NEW - Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog

[dory123]

I’d appreciate your input on this query letter. I am seeking representation for my work of contemporary women’s fiction, STRONG ROOTS, complete at 98K words.

When veterinarian Dana Dolittle walks away from her unfaithful husband and a traumatic miscarriage, she’s left with no home, no job, and no future. But she does have a past – and deep roots that once gave her a sense of identity and purpose. Running home might seem like a step backward, but what Dana needs now is a safe place to lick her wounds and heal.

Returning to the Lake Michigan resort town where she grew up, she moves into her grandparents’ cabin and takes a job at the local veterinary hospital with her old mentor, Doc. Surrounded by family, doing work she loves, with a rescued baby raccoon that needs her and a burgeoning friendship with Rory Sullivan, the town’s engaging – and frankly gorgeous – new dentist, it seems like a fresh start for Dana.

But when it comes to starting over, she’s her own worst enemy. Guilty and ashamed of her screwed up life, she can’t get past the walls she’s built to keep everyone at a distance. And walking away from her husband hasn’t erased the damage he’s done to her self-esteem. Since their meeting on a deserted beach, Rory has been the disinterested friend Dana desperately needs. But as their mutual attraction grows, her deep-seated trust issues resurface, turning their relationship into a frustrating game of chutes and ladders. Dana’s insecurities are further fed by some of Doc’s more difficult clients. And when she learns that nasty rumors are circulating about her motives for returning, she can’t help but wonder if trying to put down new roots in her native soil is worth the mortification and effort.

STRONG ROOTS interweaves Dana’s struggle to believe in herself and begin again with glimpses of life as a small-town veterinarian, much in the style of James Herriot’s memoir, ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. It also offers a warm-hearted portrayal of life in a close-knit rural community, like Jenny Colgan’s SUNRISE BY THE SEA or Robyn Carr’s ongoing VIRGIN RIVER series. This is a stand-alone work, but I’d like to continue Dana’s story and am currently working on a sequel.

I am a retired veterinarian, and Dana’s experiences at work are based on some of my more memorable cases and clients. Although I’ve written professionally in the sciences, STRONG ROOTS is my first work of fiction. As requested, I have attached … for your review.

Thanks for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

[jackiewrites]

Dear Nathan,

An investigator and a society darling join forces to unmask their mutual friend’s killer in MURDER COMES TO MAYFAIR, my adult historical mystery with series potential, complete at 92,000 words. Its Regency setting, banter, and slow-burn romance will appeal to fans of Andrea Penrose’s WREXFORD AND SLOANE mysteries and Deanna Raybourn’s VERONICA SPEEDWELL mysteries. I would appreciate any feedback on this query letter you're willing to provide.

London, 1811. A member of the elite Bow Street Runners, Henry Cross has worked his way up from poverty to become a respected investigator—until new evidence indicates he might’ve sent the wrong man to prison for murder. When an author called George Bones publicly insults Henry, Henry reopens his former investigation to save an innocent man from the gallows and preserve his own good name.

Henry’s investigation brings him to a dinner party, which the accused man’s former employers will be attending. There, he meets Augusta Bancroft, a barrister’s daughter who yearns for more than attending balls and attracting suitors. Her scathing quill advocates for the unfortunate souls that high society would rather forget, but crime writing isn’t a suitable pastime for a lady. If anyone discovers she is George Bones, the scandal would ruin Augusta’s social standing and that of her beloved family.

When one of the dinner guests is murdered—shortly after telling Henry he has information pertaining to the reopened murder case—the coincidence is too great to ignore. Henry and Augusta forge a clandestine alliance to find the killer. Following the clues takes them on a twisty journey from the bustling streets of Covent Garden to the refined townhouses of Mayfair. As Henry and Augusta uncover infidelity, lies, and corruption, they discover that finding justice might mean risking their reputations and lives.

I am an active member of the #Booktube community on YouTube (Jackie Reads and Writes) and the Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. This is my first novel.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Jackie

[Write23]

Dear Mr. Bransford,

I’m pleased to share Searching for Sagittarius, an 82,000-word literary novel that explores friendship, the ramifications of guilt, and the struggle to fit in the world. Similar in tone to David Long (The Falling Boy), the story is told over the course of many years through alternating narrators, like Kawai Strong Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors.

