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[Tilly G]

Dear [agent],

[Personalized introductory paragraph for HOT GREEK SUMMER and metadata.]

Sometimes it takes a change of scenery and a stranger to get over the fear of starting over. Widow Cassie Merrill is in paradise where the best things—the sun and the sea—are free. A chill-out vacation in Crete with her closest friend Bea, ancient ruins, and yummy baklava. No messy flings, despite promising her late husband she’ll open her heart to someone new and live a full life.

But on their first day, Bea dumps her for Hot Guy, and feeling guilty, coaxes Stavros, Hot’s buddy, to babysit the poor widow. Stavros Andinos, dark wavy hair and testosterone, sees past Cassie’s hidden vulnerability and invites her on a tour of the island.

Still not ready to move on she retreats, prompting him to ask, "Cassie, are you afraid of me?" All that masculine beauty awakens pheromones she forgot she ever had. And once Cassie tastes what a connection with Stavros is like, she can’t go back. But it’s a two-week vacation and there are no guarantees.

HOT GREEK SUMMER, complete at 77,000 words, is humorous romantic women’s fiction with steam. It will appeal to readers who love Kristan Higgins for her humor and insight into relationships, and Susan Mallery for her romance and friendship stories.

I have three novels in a series with a small press, and Indie-published one novel in a series with six other authors. In the past three years, I’ve advertised and promoted my books and developed a social media presence. I’m a former teacher who enjoyed a past life on Crete for eleven years and have a degree in journalism. Last August, I returned to Crete to complete research for my novel.

Please let me know if you’d like to see a partial of HOT GREEK SUMMER.
[Personalized contact information.]

[CapeCodderFodder]

What is domestic violence? What is it an expression of? How could someone in an intimate partnership come to slam another’s head to the floor? After that, are all bets off? If so, why shouldn’t the worst, most sinister retaliation begin to unfold?

PEOPLE SKILLS is a badass, cutthroat response to domestic violence.

Natasha Boginya is desperately, almost pathologically, in love with her husband Rob Wesson. Seen by many as a fine breadwinner and all-around good guy, Rob turns violent in the marriage, yet Natasha initially feels a strange sense of comfort. Having grown up in a violent household, cruel is the only flavor of love Natasha has ever known. But when Rob nearly breaks her back and Natasha winds up in a shelter, she finally understands she can’t go back.

Enter Anna, Natasha’s best friend and confidante. Anna supports Natasha, but she’s really rooting for Natasha to exact revenge. When Anna comes into possession of a Widow’s Weapon, a brain-eating parasite of Siberian origin that alters personalities and erodes minds, she convinces Natasha to infect Rob. Trouble is, Rob has been posted to Bali, Indonesia. The women travel halfway around the world, where they encounter a highflying expat world that throws their own Soviet backgrounds into sharp relief. Will they pull off the ultimate reprisal against intimate violence, and will their close friendship survive the act?

PEOPLE SKILLS dissects a range of known parasites, starting with domestic violence, both as witnessed in childhood and later tolerated in adulthood. This novel further explores the parasite of rage—that which sparks violence as well as that which violence sparks. And of course there is the parasite of the Widow’s Weapon itself, a brain-eating, personality-shifting parasite that is undetectable in those it infects—until it’s too late.

A parody of contemporary American adulation, and fear, of Russia, PEOPLE SKILLS is a send-up of the American expat kicking up his heels in a distant, resource-rich country in the twilight of the American empire. Based on a true story, PEOLE SKILLS further illuminates a thick-or-thin female friendship that proves our chosen families can indeed be our truest, most dear relations. One part Gone Girl and one part In Cold Blood, PEOPLE SKILLS will leave you contemplating our worst impulses, cheering for unlikely heroes and sleeping in protective earmuffs.

I’m a former UN speechwriter based in Indonesia and current public school English teacher. My fiction has appeared in Kestrel Journal, Little Patuxent Review, Tank Magazine, and Five:2:One. My nonfiction has been published by Guernica, The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post, and NPR. I have twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I share the first XX pages of my manuscript, and would be delighted to provide the entire MS to you if interested.

All best,

[Crooked Bird]

Dear [Agent],

When the king’s men grab Liere Naciane off the street, he expects to be hanged for seditious heresy like his father before him—as all the men of his childhood community were, and the women put to the sword. Instead the king who ordered his people's massacre wants Liere to save his kingdom: only Liere's Gift can turn back the night-dragon that is burning villages at an invading empire’s command.

Liere thinks, Let them burn.

But a young noblewoman—beautiful, ambitious Ravanna de Talleben, her dark skin proof of ancient imperial blood, who wishes she could save her nation instead of manipulating some heretic gutter-rat to do it—pries into his mind with her Gift and changes it by bringing a refugee from the bloodstained border to his cell. Shaken, Liere swears to do what he can.

Which may be nothing. The hatred he’s breathed since his family’s deaths blocks his Gift. Mingling Ravanna and Liere's mind-powers—and those of a third, a ten-year-old child—may bypass this blockage, or lead all three to a fiery death far from home. As they trek through forest and ravine behind enemy lines toward the lair, the truth becomes clear: unless Liere and Ravanna, nurtured in traditions violently opposed, can open their minds to each other, that death is assured.

Complete at [projected 100,000] words, The Dragon and the Crow is historical fantasy set in a version of 17th-century France, using echoes of real-world religious conflict to explore themes of empathy and hate. Pitchable as “Tolkien meets Wolf Hall,” it also resembles [Future Comp 1] and [Future Comp 2.]

I’ve had no previous representation. I’ve traditionally published three works of Christian historical fiction, a market in which my sales declined as my themes became more complex. My first was a Christy finalist and a ForeWord INDIES bronze medalist; my third won ForeWord gold and basically sank without a trace. I’m still convinced there are many, many readers with whom questions (not assertions) of faith deeply resonate, but who’ve seen too much to put on the required Sunday smile. But I don’t know who to go to, to get my fiction to them. I’m truly hoping you do.

Thank you so much for your consideration,
Heather Munn