I haven't got a bloody clue, but somehow inspiration struck with a vengeance last week. I've nearly completed my new query letter and I am 100% (or more) happier with the results.
It occurred to me -- amidst your many and varied and encouraging comments -- that my query said nothing, whatsoever, about the actual plot.
In fact, it read like any young adult fantasy; nothing set it apart. Truly. Curses, ghostly figures, talking cats, magical potions -- all things currently littering the YA fantasy world. Ad nauseum.
But I didn't mention the historical angle at all: the Mongolian intrigue; the Papal letters; the explorers who never returned from the Silk Road. I didn't mention my own creations: the Sylvan, a shape-shifting creature who mind-melds with humans, taking on their personalities and characteristics, or Xavier, a renegade priest who discovers the secret of eternal life, sentencing his followers to centuries of service. I didn't even refer to the Lady of the Lake, who makes a brief appearance and is somehow romantically linked to Maryn, the talking cat -- who isn't at all what he seems (who among us are?) and has more to hide than young Kalen can discover.
No. I didn't mention any of this. I simply talked about the ho-hum and the known, leaving what makes my story unique a complete and total mystery. And I wondered why no one snapped up my query? Yikes.
So, I'm not blue. I'm furiously composing. And I will soon be taking the agent-world by storm. Once moore. : )
Wish me luck.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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5 comments:
Good luck. So when can we see this query?
So in other words you didn't mention all the most interesting bits?
@lapetus999: not yet; but thanks for your eagerness :)
@stu: indeed. sad, isn't it? at the time, i thought i was giving them what they wanted. it's occurred to me only recently that i've simply given them what they must read in the bajillions every day. i left out what actually mattered.
good news? now i can do something about it :)
Best of luck with submitting your new and improved query. From the description in your post, I'm very intrigued.
@MC Higgins: that's a relief! maybe my new query has hope :P
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