up front. That's great. Um, but the, the question for me was starting off saying it's a PG 13, um, story, and I think you're, you're using adult comps. So, um, why PG 13 and then Vegas. So are we PG 13 in Vegas? Cuz like what? I don't know. Um, how does that work out?
Kathryn Willms:Remember when it tried to rebrand itself of as a family destination, I guess, uh, maybe they're maybe, maybe that's coming back around again and they're, these writers are getting, getting in front of it.
Natalie Kimber:I remember going to Vegas when I was 20, I wasn't 21 yet, so I couldn't do anything. And it was like, why am I here? Um, but also, um, the title being numb to plume, um, doesn't, it doesn't tie in enough in this pitch for me to know why you chose that title or for it to have appeal to what the story is. So if you could touch a little bit on that or show why nada plume, um, why you went there with the title that would be, um, that might help answer some questions, but you know, bonus points for, um, a sort of giggly ending for leaving some things open ended for us, um, cliffhanger ending and um, bonus points for comps.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. Let me recast it. Forget Richard gear, Jamie Dornan, Jamie Dornan as the who as the male companion in, in Vegas. But that wouldn't be PG 13.
Natalie Kimber:I'm there?
Kathryn Willms:No, it's never PG with Jamie That man likes to show his BU on television.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. So, uh, let's move on to, uh, thanks everybody. That was uh, good one. And that was um, our first romcom here of the pitches. Next up is the last one last but not least. Catherine crosses ye book
Speaker 12:Of rust and Stardust is a 1990s young adult reimagining of tinker bell with time travel pirates and deception stranded in New Jersey. 16 year old tink agrees to steal a bag gang leader, black beers treasure for the way back to Neverland. But the treasure is a time machine. He plans on destroying Neverland with,
Sam Hiyate:Okay, we have tinker bell and black beard and Neverland. Um, I'm gonna start with Jennifer. What are your thoughts on this?
Jennifer Chevais:Again, it comes down to the character. We, we don't seem to have enough, at least I don't feel that we have enough and I can understand why Tinkerbell would wanna go back to Neverland, but there's a lot of other things that just aren't necessarily clear from what we have so far. Although I do like a good pirate story.
Sam Hiyate:Okay. TAs name? Any thoughts?
Tasneem Motala:Um, just to call back to what Natalie said earlier, when you have a minute use the whole minute, cuz I feel like there was a lot of things missing, cuz as much as I love, you know, Peter pan and the idea of tinker bell and the idea of like a 1990s, was it New Jersey? Oh my gosh. Yes, it was Jersey. Uh, like as much as I love those ideas, I'm also really relying on the fact that I have prior knowledge of all these tropes and all of these characters. And if someone doesn't or someone wants to get into this book and doesn't have any of that prior background in any of that, then they're not really gonna know where to care and where to put their investment in. Um, one of the things that I think could help this immensely is just telling us why tinker bell wants to go back because as much as Neverland as her home, again, that's, that's that's prior knowledge. I have, she, she has a home there and she wants to go back home, but why is it so important that she risks literally stealing from a gang leader to do it? You know, why, why is the at so important? And also, um, I, I guess I just don't understand how a time machine can destroy anything. So I would love to know more about that time machine. Like, is it she's going back in time to get to Neverland and how is Blackbird gonna use a time machine to destroy Neverland? That would be cool to know because I don't really know what a time machine can do other than travel back or forth in time.
Jennifer Chevais:And I also think something that would be interesting is to get into the character of black beard. Black beard was a real character. Um, and not related to Neverland as far as I know.
Sam Hiyate:Yeah. I kept waiting for whereas captain hook. Yeah. I mean,
Tasneem Motala:Instead of captain hook we have Blackberry.
Jennifer Chevais:Yeah. Um, so that would be interesting to know also, I don't know if you can do it in a pitch like this, but getting a sense of even the bad guy's agency. Why is he doing these things and why does it matter to tinker bell that she stops him?
Natalie Kimber:Um, I'm gonna jump in and say, oh, oh my gosh, 1990s, New Jersey. I live in New Jersey now. I wish I could go back to 1990s, New Jersey. That sounds so amazing and so fun. And I'm so curious, how are these characters? 1990s? What is 1990s tinker bell like, um, does she wear doc Martins? Does she read the Delias catalog? You know, does she, um, and then the Blackberry character, what is the 1990s, New Jersey black beard gang leader, like, um, I'm it sounds like he's the sexiest skater out there, but is he like, I would be so, so said to note, does he have an eye patch? Does he have a parrot? That'd be even cooler. Does he
Kathryn Willms:Have a Walkman?