The novel follows Matt and Danny over several decades. At first, Matt is the confident leader with whom Danny struggles to keep up – with music, girls, college, etc. Their paths diverge after Matt, while a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, is unable to act as the woman he loves is murdered. Matt’s failures of courage and subsequent betrayal of Danny lead to closing himself off from friends and family, moving to Cape Cod and becoming a ceramist. As Matt is in free-fall, Danny pulls his life together, quitting his restaurant job and going back to college, ultimately becoming a successful architect. A parental death reunites the two friends, but it’s only when Danny’s son is critically injured during a school shooting that Matt re-engages with the world around him.

I am a dedicated writer as in addition to Searching for Sagittarius, I am in draft stages with another novel and have had a book of poetry published. All of that’s to say I love the craft of writing and am persistent. I am open to suggestions and collaborations to improve my work and enjoy working with editors. I have been a short-order cook and thrown pottery, so bits of me are in both main characters.

Thank you for taking the time to consider representing my novel. I look forward to hearing from you and would love the opportunity to discuss ways in which we can work together.

[denizb33]

I've got one!

Dear Ms AGENT,

Enclosed please find my query for THE CHARM OF TIME, a contemporary romance for adults complete at 76,500 words. I participated in the recent #KissPitch event on 14 February with the following tweet:

"A cop on hiatus battling cancer falls for her divorced mechanic, but love stalls when an old investigation reignites with a double murder -- and the heroine as the next target. #KissPitch #HEA #RS #contemporary #highheat"
(https://twitter.com/DenizBevan/status/9 ... 1080903681)

Late one evening, Christianne Morand, police detective, shows up with her broken down car at Rory MacDonald’s garage and auto body shop. The last thing she expects is a second chance at love. Yet their sudden attraction leads them to dinner, hours of conversation and, after she invites him up to her place, a long night of intense passion.

It seems like a happily ever after, but even while they attempt to learn about each other and maintain their newfound closeness, past secrets and mistakes begin to hound them. During a weekend getaway in the Alps, the world-famous chef at their hotel is found dead. Christianne and Rory are beset by danger when the murderer realizes they are witnesses. Worse, he’s recognized Christianne as the investigating detective in a past case. She failed to convict the man he thought responsible for the death of his family, and he’s determined to find justice.

As threats to their lives come swifter and closer, Christianne and Rory’s newfound love is tested. They must reveal their deepest selves and trust each other, in order to work together at securing their best chance at forever.


THE CHARM OF TIME would appeal to all readers of travel-based romance, deeply emotional stories such as T. L. Watson’s Going Back, or romantic suspense along the lines of Lara Lacombe’s Pregnant by the Colton Cowboy.

My previous publications include paranormal romance Druid's Moon (Dancing Lemur Press), contemporary romance Summer Fire (Carina Press) and the short story “One to Another” in the Insecure Writer’s Support Group anthology Dark Matter: Artificial. Another story was recently shortlisted for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference award. I have lived and worked in Canada, Turkey and Switzerland, and my non-fiction, including travel articles, book reviews and personal essays, has appeared in the trilingual (English, French, and Turkish) newspaper Bizim Anadolu. I have been blogging about travelling, reading, and writing for 15 years at http://www.thegirdleofmelian.ca.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Jan123]

Thanks so much for this opportunity!

Dear Agent,

I see that you are seeking women’s fiction and would like to offer WAR SECRETS, a work of historical women’s fiction set against the backdrop of WWII, for your consideration.

Twenty-one-year-old Maggie Winston is going to be a damn fine Army nurse--just as soon as she graduates from St. Joe’s and joins the Corps. It is 1943.

There’s an ugly bump in the road, however, when her best friend Vera accidentally kills a patient with the wrong medicine. Maggie takes it upon herself to cover up the mistake, never expecting to lose her friend in the process. But Vera inexplicably turns against her, and Maggie, seeking penance, can’t get in the Army fast enough. The Army obliges, sending her to a hospital on the Italian front as winter approaches.

