Do I need an agent?
* Active Projects * Projects Finished * Open Letter From Rebecca
* Site Map * Formatting Guidelines * Submitting a Query
* Contacts * HOME PAGE * Writers Links


--Active Projects--
We are pleased to present an assortment of superb fiction and nonfiction properties. Our fiction properties range from science fiction to historical fiction and suspense/romance. We are actively screening submissions in virtually any genre. All of the books listed here are available for publication. Publishers or their representatives desiring additional information on any of these projects please contact Rebecca.
--Fiction--
We are proud to announce the signing of a two-book contract with Total Recall Press
The manuscripts for  ACID and THE COVEN OF THE SPRING by Jeff Lovell are now off the market but publishers are invited to consider some of the other fine works shown on this page and represented by the Rebecca Pratt Literary Group.
ACID by Jeff Lovell.  Rick Howell, living in the shadow of two women who have the power to change reality, must risk his life to stop the genocidal exploits of a desperate lunatic who wants to acquire their powers.  The discovery of a mind controlling drug opens a pathway to frightening mental abilities for Rachel Farrell, who can move backward and forward in time at will, while Donna Riske, Rachel’s best friend, can control the thoughts of others.  Good versus evil spreads form a chemistry lab at the University of Illinois as desperate characters in search of power and wealth travel the globe pursuing the Time Shifting secret drug.  Good destroys evil, but not before greed, maniacal mayhem and a perfect crime put to rest the mind controlling drug.   
[Under Contract]
THE COLONEL'S WAR by Bill Simpson.  When head of U.S. intelligence in Europe Colonel Nathan Steele visits Berlin in 1914, femme fatale Despina Storch reveals Germany's strategy for war with Britain, France and Russia. Returning to Brussels, Steele is frustrated by Washington's orders to remain neutral, while demanding that the American Legation represent German interests in the city. Seduced by agent provocateur Véronique Richelieu, Nathan agrees to help the French Douzième Bureau and visiting the giant Krupp works in Essen, he uncovers details of a new secret weapon. But Germany suddenly invades neutral Belgium, and Nathan's daughter Jodie becomes a refugee. Intent on locating her, he joins a Belgian raiding party operating behind German lines as it ambushes gigantic superguns deployed to attack Liège. But the village where Jodie was staying had been destroyed, and the raiders link up with Belgian defenders who inflict a stunning defeat on a German cavalry division. Returning to Brussels, Nathan learns of a possible sighting of Jodie. After a British defeat at Mons, she has been nursing wounded soldiers. Determined to rescue her, he is assisted by hospital matron, Edith Cavell, and Nathan sets up an escape route for his daughter and the British Tommies. Can they evade capture though? It all rests on the slender shoulders of agent Despina, now the mistress of the German Military Governor of Belgium.
[Historical Fiction.  Approximately 120,000 words.  Manuscript Completed]
CONS FROM THE ROCK by Robert VanDeventer is, finally, the full story of the most famous escape from Alcatraz prison. What really happened in 1962 has never been told before. Just one convict makes it. And he may owe his success less to savvy and luck than to that ever shining moment called Camelot. That’s right. A Kennedy is pulling strings, recruiting a mole to infiltrate Alcatraz, ostensibly to find out if an escape is possible. Meanwhile, near-genius inmate Fred Morgan already has an escape plan in motion. Fed plan versus Morgan plan. We watch both develop, neither known to the other. Will Morgan make it? Are the Feds working for or against him? We can’t be sure. They often seem unsure themselves, as we listen to them inside the Washington Monument, on a New Jersey golf course, aboard a “clocker”, on the Golden Gate Bridge, at the Top of the Mark. Morgan’s plan is a known page of history, revealed here chip by chip – with detail and emotion never before published or filmed. Morgan is often funny, more often serious, as we watch him deal with inmates sage to insane and officials also sage to insane. CONS FROM THE ROCK is less revisionist than a re-imagining of a fantastic coup – the kind of brave, if often futile, derring-do about which people will always wonder.   
[Suspense, Approximately 83.000 words. Manuscript Completed]
We are proud to announce the signing of a two-book contract with Total Recall Press
The manuscripts for  ACID and THE COVEN OF THE SPRING by Jeff Lovell are now off the market but publishers are invited to consider some of the other fine works shown on this page and represented by the Rebecca Pratt Literary Group.
THE COVEN OF THE SPRING by Jeff Lovell.  Grace DeRosa, a gifted research chemist finds a hidden spring in the woods near Salem, Massachusetts.  She discovers that the consumed water imparts unique and fearful powers that lead to the ability to read minds, create terrifying mental pictures and force the user’s will on others.  Grace, her husband and their seventeen year old daughter, Crissy find they have frightening new powers that allow them to hear people’s thoughts, give them visions and change behaviors.  The powers affect each differently. Crissy’s father turns against his wife and daughter and tries to kill Crissy to protect the secret.  Clay Foster, a former Navy Seal saves Crissy from drowning in Lake Michigan’s icy waters where her father has pushed her.  Clay and his friend, Sharon take Crissy into protection.  Along with Crissy’s mother, they return to Salem where they use the spring to defeat The Coven.  
[Under Contract]
THE DEVIL MADE ME . . . .   by Stephen Tobias.  Everyone knows that Satan collects souls, but his other passion is to amass a fabulous art collection. Much of the art that has been lost or stolen over the ages now hangs on the walls in his “Museum of the Lost.” His claim that his is the only collection free of fakes and forgeries is undisputed. When rumor of a previously undocumented Vermeer, appropriated by Nazi Air Marshal, Herman Goering in the closing days of WW II reaches him, Satan sends his chief demon curator; Renaissance sculptor, Pietro Tacca to buy it from a dying war veteran who has it hanging on his wall in Houston, Texas.
Pietro returns with the painting which has been damaged by years of neglect in a bombed out farm house basement and Satan (AKA-Staggs, Stagger Lee) picks an innocent New York painter to do the restoration; hoping to obtain her soul and the painting both in one fell swoop. It is only when Pietro takes one look at her and falls madly in love that Satan’s plans go awry; as everything Pietro does to make the artist suffer backfires and Satan can see the painting slipping out of his grasp. Add a Capuchin monkey that is the artist’s guardian angel, an Israeli Mossad agent trying to repatriate the painting to its original owner, and a rapacious demon with fetal alcohol syndrome anxious to score points with the boss and, as they say in Hollywood-hilarity ensues.

