With my second year as a mentor in Pitchwars, I entered the contest excited and hopeful and curious, oh so curious, about which manuscripts would claw their way into my heart and not let go.

The two that I found couldn't be more different in tone and writing style, but what they share is a common language of finding personal truths, love, hope, and a slathering of bittersweet despair.

April Rose's manuscript, WINTER ON BRIMSTONE HILL, is this spare lovely gift of a contemporary manuscript. Cen...