The Query Letter

The Query Letter

I think I have spent nearly as much time on this one-page letter as I have on the whole novel. It is the short version of your story meant to hook an agent into reading the novel. It is difficult to condense a 400 page book down to one page. Most agents and editors suggest no more than 250 words. I would appreciate any ideas or questions that might help me refine this. Does the following pique your interest (if you don’t like fantasy novels, your opinion isn’t as valuable, sorry) or do you need more information? What questions do you need answered before you would be willing to read the book to find the answers?

The Devoted of Imshalel

Shannon values her hard-won independence from her judgmental, critical family and a dead marriage but falls for Ian, a member of the centuries-old, concealed society of the Devoted, and is asked to tie her fate to theirs as Imshalel, the woman they protect while she fulfills her destiny to sow seeds of environmental balance. 108,000 words, The Devoted of Imshalel is a contemporary fantasy. 

Shannon meets Ian’s friends, Lee, Liu, and Fael on the isolated island of the Devoted and fights a disconcerting connection. The Devoted attribute foresight and the ability to sway minds to her—intuition and a regrettable compulsion to control, to her thinking. Informed Imshalel marries multiracial husbands to ensure the diversity of her children who, as adults, further their mother’s work amongst various cultures, Shannon decides to fail the test for Imshalel, the Imperiatu. The two-story cube, however, enthralls and pulls her into fulfilling its tasks of strategy, courage, and endurance. She acknowledges her love for Ian and his friends who have swiftly become essential to her well-being. For their sakes, she agrees to be Imshalel. Accepting the unearned reverence of the Devoted and Imshalel’s destiny is the iffier proposition.

The Devoted pray that Imshalel accepts her gifts and their help to protect her and her children from men thwarted by her husbands, during Devoted human-relief missions, from exploiting people devastated by natural or manmade disasters, foes who plot to use Imshalel in retaliation.

The Girl Books

The Girl Books

Since the great popularity of Gone Girl and the accompanying movie, book titles with the word girl in them have been popping out with predictable regularity. Now with the popularity of The Girl on the Train and its movie, I suspect the trend will continue for at least a while yet. Both books revolve around the disappearance of a woman and the ensuing investigation, which centers on their romantic partners. The characters in both are unsympathetic, bringing their problems on themselves to a large extent. The main character on The Girl on the Train, however, grew on me about halfway through the book. I found the story slow and difficult to become invested in before that point.

Gone Girl was better written, but I didn’t enjoy it. I only finished it because of its popularity. I wanted to see what the public finds worth buying. I have to admit that the murder mystery isn’t my favorite genre, even though one of this book’s twists—one I found obvious—was that the missing woman was not murdered. Unfortunately, I didn’t like her or the accused husband well enough to care how the story turned out, a second twist I found obvious, though there were lesser twists I didn’t see beforehand. Considering the book’s sales, it must be me.

The Girl on the Train seemed to tell a lot of the story—how the character felt, why they felt that way—rather than show it through action, which writing experts warn is the mark of an amateur. They obviously can’t always predict the readers’ tastes. The movie is getting very good reviews and I wonder if the movie is driving the sale of the book, which reads somewhat like a script. This may be the rare case, such as The Prince of Tides, when the movie is better than the book. I haven’t seen either of the girl movies.

The characters in The Girl on the Train made poor choices and did stupid things but it came from personal traumas rather than the nastiness or selfishness central to the characters in Gone Girl, so let the reader feel bad for their predicaments.

One final word on The Prince of Tides—Nick Nolte deserved his Oscar nomination and Barbra Streisand deserved more credit for turning a mediocre book into a wonderful movie.

Unintentional Firestorm

Unintentional Firestorm

I posted a question last week about Trump and Billy Bush’s conversation about women that had nothing to do with the political campaign and received a firestorm of comments, most from supporters of Trump, defending him and accusing Hillary of a gamut of offenses ranging from corruption, to replacing religious symbols with Satanic ones in the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency, to Hillary ordering people who got in her way to be murdered.

I prefer facts to conspiracy theories—theory defined as assumptions, speculation about the nature of something. If these accusations are factual, why has Hillary never been indicted? What great power does this one family possess that has let her consistently survive every investigation brought by Republicans and a number of Democrats and evade the voracious media, always on the hunt for rating-boosting stories? Does that mean liberals and Democrats who support Hillary are smarter, more powerful than the rest of the country? I don’t buy that anyone could get away with so much under that kind of microscope.

Media Bias

I’ve heard many Trump supporters say, “Judge by the issues, not personality,” and then go on to list all of Hillary’s flaws. They and Trump also say the media is in a conspiracy to get her elected. Really? So why has every charge leveled against her been on the news and fodder for talk shows? I agree on one point about the dramatized campaign-coverage bullets—don’t listen to them.

I don’t need to hear what Democrats, Hillary, or the media say about Trump. I’ve heard immature, hurtful, and unstable words come out of his own mouth. His viewpoint is not what I consider healthy for the country. I respect people who disagree out of good conscience and don’t consider them racists, etc. That kind of hyper rhetoric is worse than useless.