[Approximately 80,000 words, Manuscript Completed]
DO YOU STILL CHA CHA? by Fran Metzman is a women’s mystery novel where The Golden Girls meet Sex & the City and will appeal to boomers, women aged 20 plus, mystery buffs, and romance readers. It is an off-beat, upmarket novel laced with humor and romance and is diabolically quirky. It takes place in a Florida retirement community where the sixty-year old protagonist along with two friends and her thirty-two year old daughter, find themselves dangerously enmeshed in serial murders. They must unravel the mystery or be arrested themselves. The game of love among the 55 plus population is revealed and juxtaposed to more youthful romantic life. Amusing antics of retirement communities take on a personality of its own. A surprise ending exposes a darker side of society that plagues the present era of greed.
[Woman's Fiction. Approximately 80,00 words. Manuscript Completed]
EMERSON'S HOME by Wendy Fiore.  When Emerson LaMonica, an over-achiever working as an archivist in New York City, suffers a brutal rape her stable life and self-assuredness falls apart.  Added to that devastation, the death of her beloved grandfather becomes the proverbial last straw.  She retreats back to her grandfather’s farm in Vermont in the hopes to regain some semblance of her old life.  Will her little town, with her childhood love and home, hold enough charm and magic to heal her broken spirit and life?  It will take a hunt for an old painting’s history to tie Emerson’s broken life back together again and show her what she needs in her life…friends, family, and love.
[Approximately 75,000 words.  Manuscript Completed]
THE GODDESS SCROLL by Pam Chillemi-Yeager: Following a whirlwind courtship, Rick Dearborn marries the enigmatic, beautiful clairvoyant, Rubilee Hunter. The couple is blissfully unaware that an ancient prophecy predicts that they are destined to join forces with the Goddesses of old to bring to an end the alarming number of international child killings. The Goddess Demeter, in shifter disguise, comes to their home to help them thwart the God of war, Ares, who is behind the dastardly plot. After Rubilee miscarries in an eerie event, Rick's favorite client disappears, leaving behind a map with cryptic symbols similar to those Rubilee carved in the ground the night of the miscarriage. The fate of the planet hangs in the balance as the couple embark on a cross country journey in search of answers, culminating in mayhem, magic and more.
[Paranormal Romance. Approximately 75,000 words. Manuscript Complete]