Natalie Kimber:So just giving us a little more, uh, if anything, if you wanna do something that's 1990s, um, drop some references in there because the people that love it, the people that are nostalgic for it, he like me. We would love to see those.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah. I think it's great. I think I can imagine like, like maybe like really wide leg jeans and then like, you know, like pure nightly, you always used to wear those like little bandana tops. Like I feel like tinker would like she'd have like that kind of vibe. Right. Maybe neon. Totally.
Tasneem Motala:I can totally imagine that just as a, just cuz she's a fairy character. Why not?
Sam Hiyate:That's how she hides the wings. Is that how it works?
Natalie Kimber:Braver or tinker bell 16 year old raver tinker bell. Why
Kathryn Willms:Not? It'd be cute.
Sam Hiyate:Um, what do you guys think of these revisiting classic stories? Like there was that book that just came out where it was like the great Gatsby retold and it seems to be like a recurring, um, a, a way to build on these established brands by having a re of something a modern day retelling if the guy earlier guy pitched Frankenstein in a, in a different way. So I, I think it's interesting that the same way that Hollywood wants to keep remaking things over and over and over rather than trying to find new IP. Sometimes I feel like it's a lot of writers will rather go somewhere where it's known and there's a known audience for it. And it's an easier pitch. A, you know, let's do another Jane Austin novel with one of the Darcy kids or whatever grown up now or, you know, the, the grandchildren or whatever. There's so many, there's like a whole franchise of these things. Um, so yeah, uh, I haven't really thought about Peter Penn in a while, but it's interesting that this pitch is out there and she's kind of doing a mash up with, um, um, treasure island, I guess. Right. Peter pan meets treasure island with black beard.
Kathryn Willms:Yeah. I think I have two, two thoughts on that. One is like, uh, I guess actually Sam, do you think there's like permissions issues? Like when you like, like tinker, Bella would be, I
Sam Hiyate:Don't know what the copyright is for Peter pan it's it's about copyright in the end. Yeah.
Kathryn Willms:That's about copyright it.
Sam Hiyate:Yeah. I dunno if it's in the public domain or not. That's the question
Kathryn Willms:Because tinker bell is such a fascinating character. Like I don't, I don't know maybe maybe those books exist, but I can just see her as, uh, as the main character in a series or something like that because she's, she's, she's really like underexplored in the Peter Penn universe in some ways, you know, if Julia Roberts is playing you, like you got something, like, I just feel like maybe, uh, I'd be interested in like a tinker bell universe, uh, Disney universe, perhaps this writer will, uh, you know, will get hired to, to create such a thing.
Tasneem Motala:Um, just on retellings, just I have like something small desire. Um, I love retellings, but I'm also super picky with them because I feel like there's a lot of them out there. Um, especially for stuff like beauty and the beast, not necessarily for Peter pan, but there are some out there. Um, and I feel like at this point, what I look for the, and retellings is, is a really, really fresh take. Um, and personally just for me, because I take bipo rider only, um, I feel like bipo rider will have the most interesting takes cuz we usually haven't heard from them yet in these spaces. So I'm totally for them, but they, they just have to be new and fresh.
Kathryn Willms:So everyone pitch TA name, your hot retellings. Uh, if you're a bipo writer.
Tasneem Motala:Yes. Hell yeah. She, she,
Kathryn Willms:She soon you want, she's amazing.
Tasneem Motala:Oh, thank you.
Sam Hiyate:Um, well guys, that was really fun. I feel like we have to come back, uh, maybe do one of these every season where we just kind of cast a wide net and see what comes in. Um, I do wanna thank everybody who submitted, uh, there were many of you and, um, I will probably, uh, if there's anybody that we really want, I, I I've already shared them with the agency. So if there's anybody that we really wanna talk to, we'll get back to you. Uh, so thanks for submitting. And for those of you who we discussed, I, it, it was, um, uh, enlightening to get our take on it. And I hope I, I don't think we were too Savage. I at least I hope not. I hope we were constructive in our criticism. Okay. Everybody thanks so much. That was, uh, um, it was great to hear your feedback on the pitches. Um, I will see you next time. Thanks
Tasneem Motala:Sam. Yeah. Thanks so much.
Speaker 13:Bye. Thanks for listening everyone. Bye.
Sam Hiyate:Bye. Bye everybody. So that wraps it up for episode six and I'm sad to say for season two, it's been a great season and it's been a great run and a lot of fun as more and more of you have discovered what we're doing and tuning in. And thanks for sharing the love. Um, I'm seeing a lot more ratings and reviews. So we're grateful. We'd like to thank everybody who submitted a pitch, our agents who responded. And of course our producer, Andrew Kaufman, we're taking a break now to catch our, a breath here at the agency, finish our submissions and plan for book fairs, but we will be back with more Asian provocateur in a few months. Take care, everyone.