Whoever Wins

Since I dislike it when people try to whitewash the mistakes or behavior of the candidate of their choice, I won’t do it either. I voted for Kasich in the primary and would have voted for him in the election if he’d become the Republican candidate. I am not blind to Hillary’s shortcomings or deaf to the accusations. I do, however, prefer her vision of the country’s future to Trump’s. There’s no need to elaborate on her policies. Everyone has heard them.

Mostly I hope, no matter who wins, the public can join together to monitor and insist that the promises made are kept. Not to downplay Christian sensibilities on the issues, but if you believe the Bible is God’s word, read Romans 13: 1-7—a hard mandate and perhaps God’s way of saying you can trust Him to watch over you, so don’t be dismayed by politics or politicians.  

The Debate--Two Questions

Two Questions

I watched last night’s presidential debate with the thought to talk about it today. Truthfully, I can’t think of much to say that hasn’t already been beaten to death in the media except for two things. I find it interesting that the backlash from Donald Trump’s stupidity on that bus has been centered on him alone. There were two men talking. Why does no one berate Billy Bush?

I have seen the talk-show host on NBC’s Today’s Take lately, though I didn’t know who he was. I don’t see him on the show this morning and have no idea if he was a temporary cohost or if his part in that tape has lost him a job. I turned it on halfway through and obviously am not a constant watcher of the show.

I found the last question in the debate fascinating. An audience member asked, “What one positive thing can you say about your opponent?” The first thing I thought about was the safe answer of saying that the other candidate had done a good job of raising his or her kids or kid. Hilary was allowed to go first and took that easy out. Donald’s answer was typical Donald—gut reaction without giving much thought to editing. Saying that Hilary was a fighter and never gave up was complimentary and counter to what he said about her never accomplishing anything. Considering the temperament of Congress these days, one might think that’s what we need to get something done.

Political Overload

There is one debate to go and I doubt it will make much difference to the election. I know last night’s didn’t. Nothing new or particularly enlightening surfaced. The debates haven’t been as entertaining as I hoped. I cynically didn’t expect much else to come from them. As is probably true with most of us, I have political fatigue. I’m sick of all the empty words, all the nasty ads, and the public’s nasty social-media reactions.

Honestly, I doubt who sits as President is all that important. We can always be rid of him or her in four years. Do we really want change? If so, why have we voted in the same Senators and Congressman year after year? They are the people who draft and pass or squash laws, vote for or against nominees to government posts and decide budgets for public services.

The Third Question

So I guess there should be a third question. Voter turnout for local elections tends to be minimal. That’s where political responsibility starts. We can be overloaded by political nonsense, cynical that anything will ever change, etc., but if we just check out and don’t fulfil our responsibilities as citizens to be however informed we can manage and vote, do we have the right to bitch?

Hormonal Rage

Hormonal Rage

One doctor who wrote about menopause said that when women have emotional highs and lows during perimenopause—the time before menopause when the hormones start to change—it is usually because of unresolved issues. I believe it can also simply be hormones driving you crazy. I finally reached the technical milestone of menopause—one year without a period. Took over ten years to get there.

I read that symptoms such as heart palpitations and forgetting words are common during this aging process and usually resolve after menopause is reached. The palpitations have eased dramatically for me but not what my husband calls the brain farts. Since he has them as well, I’m more inclined to think it is a symptom of aging for everyone.

I am especially grateful to no longer feel the rage that plagued me for probably a couple of years, and I don’t mean being pissed. I mean seeing red, want to tear someone’s head off rage. Since the level of rage remained the same from real issues to any little thing to nothing in particular and it stopped on its own without medication or therapy, I know unresolved issues were not the underlying cause. I also don’t miss the mild depression that usually accompanied PMS, the headaches, or the joint pain.  

Embarrassing Myself

For the most part, I managed to contain my behavior when in one of these rages, though I’m sure I sent a few over-the-top comments on religious or judgmental Facebook posts. I don’t remember the exact topic I discussed with a cousin of mine, something to do with biblical teachings, where she suggested reacting with kindness, probably, reading between the lines, meaning self-restraint.

I self-righteously proclaimed that I would continue to call out any hypocrisy whenever I saw it or something to that effect. Embarrassing now. I hope she’ll overlook it. She’s a few years younger than I am and has perhaps been through the process. I’ll have to ask how her experience has been.

Owning Your Experience

Some women use hormone replacement therapy to ease themselves through this transition. I wasn’t comfortable with the possible side effects and let nature take its course. I had hot flashes, most often in the late evening before bedtime. I’ve heard that some women find them unbearable. Fortunately, I did not and they have mostly dissipated.

Whatever your experience, don’t let anyone else tell you what it should or should not be. I knew one woman who had no sympathy for women who had symptoms. She believed, since she experienced none, that it was a matter of mind over matter. Don’t believe it. Your experience is real. Pay attention to your body, consult a gynecologist by all means, listen to advice, and decide what will be the best way for you to handle this life change. And lend a sympathetic ear to your fellow sisters.