Hey' y’all! It’s that time of year again…PITCH WARS! I’m so excited to participate for the third time this year…and to get to know some of you lovely people I don’t know yet! Let’s get the party started, shall we?

Hi there! I'm Taylor. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at @authorthartley (and I did #PWPoePrompts, so check those out…I’m the one with all the Tom Holland and Taron Egerton GIFs).  

This is my third year vying for a Pitch Wars spot. Every year, the contest has pushed me to improve my stories and hone my characters. My debut novel, SHE'S POWERFUL TROUBLE, was published through Parliament House Press this past May. Want to check it out? Head HERE or to Amazon to purchase it! Witches…soft boys…forbidden love…OH MY!

My novel last year, CROSS-COUNTRY THEATRICS, has gone through both a POV shift and a title change. Here’s hoping IT’S ALL GONE WRONG finds a home soon!

I'm a high school English teacher by day and a writer by night. I studied Creative Writing at UNC Chapel Hill and somehow ended up in the Honors Thesis class, which taught me so much about craft (and more importantly, about the importance of community). I'm a FAST reader, an even FASTER worker (I'm so Type A, it hurts), and I love diving into a good story.

Now, onto my adult MS (trying new things this year!) REVENANT CHORUS!

After ten turbulent years, siblings Miles and Diana Rex have reforged their bond. Yet as Miles dies in her arms, Diana knows she killed him. She didn’t pull the trigger, but terrified their adoptive brother, Declan Duvall, might win a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, she finally told Miles that Declan assaulted her ten years ago. Now, both men lie dead at the hand of the other—with Diana as the sole witness.

When Georgia Governor Clive Duvall—Declan’s father—proclaims Miles a lunatic plagued by addiction and an abhorrent “lifestyle,” his comments threaten the LGBTQ youth shelter Miles founded with his partner. Fighting to defend her brother’s legacy and protect the kids he saved, Diana reluctantly reveals her assault to the press. But in a state controlled by her rapist’s father, Diana’s truth endangers her life—unless more women come forward to fight beside her.

What she’ll never know is how much the Duvall family tortured Miles, too. 

Ten years before Declan shoots him, Miles Rex is finally ready to come out to his parents. Then they perish in a car crash, leaving him and his sister in the care of family friend Clive Duvall, who serves as a Georgia state senator infamous for his belief in conversion therapy. Miles, haunted by visions of his mutilated parents, embraces heroin until even Diana abandons him. The only one seemingly determined to rescue Miles from his spiral is Declan. Desperate to survive, Miles clings to him, oblivious to the monster lurking behind the golden mask.

Alternating between the past and the present, REVENANT CHORUS follows a brother’s journey to reclaim his light and a sister’s journey to keep that light alive after his death. Complete at 116,000 words, this women’s fiction novel combines the raw imagery of Laurie Halse Anderson’s SHOUT with the family saga of Gillian Flynn’s SHARP OBJECTS. Inspired by Sophocles’ ANTIGONE and the MeToo movement, it examines the shattering effects of grief and trauma on the psyche—and how family helps people reclaim their strength and voice, even beyond the grave.

GHOSTS!

Family intrigue

Political commentary and critique

Discussions on addiction and recovery

Discussions on trauma and grief

Siblings who love each other more than anything

EVIL MEN DOING EVIL THINGS

Boarding schools and college and protests

Soft boys/men

STRONG. ASS. WOMEN.

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn

AND THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell

BOY ERASED

MILES REX is hours away from coming out to his parents—and then they die in a horrible car crash. When his sister begs to see their bodies, Miles is left to look into the smashed face of his mother. Forced to live with a family of bigoted politicians and haunted by visions of his parents’ mutilated corpses, Miles spirals into a world of addiction—until he finds the strength to pull himself out.

DIANA REX wants justice. Ten years ago, Declan Duvall assaulted her. Now, he’s been elected a Georgia Congressman. When Diana reveals her trauma to her brother, she lights the blue touch paper that finds both Miles and Declan dead—leaving Diana to rescue her brother’s legacy when Declan’s father, Clive, accuses Miles of murdering his son in cold blood.

CLIVE DUVALL started his political career as a Georgia state senator. Now, eighteen years later, he’s finally Governor of Georgia. College friends with Oliver Rex, he adopts Miles and Diana after their parents’ untimely death…and he’s determined to bend Miles to his will in whatever way necessary.

DECLAN DUVALL has just been elected as Georgia’s newest Congressman. With violent tendencies and deep-set traditional values instilled by his father, he torments both Diana and Miles for years before the hunting incident that ignites the action of REVENANT CHORUS.

CHARACTER COLLAGE (Good guys only, though).

Oliver and Belle’s Rainbow House: The shelter Miles and Elliot open for at-risk youth in Atlanta!

Elliot and Miles

Tad and Diana

And now for a few of my favorite things:

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood (one of the most beautifully written books of all time)

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

THE BELLES by Dhonielle Clayton

CARRY ON, FANGIRL, LANDLINE, ELEANOR AND PARK and really anything by Rainbow Rowell

WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak

SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli

THE FIFTH SEASON by N.K. Jemisin

THE CHAOS WALKING SERIES, A MONSTER CALLS, RELEASE, THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE (aka ANYTHING by Patrick Ness)

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

ROCKETMAN

MOONLIGHT

US and GET OUT

BABY DRIVER

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

LOVE, SIMON

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and FAR FROM HOME

BRAVEHEART* (*Mel Gibson is the worst...but that soundtrack is BOMB)

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

JANE THE VIRGIN (it is number one forever)

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

GAME OF THRONES

THE END OF THE F'ING WORLD

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

PEAKY BLINDERS (CILLIAN MURPHY IS AN ACTING GOD)

Good luck to all you hopefuls out there! This community is so very powerful. Even if you don't make it, know that you've worked hard...and that good things come to those who WORK HARD and PERSEVERE!