My #AMMConnect Bio | Brittany Wang - YA Fantasy Novel
Hi fellow Author Mentor Match hopefuls!! I absolutely adore this idea of sharing more about ourselves and our stories through the #AMMConnect blog-hop-of-sorts and can't wait to get to know you!
About Me
To introduce myself, hi! My name is Brittany and while I've been spending the past couple years working on my Young Adult high fantasy novel "On Wings of Ash & Dust" (formally known as #ProjectFairyFantasy), I've also had so much fun getting to know other writers through my AuthorTube Channel & Instagram as well as helping others create their author websites and grow their platforms through my Boot Camp and Patreon page!
I'm also a wife to my amazing husband Ben (Yes, this is a picture of us dressed up as Hobbits at the Hobbiton Movie set in New Zealand!!), I'm a singer / lover of music & musicals (is anyone else freaking out about "Encore" on Disney Plus right now??), big super hero fan, strong believer, and intense PLOTTER! :D
And of course I love to read! Some of my favorite books lately have been: "Sorcery of Thorns" by Margaret Rogerson, "Aurora Rising" by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, "Daughter of the Pirate King" by Tricia Levenseller, and "To Kill a Kingdom" by Alexandra Christo.
If you want to learn even more about me and my journey thus far, check out my About Page where you'll find an interview Elira Barnes did of me this past year (it's at the bottom!). It was so much fun and we talked about a ton of great things!
My YA Fantasy
For this round of AMM, I'm super excited to be submitting my Young Adult fantasy novel, "On Wings of Ash & Dust". Here's 2 pitches I used in the last #PitMad!
COMPS: CARNIVAL ROW x SIX OF CROWS
PITCH 1:
A pixie pirate competes against a beast-taming mute, flirtatious merman, blind artist & pompous princess for the fairy crown. But as an ancient evil entwines their fates, rivals must become allies before there’s no world left to rule.
PITCH 2:
Pixie pirate Quinn enters a deadly competition to win a fairy crown she doesn’t want for a brother who shouldn’t be dead. But discovering clues he’s left behind about a darker threat to all fae, Quinn must ally with her rivals before none of them survive.
Basically, I started out wanting to write a story that had all my favorite elements, so that's exactly what I tried to do. This story includes:
A diverse cast of misfits that must pull together and find strength in their differences
A fantastical world of myth & magic that makes you feel like there's tons to explore
A high stakes plot with mystery and adventure
Redeemable antiheroes & Enemies-to-lovers romances
Familiar myths/fables that are reinterpreted in a fresh way! (For example, I've heard many times that my "fae" are fairly unique/different than many fae novels out right now. I'd say they are probably closer to those pictured in the tv series "Carnival Row")
Just for fun, here's a few more aesthetics I made for 3 of the 5 fairy heirs in my book. (I'm still working on aesthetics for the guy characters, but here are my ladies!!!)
If you want to learn even more about my book, I shared a BUNCH of other things about it in this video from this past August! (Though some details have changed since the release of this video, like the overall word count which is now closer to 128k words)
Why I'm Entering Author Mentor Match R7
Even though the first seedling of this idea came to me an embarrassingly long time ago, I've been more seriously re-plotting, writing, and editing it for the last two years. This book baby has also been through my fantastic critique partners multiple times as well as a round of amazing beta readers. And while I've gotten tons of encouragement and love for this story, I would be OVER THE MOON to work with a mentor before querying for the following reasons...
Though I've tried my best to revise things that both me, my CPs and betas all agree need addressing, I kind of feel like I've hit a wall. I'm on draft 5-ish, so at this point, I'd love the outside perspective of a mentor who has more experience and strengths that compliment my weaknesses. I'm a super self-motivated person, but I'm lacking direction and how to go about tackling my book's remaining issues. I did enter an earlier draft of this book in PitchWars last year but sadly didn't get any requests for more after the initial submit, which makes me even more nervous to start querying. Getting some clear confirmation of what's working and what's not, direction in how to polish and re-work some aspects, as well as learning more about the traditional publishing world + querying from someone who has been there, would just be so fantastic! Plus, I believe there is so much power in accountability and mentorship and would love to develop a long-term friendship with my mentor, being an encouragement to them as well as a champion for their books too!
Want to Connect Further?
Let's not make this a one-sided deal! If you connect with anything I've shared, feel free to direct message me on Instagram (@authorbrittanywang) or Twitter (@authorbrittwang)! The writing community has been an amazing part of my journey and I'd love to connect with even more of you (especially if you also write young adult fantasy!!) and cheer each other on as we do the scary-awesome thing of entering AMM! :D
Want to Join the #AMMConnect Event?
If you're entering Author Mentor Match this year, check out the article below to learn how to create your own post and send me your link so I can check out yours!
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