Congratulations to Frank Cavallo

Publication rights to THE HAND OF OSIRIS have been sold to Necro Publications and pre-print production has begun.

While this novel is now unavailable, publishers are invited to consider the other projects by talented, motivated authors who are represented by The Rebecca Pratt Literary Group.  Contact Rebecca to discuss your interests.

THE HAND OF OSIRIS by Frank Cavallo. 1879. Bounty hunter Jacob Hatcher has pursued the outlaw Jedediah Sykes from the Texas prairie to the deserts of the Arizona Territory.  On the verge of capture, Sykes escapes into a valley that Hatcher’s Apache guides refuse to enter, warning that the lands are cursed by an ancient, nameless evil.  The trail leads him to a town, a dark paradise of sin and vice called Gehenna.  Though gambling and gunfights rule the day, no one in Gehenna ever dies.  Unless everyone in Gehenna is already dead.  Hatcher and Sykes soon find themselves entangled in the mysteries of Gehenna’s peculiar denizens – a pale dandy, a fire & brimstone Jesuit preaching to a city of lost souls, and a shadowy figure who rules over the town like a living god.  When one of them makes a choice that threatens to damn them all, the rest must work together, confronting not only their own demons, but the hidden horrors of Gehenna itself, to find a stolen key that can unlock the domain of the dead.

[Approximately 100,000 words. SOLD]

IN THE DEVIL'S THRALL by Bill Simpson .  After the shock resignation of the Pope, the ensuing chaos prompts a secret Satanic society to conspire to secure the election of an anti-Christ to the Vatican's throne. They prepare plans which include an assassination attempt by al-Qaeda on the newly elected Pontiff. However, experienced CIA Agent Scott Wilson, and his veteran FBI buddy Josh Donovan, get wind of the plot, discovering that militant Islamist terrorists have been duped by the Satanists into targeting the Holy Father during his visit to the United States. After a headlong chase across the capitol, Al-Qaeda's sniper is discovered lying dead on a Washington rooftop, but it is already too late. The assassin's mission has succeeded although a second sniper is eliminated before he can cast any light on the Pope's murder. With the Pontiff dead, will Satan's puppet prevail in the resultant Papal election? It all rests on the explicit digital records of a New York hooker.  http://www.williamgsimpson.com

[Literary Thriller, Approximately 85,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
THE JANUS IMAGE by Robert VanDeventer – Janus was the Greek god who could look both ways at once and, if this deity really needs a new image, Marvin Mercer – some call him “Mr. Iconoplast” – might well get the call. Mercer is a former pro wrestler who – some insist – will burnish your image for a serious fee – except that he flatly denies he does any such thing! No. He sells serious deals on classic cars – and that’s all! His daughter, Nellie, tries to believe him. She’s a junior at Penn and is sure that this “Mr. Iconoplast” business is Baloney 101. Trouble is, she’s facing a spring break of total boredom. He’s facing a fiscal crisis with his used car lot. What better solution for each than a quick about face? Which means they get themselves roped into twin searches for hire – hers at the Jersey shore for a lost mother (who wants to stay lost), his for the image of Philly baseball (with murders just foul). Two villains to capture. Two paths cross and diverge. Sometimes in fury, sometimes in harmony – sometimes together and sometimes alone – they deal with such dangers as pitchforks, black jacks, bullets, and canoes. And, in the end, with reflective verse brushing both their minds, they seem to find both evildoers on the same stage.

