PitchWars 2018 Bio

PITCH WARS

 

Well, Hello.

 

 

 

 

I'm Stephanie L. Ward.

At times, I can be silly and goofy, but I'm always attentive, gracious and fun-loving.

Translation: I'm from the 'nice house,' a Hufflepuff through and through.

My MG Science-Fiction MS in a nutshell:

Guardians of the Galaxy meets Jack the Giant Slayer

MY STORY:

Title: The Mechanical Cosmic Seed
Genre: MG Science Fiction
Word Count:45,000

Jackie is a spirited haggler who would do anything to end her family’s struggle with starvation on Mars—anything but trade their family spacecraft for meal rations. But that's exactly what her mother sends her to do. At the space market, when Jackie’s about to exchange her beloved ship, she runs into a trader wanting meal rations for a mechanical seed which could transport the owner to a galaxy of riches. If she takes the risk, she’d gain plenty. Plenty commodities. Plenty food. Plenty praise from Mom.

Reality sends Jackie for a hyper-loop when the swindler's foes, the mechanical seed’s rightful owners, catch Jackie with him, and they mark her as his accomplice and enemy number one. Before these villainous thugs grind her bones into orbit dust, Jackie must shake the pursuers on her heels as well as her pangs of hunger and make a choice, and quick.

Either, sell the ship for meal rations only to have her family starve later. Or, take a spacewalk’s leap of faith by sacrificing meal rations to bring home now for haggling a price for the mechanical seed of promise with a chance at securing her safety and her family’s well-being in the near future.
 

Birth of the story:

I've always had this connection with Jack and the Beanstalk. It could be because, as a kid, I reached six-feet by age twelve. Middle School is rough enough and towering over my peers didn't make it any easier. You might want to say, deep down I wanted to grind their bones to make my bread, but I didn't, thank the galactic stars. 
This leads me to my next love--science fiction. Give me Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Lost in Space and the list goes on. While immersed in warp speed, I dreamt up the 'what if,' and Jack in the Beanstalk in outer space was born.     

Other reasons to pick me as a mentee besides being a Hufflepuff: 

I'm a hard worker, I'm moldable, and I believe in my story. I'm willing to make changes no matter how big of a task--a whole new direction, check. Remove/add characters, check. Create new motives, check. Strip/bolster a characters identity, check. Whatever it takes to make my story the best it can be I'm ready to sprout new limbs and get to work.

Reasons I desire mentorship:

I'm seeking to level-up. Mentors are further along this journey than I, and I'm ready to go from paint the fence and wax on wax off to the fundamentals of why I've been doing them. To be trained further in the art of story would mold me into the black belt writer I desire to become.
      

ABOUT ME

My Childhood:

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. There I created stories by playing Barbies with my best friend.

But then... BOYS entered my life.

In my teen years I wrote poetry about, you guessed it, boys. The writing sucked but I didn't admit it. Humph, I was a poet. Shh...Don't tell my teen self differently. 

Adulthood:

I married at twenty and soon after that the rugrats came. Those years were more frightening for me than them, trust me. I had a poop-painting toddler, an abstract bang-cutting kid, and an angry, fainting redhead. There came a time when my husband took a new job. Our young family packed up,left family and friends in California, and moved to Florida. Once the rugrats had grown a bit I headed off to teach K-8th graders. They put a smile on my face, even when they made up silly lies to get out of work. Those kids brought dump trucks full of creativity to their projects and fueled my own, putting it into hyper-drive. Every day they challenged me to give them the best of myself, the way my own children have always inspired and challenged me. The passion to write came flooding back.

My Writing:

I took down the wall decorations, taped poster boards from floor to ceiling, picked up a sharpie, and scribbled all my ideas on them. Days later, I stepped back--I had a story, at least a ten by twelve foot collage of one. It gave me instant goosebumps. That moment, defined me. I found my thing, my passion! My hubby took one look at our new decor and agreed.


I wrote my first manuscript by hand. Once complete, it took me FOREVER to type it up, and an ETERNITY to edit it. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating but it did take a while. I now have six manuscripts in my carpet bag and will magically pull them out for any mentor who'd like to read them--twice as fast for agents wanting to represent me.

My Favorite Things (besides books):

•     See's candy
•     Sunrises
•     Walks with friends
•     Helping others
•     Christmas & Weddings
•     Teaching pre-teens

My Favorite Middle Grade Books:

•     Harry Potter
•     Skullduggery Pleasant
•     Kingdom Keepers
•     Inkheart
•     Artemis Fowl
•     Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
•     Howl's Moving Castle
•     Doll Bones
•     Divide Series
•     Alice in Wonderland 
•     and many, many more

My Favorite Movies & TV Shows:

•     The Greatest Showman
•     Guardians of the Galaxy
•     Jumamji
•     Beauty and the Beast (Disney's live action 2017)
•     Princess Bride
•     Somewhere in Time
•     Harry Potter (series)
•     Nanny McFhee
•     Hook
•     The Goonies
•     Pirates of the Caribbean (series)
•     Indiana Jones (series)
•     Slipper and the Rose
•     Johnny Lingo
•     Doctor Who
•     Sherlock (BBC)
•     Studio C
•     Food/Travel/Nature documentaries
•     and many more...

A big Thank you  to the PITCH WARS COMMITTEE for putting together this amazing mentorship program and for working tirelessly to benefit mentees, hopefuls, and beyond. Thank you mentors for showing interest in all the potential mentees by reading our blog posts and making time in your busy lives to work with a few of us.

                                                  Hugs to all!

Twitter Handle: @StephaineWard