Maggie’s roommate and mentor, Lynn Matzke, an older, more experienced nurse, has a secret of her own: she’s seeing Bill, a doctor in her unit, something the Army prohibits.

Maggie struggles to understand why Lynn fights her obvious love for Bill until Lynn, in stages, confesses her past: that she had a married lover; that she had and gave up a child; and ultimately, the truth about who the child’s father is. Worst of all, Lynn hasn’t told Bill about any of this and despises herself for the fraud.

When Dr. Cullen, the physician on duty the night Vera killed the patient, turns up at Maggie’s hospital for an inspection, Maggie learns why her friend couldn’t face her again: having guessed the truth, Cullen’s been blackmailing Vera for sex ever since that night. Once again, without thinking about the consequences, Maggie takes her revenge on the doctor.

Thanks to another one of Maggie’s well-intentioned schemes that goes awry (involving a little theft from the Army to help destitute civilians and a nasty medic who has it in for Maggie and Lynn), Bill and Lynn’s romance is revealed, and Bill is shipped off to England. Maggie castigates herself for wronging yet another friend, knowing that now Lynn must face the coming nightmare without the man she loves.

Because Maggie and Lynn are sent to the cold and mud and constant shelling that was Anzio. It is there on the beachhead known as Hell’s Half Acre that their growing bond allows them to bare all their remorse, and the war exacts a final reckoning.

War Secrets, a coming-of-age story of women’s friendship and loss told in Lynn’s and Maggie’s voices, is complete at 94,000 words and is historically accurate. It would appeal to readers of The Fire by Night (Teresa Messineo), The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah), and Sarah Sundin’s books.

I graduated from Cornell and worked for years in human services. WWII history fascinates me, and in my reading, I discovered accounts of American nurses on the front lines and realized their contributions under horrific conditions have rarely been told.

I appreciate your time in considering this request for representation.

Sincerely,
JM

[rish]

Dear Agent,

I thought you might be interested in taking a look at my psychological thriller, CORNERED (96,000 words). It combines elements from Charlie Donlea’s Twenty Years Later, such as fake identities, ulterior motives, and a touch of murder, with Phillippi Ryan’s Her Perfect Life in the way it explores the secrets and hidden agendas behind a perfect life.

Phillip Dupont had never entertained the idea of becoming a con artist or a grifter. But after his boss seduced him and then fired him from his job, he found himself in a tough spot. He had thought they were in love, but realizes he was nothing more than her sexual plaything. The experience gives him ideas. He poses as a wealthy entrepreneur and uses his charm to lure in affluent women, all the while secretly recording their most intimate moments to use as leverage later. He dreams of collecting enough money to leave the rat race behind and live on a tranquil Caribbean island.

His plan was going smoothly until he stumbles upon Laura Edwards, a successful romance novelist, on an online dating website. Their chemistry is so strong that Phillip finds it difficult to concentrate on his goal. The thought of starting a life with Laura crosses his mind, but he can't shake off the fear of his past catching up with him.

And when Laura’s friend notices something off about Phillip, Phillip panics, leading to a physical altercation between the two. When the friend turns up dead, the clues point to Phillip as the prime suspect, though he distinctly remembers leaving her friend alive. With the police in pursuit, Laura implores him to take shelter in her secluded cottage to wait it out before hitting the road again.

After arriving at the cottage, he realizes Laura has secrets of her own and knows much more about Phillip than she lets on. He learns that even the most picture-perfect lives have dark and devious secrets. Secrets worth killing for.

I’m a journalist based in Toronto affiliated with the American Society of Journalists & Authors. I write about a variety of subjects, including business, finance, technology, e-commerce, and cybercrime. I was among the first journalists in North America to write about online dating scams (Reader’s Digest cover story). My articles have also been featured in The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, The Globe & Mail, Maclean’s Magazine, MarketWatch, and Next Avenue, among others. I’m the author of The Lighted Path (Berkley Books), a book of non-fiction with a spiritual focus.

[JGS1985]

Dear [agent],

I’m excited to query you with GLOSS, a 68,000-word YA contemporary fantasy with thriller elements where the most stubborn curses are those a girl plants in her own soul. It will appeal to readers looking for a high school version of the Gen Z coven in THE RAVENS by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige and the sharp voice of A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik.