[Suspense, Approximately 95,000 words. Manuscript Completed]

OUTSIDER, by Stephen Tobias. Nathan Lerner, photographer and art professor has been unable to work since the loss of his daughter to leukemia and the subsequent break-up of his marriage. He keeps his lack of creative output secret, re-cycling his old negatives and sleep walking through his days. When an elderly tenant in a building Nathan owns moves into a nursing home, Nathan goes to clean out his apartment and finds a vast collection of original art done by the reclusive and disturbed ex-janitor, Herman Vireck. The art, done on cheap sketch paper with Woolworth water colors and using sophisticated techniques of collage and blending of sacred and profane images will eventually be recognized as the work of an obsessive genius and effect the work of hundreds of contemporary artists. For Lerner the discovery of Herman’s work sends him on a tortuous journey into the nature of his own creative sensibility and to the dark secrets surrounding his daughter’s hidden relationship with “crazy” Herman.

OUTSIDER is loosely based on the life of outsider artist Henry Darger, about whom little is actually known. It is hoped that through this fictional exploration of the imagined relationship between Nathan and Herman an emotional satisfying conclusion can be brought to some of the questions that surround this disturbed and elusive genius.

[Approximately 100,000 words.  Manuscript Complete]

THE PROMETHEUS GATE by Frank Cavallo.  After more than four decades behind bars, notorious serial killer Al Grimsby stages an inexplicable escape.  Christina Falcone, the FBI’s top behavioral analyst, is assigned to hunt him down.  Her investigation leads her into a maze of conflicting clues: secret government experiments, legends of lost gods and an archaeologist named Carter McAlester—who works for a shadowy organization with their own agenda.  From the streets of Berlin to the ruins of Babylon they race to find a legendary artifact that may hold the key to an unspeakable power—a power that Al Grimsby may already possess, and which may have driven him mad.  Plagued by nightmares and dark visions, they must discover the truth before Grimsby can finish his bloody work.  Before the Prometheus Gate can be opened.
[Horror.  Approximately 120,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
THE VAMPIRE LOVER'S COOKBOOK by Pam Chillemi-Yeager.  Bram Stoker would never have imagined his seminal work would create such madness. For here in the new millenium, vampires are all the rage. Girls swoon, boys scoff, and the sometimes secretly smitten adults fund it all. But has anyone ever wondered how this pop culture phenomenon plays out in real ife? THE VAMPIRE LOVER'S COOKBOOK, a Young Adult novel of first love,  loss and today's complex  family dynamic does just that. All fourteen-year-old Cal wants to do is play football. When he accidentally breaks a church window, he and his friends are corralled into a mortifying church cooking class. Enter one Nikki Sixx Morganstien, the sultry teen clutching the Sunset vampire books to her chest. Sparks fly as the class progresses, culminating in the frightening kidnapping of Cal's young neighbor.  Featuring first love, blended families, rock and roll, sexuality, religion and the power of friendship and forgiveness against the backdrop of small town USA, THE VAMPIRE LOVER'S COOKBOOK tells a beguiling story  which also shows how pop culture shapes each generation.
[Young Adult, Approximately 75,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
WHO IS MISTER I? by Robert VanDeventer is a suspense romp of cars and characters. Some of each are pretty rare. It involves Castro’s Cuba with America’s much maligned business – used cars. Roger Deerman, the big Philly car dealer, is secretly and illegally selling cars in Cuba and he needs a “big, honest guy” to spin and cover the operation. Fred Burns, the former pro wrestler and sometime sports writer, now sells classic cars – Hudsons, Cords, and Nashes. Deerman insists that Burns is also Mr. Iconoplast, Philly’s mysterious image maker, and insists he take the job. Well, Burns is big and probably honest but he swears, “I’m not Mr. I. Absolutely not!”– even when bribed with a 1949 Hudson convertible. But Burns now knows about Cuba, so, Deerman frames him for murder. Within hours, he’s dumped in the bay, trapped aboard a yacht with daughter Nell, and attacked by a power boat on the Delaware (it crashes into a battleship). He’s about to be shot at an auction lot, too, but is saved by a tattooed lady. He winds up in a chase all over New Jersey, attacked by thugs, elephants, and rhinos. Still, he’s inscrutable. The tattooed lady thanks him with a Mercedes 300SL. It’s for Mister I. Is that you? He drools, but cries, “It is not!.”
