Dear Agent:
In the spring of 1938, a baby boy dies in a remote farm home in drought-stricken northern Saskatchewan. His father, Gus, immerses himself in his daily chores, caring for his beloved horses, worrying about the absence of rain. The one thing he can't allow himself to think about is his son's death and the part he played in it. The infant's mother, Rebecca, cannot find the will to leave her bed. She wonders how her husband could walk away from the grave and back into a life that continues as usual. She can't bear to be touched, not emotionally, not physically. She swears an unspoken vow: no more babies. As their once-happy marriage begins to crumble, and it seems the farm will fail, Gus and Rebecca must put aside their private agonies and work together to survive.
My literary novel, SPIRIT HILL, is complete at 65,000 words. I have published three short stories in Transition magazine. Recently, I earned a post-graduate certificate in Creative Writing from the Humber School for the Creative Arts in Toronto, Canada. Thank you for your time and attention.
Yours truly,
GeeGee[/color] -
Version Two if I can figure out how to do this:'
Nope, I cannot make it work. Can the quote feature be used to edit an original post?
Arggghhh!!
One of the difficulties I'm having with writing the query is trying to make it sound interesting and it comes off sounding like a romance which it isn't, it's a love story, a story about a marriage in trouble. Another difficult thing about the story being character driven is having to pull back out of the characters and figure out what happens in terms of action, weird, I know. But any and all comments are very appreciated. Here it is:
A baby…dead and buried. A marriage…silent and shattered.
That’s the concept behind my completed novel, SPIRIT HILL, which contains 65,000 words.
In the spring of 1938, Thomas Kelman, eleven months, dies in his parents' isolated farm home in northern Saskatchewan. Paralyzed with grief, his mother, Rebecca, cannot find the will to leave her bed. She wonders how her husband, Gus, could have walked away from the grave and back into a life that continues as usual. She swears an unspoken vow. No more babies. No more pain. In this wild and remote country what that means is no more sex. Gus will just have to accept that their marriage will never be the way it was.
Gus immerses himself in the daily chores of the farm he and Rebecca operate for his widowed mother who now lives in New York. He worries about the drought, about armyworms, about his mother surviving with no income from the farm, and about the undeniable fact that his wife doesn't love him anymore. The one thing he can't allow himself to think about is his son's death and the part he played in it. Still, a life of hardship has taught him not to quit while he's down. He has a plan to save the farm and his marriage, if his wife and Fate will co-operate.
I belong to a local writers group and have published three short stories in Transition magazine. Recently, I earned a post-graduate certificate in Creative Writing through the Humber School for the Creative Arts in Toronto, Canada. I was awarded a $500 President's Scholarship on entrance to the program. This is my first novel.
Signed, Me