Fifteen-year-old Emi thinks her magic is a dud. Her friend Munira can control water; Heather casts spells! But Emi’s just an empath, the perfect innocent bystander in her friends’ crazy weather videos. When Yulia, a shapeshifter from Ukraine, arrives in Minnesota and joins the local magic club, the friends know her power is something special. Their first cute video of a shapeshifted Bigfoot goes viral and attracts all the wrong attention.

An unregistered mage stalks the park where they film. Anonymous posters haunt the comments threads as the friends’ online following grows, threatening to expose them to the wider world of people who don’t know magic is real.

The friend group unravels as something or someone twists their magic. Yulia fears a Russian operative is interfering, sniffing at secrets she’s keeping for friends still in Ukraine. Munira insists the mage is some rando who’s just jealous of their success as they start to monetize their viral videos. Heather worries that the combination of their powers is poisoning them from the inside out.

Their feelings yank on Emi’s windpipe, real as a hand on her throat, but they can’t all be right. She must disentangle truth from fantasy to figure out the real curse before her friends turn their magic and their hearts against each other.

I am an English as a Second Language teacher from Richfield, MN who owns far more books than shelf space. When not writing, I grow too many tomatoes (which are almost as delicious as books) and lead contract negotiations for my 850-member union. Thank you for considering GLOSS, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Me

[AndreaBerry]

Would love to get your feedback, Nathan! Here goes...

Dear ___,

On Manuscript Wishlist, I saw you are seeking historical fiction featuring extraordinary stories that have never been told involving family dynamics, relationships, and love. I thought you might enjoy my book, which grapples with those subjects, and due to the physical and mental handicaps of one of the characters, also explores the experience of otherness you mentioned an interest in.

Starz series The Spanish Princess meets Phantom of the Opera in a novel about Elisabeth de Valois, the oldest daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Médici. Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth is eager to marry her betrothed, Don Carlos, heir to the Spanish throne, until she is forced to wed his father, King Felipe, instead.

When Elisabeth first arrives in Spain, Felipe treats her coldly and insists she leave all French customs behind. She finds a confidante in Don Carlos, whose limp and stutter have always shamed his father. Their friendship blossoms into romance, but as Felipe begins to treat her with respect and even affection, Elisabeth realizes she is betraying not only her husband, but her duty before God. She breaks Don Carlos’ heart, and in time, grows to love Felipe sincerely, although she fears his wrath should he ever find out her secret.

When Don Carlos suffers a head injury that renders him mentally unstable, his love for Elisabeth becomes an obsession. Although Elisabeth is frightened by his increasingly erratic behavior, she believes the Don Carlos who was once her closest friend is still there, buried within his troubled psyche, and blames herself for encouraging his affection in the first place. Months later, Don Carlos dies, and Elisabeth believes he has taken their secret to the grave. When Elisabeth’s worst fears are realized and Felipe finds evidence of his son’s feelings for her, he vows to cease all prayers for Don Carlos’ soul. She must decide whether to tell Felipe the whole truth, rescuing Don Carlos from eternal damnation, or to save herself and everything she holds dear.

Through the testing of her loyalties, not only to Felipe and Don Carlos, but to her family name, the Inquisition, and the dictates of her conscience, Elisabeth finds love, redemption, and her true identity.

THE QUEEN’S ALLEGIANCE is a 103,400-word work of historical fiction, told from the points of view of Elisabeth, Felipe, and Don Carlos. It will appeal to readers of C. W. Gortner’s The Last Queen and Sophie Perinot’s Medici’s Daughter, which were written about relatives of Elisabeth.

I am an active member of HNSNA. When I’m not writing, I’m managing software implementation projects for higher education customers, reading or watching as much historical fiction as I can get my hands on, and spending time with my husband.

Sincerely,

[giffmacshane]

Thanks for the opportunity. I'd appreciate your feedback on this query.

Dear Ms/r Agent,

(Begins with personalization based on MSWL or magazine article)

An outcast Society belle falls in love with a Navajo man. Can they defeat the woman who’s driven to destroy their happiness?