[Approximately 72.000 words. Manuscript Completed]
WORDS OF GRACE by Pam Chillemi-Yaeger is the story of one woman's journey back to her hometown, the calamities of her lively Italian family, as well as the heartbreak of first love, family secrets and the surprising danger facing old friends in small-town USA.
[Approximately 80,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
XAGHRA'S REVENGE; Magic realism fantasy. XAGHRA'S REVENGE by Geoff Nelder, follows the fate of a sixteenth century abducted family, and of two contemporary lovers thrown together by the ancients. Reece and Zita are unaware that one descends from the pirates, the other from the abducted family. While the Gozo spirits seek revenge, so do the Ottoman Corsairs, who intend to roll back history, and this time win the siege of Malta.
[Approximately 90,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
--Nonfiction-
AN ACCIDENTAL PRISONER'S SURVIVAL GUIDE ; A memoir/black comedy, by John J. Reiner. When a strait-laced attorney is jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, he must use his background in psychology, sociology, pediatrics, and, especially, his sense of humor to first thwart and ultimately befriend his fellow inmates and the jail staff, who, thanks to Erin Brockovich, peg him as “the enemy” and use malevolent and comical methods in their attempts to wreak havoc upon him and explode his “good time” release credits to maximize his jail term and prevent him from returning to his home and family until the latest possible date.
[Approximately 90,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
THE COMING HEALTHCARE REVOLUTION by Sheldon Cohen.  Medical errors kill 98,000 patients per year in the United States. You, the patient, can play a crucial role in not becoming part of this statistic. The coming healthcare changes that will be implemented over the next ten years will make the patient’s role more crucial then ever. You will learn the important details about a complete medical examination including a medical history, physical examination and screening laboratory data; risk factor analysis for the major diseases; health screening; symptoms that must never be ignored; and how to take charge of your health. Once confident about your personal health information you will be in a position to minimize medical errors and live a longer and healthier life.
[Approximately 90,000 words.  Manuscript Completed]
CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH FOR ADULTS: SEEING WHAT YOU'RE HEARING by Susan Roemer. Learning a foreign language in a country where it is not spoken on a regular basis can be difficult.  Conversational Spanish for Adults; Seeing What You’re Hearing! transports the learners to situations where they become comfortable speaking everyday forms of the Spanish language.
People learn a language by hearing words and then understanding what they mean.  Many people think that to learn a new language they need to learn all the conjugations before they continue.  My method is in essence a “mapping of sounds”.  The advantage is clear:  It is one thing to hear sounds and repeat the words.  It’s quite another thing to have a visual image of what the sounds look like.  The learners (how-to readers of the book) will be able to take what is illustrated in the book and reinforce it through additional practice written in phonetic transcription.
The most important distinguishing point between Conversational Spanish for Adults: Seeing What You’re Hearing!  and every other basic Spanish textbook is the phonetic transcription feature.  Every word in the book has “sound mapping” to illustrate to the reader what the words sound like.
[Manuscript Completed]
HEY DOC: REVELATIONS OF A MODERN FAMILY DOCTOR by Richard Bowles, MD. Dr. Bowles, with his patients' permission, shares his amazing and intimate dealings with them.  He was there.  He spoke with them.  He touched them.  He spoke with family members.  They trusted him, or they didn't.  Things worked out well, or they didn't.  He was sued.  The reader is invited on one fantastic life adventure after another.
[Approximately 75,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
