I've never been good at summarizing my own writing, much less pitching it to other people with the hopes of buying it. But just in case I run across some people this coming weekend at the World Fantasy convention in DC who ask "What's your novel about?" I want to be ready.

So, if you'll indulge me, I've been noodling around with some possible one-sentence descriptions (or "ten-second pitches you can lob at an agent or editor while on the elevator headed to the bar") for my three genre novels.

Which one grabs you from each set?

For The Last of the Hand (an urban fantasy novel):

1. The Last of the Hand tells of a new kind of magic spreading among a handful of young kids in a Chicago that's been suffering under winters that lasts almost all year long.
2. The Last of the Hand tells the true history of magic and the last remaining Sorcerers in our world, and how a new magic is emerging in one young girl who fights to save the last sorcerer of the Hand and defeat the Sorcerers of the Fist.
3. A young girl accidentally discovers a new form of magic while the remaining Sorcerers of the old magic battle for power, until all three types of magic meet, with explosive results.
4. A young girl named Kelley discovers a new form of magic, much to the dismay of the two competing forces of old magic, the Hand and the Fist.

For The Wannoshay Cycle (a science fiction novel):

1. In a near-future world full of violence and paranoia, a handful of humans are the last hope for aliens placed into internments camps after a series of suspicious accidents occurred after the aliens' arrival.
2. Aliens land and try to integrate into human society, but a series of suspicious accidents lead them to be placed into internment camps, and only a handful of humans can help them.
3. In the near future, aliens crash-land on an Earth so torn apart by violence and terrorism that nobody really paid them any attention, until it was too late.
4. What if aliens crash-landed on Earth and humans were too caught up just trying to get by to really notice?
5. Aliens come to Earth, try to integrate, are accused of terrorism and placed in detainment camps.

From Heart's Revenge (a paranormal romance):

1. Ella, a straight-shooting, no-nonsense researcher comes from the city to tiny Ocracoke Island to examine a shipwreck lost pirate ships and ends up falling for Mitch, the superstitious local man she hired to be her divemaster.
2. Hardworking, no-nonsense Ella only wanted to come to tiny Ocracoke Island to identify a shipwreck that turns out to be haunted, but ends up finding a soul mate in Mitch, her superstitious divemaster.
3. Ella Simon, a no-nonsense professor from Boston, never believed in true love, ghosts, or fate, but she begins to change her mind on a research trip to tiny Ocracoke Island when she meets Mitch, her superstitious and quite good-looking divemaster.
4. Ella Simon never believed in true love, ghosts, or anything that can't be scientifically proven, and then she meets Mitch while searching a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, and everything changes.
5. Ella, a no-nonsense professor, finds true love -- along with Blackbeard's headless ghost and a lost pirate ship -- on a research trip off the coast of North Carolina.

The trick is keeping the pitch brief, yet intriguing. Which descriptions make you want to read the book in question?

Sigh. It's not easy condensing 80,000 to 110,000 words into about 25. Thanks in advance, anyone who comments on these!