After falling from grace with her family in Philadelphia, Alicia Beaufort is shunted off to relatives in the Arizona Territory. Disturbed at first by the things she hears about the West, she gradually comes to realize the village of White’s Station has what she’s always longed for: simplicity and peace.

But when Alicia begins to keep company with a Navajo man, she learns that all is not quite as it appears. She finds herself in conflict with the very people who are supposed to be looking after her. And when the man who ruined her shows up, she’s terrified that her past will become known and the villagers will turn against her.

She’s made friends with many of the Navajo, who call her “Smoke Eyes” and would be happy to accept her into their tribe, but their life is too primitive for a young woman raised in Society.

With her family against her and past transgressions looming, Alicia knows she has to fight for what she wants, but she has no experience to draw on. Can she take a stand against her family and former lover? Or will her dreams all come to naught?

WITHOUT THE THUNDER is multicultural adult Historical Romance set in the Old West. Book 4 of the Donovan Family Saga is 97,000 words complete and can be read as a stand-alone. The first three books in the series, as well as the prequel, are all rated over four stars on Amazon and GoodReads. Fans of the “Sky’s West” novels by Richard S. Wheeler and the “Redemption Mountain” series by Shirleen Davies are sure to enjoy WITHOUT THE THUNDER.

[BillSwan]

Dear Mr. (AGENT):
Your QueryTracker Wish List indicates you represent middle grade science fiction. JACK PARTRIDGE AND THE INVASION FROM THE HOCKEY STICK GALAXY is a “funny, mad-cap adventure” middle grade science fiction novel (30,000 words) for which I am seeking representation.

When a huge flying saucer lands in his schoolyard, secret agent Jack Partridge must overcome his own disability to defeat an army of Swarmtroopers dressed like bumblebees who plan to transport everyone on earth – beginning with Peartree Public school -- to a planet in the Hockey Stick Galaxy.

Jack arrives at the school on his first day, only to be told by the principal, Mr. Mudd, that the alien invasion he has been assigned to halt never happened. Or is over, take your pick.

Disappointed, Jack and a new-found seventh-grade sidekick, Jill, find the real principal, Mr. Well, duct-tapped under the sink in the janitor’s closet. They realize that Mr. Mudd has lied, and the invasion may be underway. With the help of Mr. Well and the school custodian, Ms. Moppail, (an under-employed astrophysicist) they overcome the aliens (Mr. Mudd and the school secretary Barb Wire) in the school office.

That’s when the giant flying saucer from the Hockey Stick Galaxy lands in the schoolyard, crushing the new playground equipment and begins to load students for a trip to the planet Punworg – where hot is cold, young is old, and entropy runs in reverse. Jack, Jill and friends are captured by the invading force of zucchini-armed Gourdian Guards. Fighting thought control with tin foil hats is only partly successful, and Jack soon realizes that his ordinary super-powers are not enough and he must develop a new super-skill to fulfill his mission.

I am author of nine middle-grade sports novels, and here in Canada winner of the Ontario Library Association Red Maple Non-Fiction Award for my young adult book REAL JUSTICE: Fourteen and Sentenced To Death, (one of five books in Canada nominated for the Norma Fleck Non-fiction Award that year.) I am a past president of CANSCAIP, (Canadian Association of Authors, Illustrators and Performers), and have been part of a national tour of children’s writers in Canada.

The full manuscript is available for consideration on request.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Swan

[Lisa MP]

Dear AGENT,

PERSONALIZE + I believe you will enjoy The Siren Dialogues, an 85,000 word contemporary literary novel with a twist of magical realism that will appeal to fans of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch, with a splash of American Mermaid by Julia Langbein.

When Libby Levine is assigned a story on renowned photographer Tanner Bixby, she sees an opportunity to prove her writing chops and win a long-desired promotion. As an added bonus, the photographer has a vacation cabin on the same island as her boyfriend Jasper. But Bixby has a surprise agenda: he’s looking to find the long-lost love of his life he once rescued at the beach—who he claims is a mermaid. Libby dismisses the account until a mysterious, half-conscious woman washes up with the tides. They form an inexplicable bond that challenges what Libby knows about herself, her past decisions, and where her true loyalties lie.