LE GRAND DANOIS a photo book by Andrew Park.  The Great Dane is a majestic animal, a remarkably large dog with a graceful stature and gentle soul.  LE GRAND DANOIS captures this beauty and effortless, modern elegance with innovative photos that examine each unique trait of the Great Dane.  Originating in Europe, the Great Dane was bred as a hunter and was a protector of large estates.  The photos in LE GRAND DANOIS allow the reader to gain an appreciation of how this dog lives and historically what inspired the development of the traits of the Great Dane that we admire today, such as their large stature, long legs, and structurally clean lines.  These original photos also offer a glimpse into a more sensitive side of the Great Dane and allow the reader to engage in this soulful connection with the Great Dane.  Anecdotes inspired by the late Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran, written by Andrew Park, add a simple but profound window to the intimate bond between animal and human.  All photos were taken by Andrew Park with a digital SLR camera.
[Picture Book, approximately 3,000 words, 70 photos, Manuscript Completed]
STUMP CITY CHRONICLES--MEMOIR OF A BLUE COLLAR KID is Robert J. Porter Jr.'s journey through the life he was handed, and made for himself.  It is a wry, yet poignant look at blue-collar family life as it was in the 1950's and 60's in small town America, which was influenced by the blessed trinity of church, school and tavern.  STUMP CITY describes life during the era of black and white TV's with rabbit ears antennas, the imminent invasion from illegal aliens from Mars, who somehow became Mexicans just a few years later, entering puberty in the absence of biological instruction, thus, his first time (with a partner), though memorable, was also forgettable.  He found out early that his town expected blind obedience to the Republican Party, and later, despite  having 25% of his DNA derived from Mohawk Indian blood, this did not insure the safe operation of a canoe.
[Approximately 70,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
THIS IS NOT ABOUT BASKETBALL by Tom Morgan.; A Boy finds his voice; an Old Man finds renewal and purpose.
Daniel, a little boy, is rescued from a serious malady - in part because of his uncle’s urgings.  Twelve years later the uncle intervenes again.  At 65, with a faulty heart, he builds a basketball court, buys balls and shoes and takes up the challenge to help his nephew learn to play the sport.   This is the chronicle of Daniel’s progress from awkwardness, through goals, drills every morning, to his first game as a high school player.  “This is not about basketball” is the uncle’s mantra.  “This is about your piano lessons, your Spanish class.  This is about life, Daniel.”  The uncle explores his own painful memories of learning to play amidst neglect and disinterest from his parents.  He reflects on a range of topics: The brilliant coach who never played.  A speedster who had no speed. The anatomically impossible jump shot.  A guru who knew nothing.  Idiot twins who learn to read.  A jazz pianist who has heard rumors “they’s writin’ music”.  How the brains of John Nash (A BEAUTIFUL MIND) and Daniel tackle problems.  Golfers who learned without clubs.  The worldwide mystery of the 4-minute mile.  The TAO/DAO of basketball.  Death of a brother.  A throwaway kid who becomes a Navy officer.  The lesson that “Unusual, plus hard work, equals extra-ordinary.”  As Daniel progresses and nephew and uncle grow closer, we realize that this is about more than basketball.  It is about life - why the uncle’s was spared , extended.  It is about something valuable to Daniel: How it is that he learns.
[Approximately 50,000 words. Manuscript Completed]
TRIAL IN COOPERSTOWN by Tom Morgan.  In Cooperstown you attend your first jury trial, in 2006, of a man accused of beating his wife to death.  By the time the jury’s foreman sings out their verdict you have befriended the accused’s parents and brother and minister, the dead woman’s siblings, the district attorney who prosecutes and the colorful legendary man who crafts the defense for “an innocent man, ladies and gentlemen”.  In his farewell he beseeches you to “Let the people know what you witnessed here this week.”  Questions he peppered us with in his masterful defense will resonate with you for years to come.  You will come to appreciate COOPERSTOWN as a celebration of an American treasure, the jury trial.
[Approximately 85,000 words.  Manuscript Completed]

© Copyright 2005-2013, Rebecca S. Pratt
http://agentr.com/active.html (5/13) GBK