Hi there. We’re back. If you haven’t seen the announcement, I’m mentoring for Pitch Wars again this year along with my long-time co-mentor Dan Koboldt. We gave it a lot of thought during the year, as we often do…believe it or not, we’re pretty deliberate guys.

Pitch Wars this year has been in a time of transition. It’s to a committee for the day to day leadership of the contest, and I’m proud to be part of that along with a remarkable group of people led by Kellye Garrett, who I am proud to call a friend over these past few years. She’s exactly the right person to lead it, and she’s got awesome support from a wide range of people. When she told me about the direction they were going and asked me to join, I signed on immediately. I’d follow Kellye any day. I’m humbled every day to be a part of their team. Here’s a typical committee discussion:

Mike: I really think we should consider doing this thing…
Kellye: We’re already working on that thing
Other member: That thing is already done. I wrote it two weeks ago.

Seriously, that’s not far off. It’s been impressive.

Mentoring was a different decision. Part of the change in Pitch Wars this year is that the number of mentors is smaller, and the competition for those slots is tougher. There was a focused effort by the mentor selection sub-committee (which I was not part of) to bring new blood into the mentor group, and to have it better reflect the diverse makeup of the entrants we get. Dan I and have mentored together for the past two years, and Dan was a mentor for a couple years before that, so we’re not new by any stretch. We had to decide if we wanted to step aside and let other people have a chance.

There were a lot of factors. We’re not supposed to talk about genre as mentors yet, but if you follow us at all, I don’t think it’s a secret that Dan and I are both adult SFF writers. Historically, that’s been a tough place to get mentors. At the same time, it’s one of the biggest groups of entrants. Beyond anything, I think that’s what drove our decision. We want to serve the community and we want the opportunity to work with another great mentee. So we applied, and I trusted the committee that if they had better applicants, they would take them, and we’d step aside.

I am so happy with the job the mentor selection committee did. It had to have been hard. They had so many great applicants, and some of the people they had to turn down would have been great mentors. I’m super jazzed about the group of adult SFF mentors they put together. There are a few of us returning veterans, but so many new faces…and those new faces are exceptional. One of them wrote my favorite book of 2018 so far. Another one wrote one of the fantasy books I’m most looking forward to in 2019. Another is an author whose career I’ve followed and whose work I’ve loved from the first time she got a short story published (in Fiyah magazine. You should check it out.) and who is on my short-list for novella of the year. On top of that we’ve got a few former mentees joining us as first time mentors, which always brings a lot of energy and a different viewpoint to the process.

To sum up, I couldn’t be happier with the job that the selection committee did, and I’m very happy that they saw Dan and me as a fit. I really look forward to working with this group of mentors as we strive to find the best manuscripts out of the hundreds that we’ll see. To my fellow mentors, Dan and I are here if you want us to share any of our past experience. We look forward to waving to you as you blow past us and carry Pitch Wars into the future.

To our future mentee, who we probably haven’t met yet, we look forward to working with you on your book and helping you develop as a writer.

Tags: Pitch Wars, Pitchwars