With the arrival of a hurricane, the woman fully awakens and reveals her true nature. And Libby must summon all her power to choose, once and for all, who and what she wants to become and who she’s willing to betray, or run the risk that someone else might choose for her.

An excerpt from The Siren Dialogues was published in Best of The Sand Hill Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Additional stories have been published in the award-winning Fault Zone anthologies, Travelers Tales: Spain, and Fabula Argentea, and won Best of Show in the 2021 San Mateo County Fair Literary Arts competitions. Along with being president, founding anthology editor, and recipient of the Jack London Award for the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club, I have worked as an editor at Macmillan, and on projects for Simon & Schuster, Berkley Books, and others. I hold a BA and MA in English and Creative Writing and have interviewed several bestselling authors for the San Mateo County Libraries and book clubs.

Attached are # OF PAGES per submission guidelines. The full manuscript is ready to send on request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Lisa MP]

Dear AGENT,

PERSONALIZE + I believe you will enjoy The Siren Dialogues, an 85,000 word contemporary literary novel with a twist of magical realism that will appeal to fans of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch, with a splash of American Mermaid by Julia Langbein.

When Libby Levine is assigned a story on renowned photographer Tanner Bixby, she sees an opportunity to prove her writing chops and win a long-desired promotion. As an added bonus, the photographer has a vacation cabin on the same island as her boyfriend Jasper. But Bixby has a surprise agenda: he’s looking to find the long-lost love of his life he once rescued at the beach—who he claims is a mermaid. Libby dismisses the account until a mysterious, half-conscious woman washes up with the tides. They form an inexplicable bond that challenges what Libby knows about herself, her past decisions, and where her true loyalties lie.

With the arrival of a hurricane, the woman fully awakens and reveals her true nature. And Libby must summon all her power to choose, once and for all, who and what she wants to become and who she’s willing to betray, or run the risk that someone else might choose for her.

An excerpt from The Siren Dialogues was published in Best of The Sand Hill Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Additional stories have been published in the award-winning Fault Zone anthologies, Travelers Tales: Spain, and Fabula Argentea, and won Best of Show in the 2021 San Mateo County Fair Literary Arts competitions. Along with being president, founding anthology editor, and recipient of the Jack London Award for the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club, I have worked as an editor at Macmillan, and on projects for Simon & Schuster, Berkley Books, and others. I hold a BA and MA in English and Creative Writing and have interviewed several bestselling authors for the San Mateo County Libraries and book clubs.

Attached are # OF PAGES per submission guidelines. The full manuscript is ready to send on request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[LagunaMitch]

Dear Agent,


Because you are looking for Art books that inspire you, I’m excited to share LAGUNA BEACH: THE ART & SOUL OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. My photography of this unique art colony combines the beaches from Gray Malin's Italy with the cityscapes found in Liam Wong's debut TO:KY:OO. Academy Award-winner and former resident Diane Keaton has written the foreword.


Laguna Beach eats, sleeps and breathes the arts and deserves its own book of art. My images drop you into the heartbeat of Laguna life, from its SoCal beach culture, eclectic hangouts, annual events and public art to its love for conservation. Think illustrator Norman Rockwell's slices of life meets Anthony Bourdain's sense of place storytelling. Laguna’s previous photobooks have documented its historical past in vintage black and white. LAGUNA BEACH is the first to capture today's Laguna in full color.


LAGUNA will be the perfect book for the coffee tables of coastal lovers, interior designers and homeowners from Nantucket to New Zealand. Laguna's natural beauty and laidback charm attract 6.3 million visitors annually who find this quirky town to be unlike any other place on Earth.


I received the 2023 "Best News Photo" from the Orange County Press Club and was a finalist in the 2021 Epson International Pano Awards. My photos prompted President Obama to add Laguna's offshore rocks to the California Coastal National Monument. My work also appears in The Christian Science Monitor, Digital Photo Magazine and The Surfer's Journal. 


I have secured marketing support from community organizations and social media influencers, totaling 240K opt-in emails and 1.5M social media followers. The completed book proposal includes an aggressive promotional plan with a publicist and endorsements from California State Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, Westways Magazine and the Surfrider Foundation.


Sincerely,
Mitch Ridder

[aandriot]

Hello, xxx-

[personalization]

The Stonecrafters is a 94,000 word dual-POV YA urban fantasy with a sci-fi twist. It won the 2023 Claymore Award for Best Juvenile/YA. This novel can stand alone or become a series.

Two long-lost sisters reunite to investigate who is freeing demons from their stones. But when one sister displays demonic powers, they must grapple with the possibility that she is the very thing they’ve dedicated their life to trapping.

Alaina lives a quiet life apprenticing in her foster father’s metaphysical shop in Indiana, where she crafts stones to trap demons. It’s perfect. Sure, there’s that pesky glitch of not remembering anything before age five, but who remembers their childhood? Then a stranger arrives, insisting she must save her sister Rubinia, who is dying from a rare demonic disease for which Alaina’s blood is the only cure. The problem is, Alaina doesn’t have a sister—or so she thinks.

Rubinia lives at Shades Academy, a secret school for training children to protect humanity from demonic threat. She rescues a kindergartener from a demon attack, with the help of her girlfriend’s joy spell. Disco lights are involved. The problem is, Rubinia gets infected—with joy, and with a deadly demonic illness. Her sister’s blood can save her, but Rubinia would never risk pulling Alaina out of hiding—even if it means her own death.

After a traumatic event triggers Alaina’s memories, she realizes someone is trying to kill her. Worse—her sister’s been keeping secrets. Alaina must decide: risk exposure and help Rubinia investigate, or return to pick up the pieces of her small town life. Thrown into a world of religious cults, genetic experiments, and demon sympathizers, the sisters soon learn that the secrets of their family run far deeper than either ever knew.

The Stonecrafters uses humor, demons, and an obscure ancient Greek religion to explore themes of identity and acceptance. It’s full of plot twists, multiple antagonists, and mistaken blame.

My novel has the strong sister bond, mystery elements, and Greek worldbuilding of Sisters of Sword & Song by Rebecca Ross, coupled with the demonic sensibility and hints of romance found in Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalo. The idea came to me when the story of Japan’s ‘killing stone’ broke in March 2022, purportedly releasing a 2,000-year-old demon named Tamamo-no-Mae.

I am a sociologist of religion who has lived in Indiana all my life. In seventh grade, I summoned a demon with my best friend Amanda. She, at least, was certain our summoning worked. Although I have an extensive vita of peer-reviewed academic publications, I’ve only recently delved into fiction. My first piece was published in 50-Word Stories. Yes, I started small.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Kate]

According to your website, you are interested in novels dealing with women’s fiction. At approximately 116 000 words, my novel, Back to Square One has a dash of magical realism and overtones of alternate history. Back to Square One is similar to My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life.

Jude Hutton must negotiate her way through life with an extraordinary difference. She knows what’s ahead for the planet, as she’s lived through it. She struggles to convince those closest to her she is reliving a remembered life and strives to find clues to why this has happened to her.

Seeking to alter catastrophic events she remembers from her first life, she worries changes she makes may adversely affect how the world unfolds. While foreknowledge has some advantages, there are many pitfalls in such a situation. Her unique circumstances stand in the way of a normal life and create difficulties with her partners. The subplot of the story revolves around her family situation and difficulties, including her husband’s affair and her mother-in-law’s dislike.

Her attempts to prevent disasters bring her letters to the attention of the FBI, who assume she must be involved to have such detailed information about the events mentioned in her warnings.

Others Rememberers experiencing the same phenomenon eventually make contact with Jude. Their search for more of their kind needs to be discreet, as it appears one, such as they, has a very different agenda concerning how world events should play out. Together this small band of misfits attempt the daunting task of staying under the radar while endeavouring to avert a looming nuclear war.

I took a creative writing course at the University of Winnipeg and received an A- for my efforts. My professor, Margaret Sweatman, a published author most recently of The Gunsmith’s Daughter, encouraged me to join a writing group when I moved to Ottawa. I did and began writing this novel. I won an honourable mention in an Ottawa Citizen short story contest.

Thank you very much for your time.
Kate