NAMELESS: YA Fairytale Retelling

Title: NAMELESS

Genre: YA Fairytale Retelling

Word Count: 60,000

 

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

 

They abide in my reflection. It’s why I’ve smashed every mirror in my castle. Even then, I can’t stop myself from glimpsing them in the side of my goblet, reflecting in a darkened window, or perfectly portrayed in the enchanted mirror: my eyes. Of every aspect of my cursed, monstrous being, my eyes alone remain human. In them I see the search for love which will never be found—and that’s what scares me most.

 

Query:

 

Everyone knows his name. The soon to be king of Tasmar influences the lives of nobles and commoners alike, if not always for the best. Thinking only of himself and the perfect melodies he composes, the prince taxes his kingdom mercilessly to give himself a bit of privacy. Isolated in his forest castle, he learns just who holds the real power when he turns away an old woman—an Enchantress in disguise. Cursed to be the Beast that is the reflection of his soul, and believed dead by all who knew him, he is separated not only from his crown and shy bride-to-be, but his own identity. Refusing to associate his hideous form with his own name, the now Nameless prince has one year to earn true love, or he will die. If he can find his fiancé, Mirabelle, and help her see past the monster to the man beneath, he can be saved. However, when Mirabelle falls for another, Beast must learn not only how to let go of a love that was never meant to last, but how to find true love—if it exists.

 

Nameless is a young adult retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the Beast’s perspective. As opposed to Alex Flynn’s novel, Beastly, Nameless is set in a traditional time period with an older narrator (age 18). Unique aspects of Nameless include Beast’s younger brother, and a dream world where Beast interacts with the Enchantress who cursed him. Complete at 60,000 words, Nameless works as a stand alone novel, but is intended to be the first of The Prince Chronicles.

 

My work has been featured in Stories for Children Magazine (2009), and Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales(Wayman Publishing, 2012). My short story, Sleepless Beauty (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty) will appear in theOne More Day anthology (J. Taylor Publishing, 2013), and my story, Sweet Nothings has been accepted intoThe Chronicles of Alistair Gruff (Anassa Publications) set for a tentative 2014 publication.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

First 250 words:

 

Everyone knows my name.

 

My guests, all two hundred of them, whisper it as I glide down the grand staircase into the golden ballroom. And why shouldn’t they know my name? I am their prince, the future king of Tasmar. Exactly one year from now when I turn nineteen, I will inherit the throne.

 

The crowds converge, skirts pressing around me as thick as a rose garden. Jewels twinkle on wrists and hands as they shake mine. I note the rare Tasmarian emeralds set in Meldovian gold—gold that has been rarer since our war with Meldova, and therefore, worth twice as much. It’s pathetic how everyone hides behind their gems. Do they think it will impress me?

 

My subjects drift left and right to reveal Mirabelle. She stands, exquisite, in an elegant red gown made from Banaternian silk. It hugs her slender waist before the skirts cascade in shimmering layers of scarlet and white. Her dripping lace sleeves ripple as she shakes them away to free her hand, which she extends to me. I take it, and kiss her slender fingers. As she laughs, my fingers entwine with hers.

 

“Everyone has been waiting.” Her free hand slides up to my shoulder. Fingering my matching red vest, she offers me a coy smile. “I assume by now you’ve finished exploring your new castle? How do you like your present to yourself, my prince?” Her fingers drift up to brush the foremost prong of my bronze crown, inset with perfectly cut emeralds, each the size of my thumb.

GUSTAVE EIFFEL: Adult Historical Fiction

Title: THE SECRET WORLD OF GUSTAVE EIFFEL
Genre: Adult Historical Fiction
Word Count: 79,000

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

What Monsieur Eiffel fears most is that they will not arrive 1 May 1889. "What then?" he wonders. "What is to become of the Tour en Fer de Trois Cents Mètres, the end result of two years of our conspiratorial labors? Will it be for naught? After all, what other purpose could The Tower serve?"

Of course, based on the grim painting by Georges Seurat -- the one depicting a city afire and titled “2xMXI” -- he also fears what will transpire if they do arrive 1 May 1889.

Query:

No structure on Earth is more intimately tied to a city than the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. Rising more than 1,000 feet above the Champ de Mars is a marriage of 18,000 pieces of iron and 7,000,000 rivets. When plans for the Tour en Fer de Trois Cents Mètres—the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair—went public, it was universally derided. Why did the renowned and respected engineer Gustave Eiffel risk his reputation, not to mention his personal fortune, in the face of such overwhelming adversity?

Because of eight thunderous notes from Beethoven’s signature symphony, known to the world, but understood by a select few:

Ba-ba-ba-bummmmmm
Ba-ba-ba-bummmmmm

And five words:

we arrive 1 may 1889.

First 250 words: 

Ba-ba-ba-bummmmmm
Ba-ba-ba-bummmmmm

The eight notes, known throughout the civilized world, but known only for what they purported to be rather than what they truly were, rained across the sky. A single tear of joy traced down his cheek and disappeared into his now-grey beard.

“Ils sont arrivés. They’re here. It is time,” he wheezed.

He struggled to stand, to raise himself from the chair, so that he might make his way over to the window to see, to see it with his own eyes.

“Will the docking be successful? Will they latch? I hope I understood the design specifications, interpreted them correctly,” he said aloud. “They seemed complete, robust. Clearly, their engineers possessed exemplary skills. Still, nonetheless, they drafted them relying on an uncertain level of understanding of our language, not to mention our newly adopted metric standards. I suppose we shall see if they managed to overcome these challenges.”

He collapsed back into the chair. His 91-year-old body had grown too weak, too feeble. So he would not be witness to the crowning achievement of his life’s work. But he had succeeded. He knew he had.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel smiled and closed his eyes for the final time...

THE NINE: Adult Steampunk Fantasy

Title: THE NINE
Genre: Adult Steampunk Fantasy
Word Count: 125,000

My Main Character’s Greatest Fear: 

Rowena Downshire can only count on herself. Mama's stuck raving in debtor’s prison, five hundred sovereigns from her freedom. Rowena's years of running black market deliveries have trimmed down the debt, but deep in her empty belly, she's terrified she’ll be collared for smuggling before earning Mama back. And that’s assuming she can survive her employer’s brutal hand and salacious gaze. Rowena fears admitting to the dread that hounds her every day. If she does, she’s already lost.

Query:

Dear Agent:

After seven years as an “apprentice courier,” thirteen-year-old Rowena Downshire has carried danger under her tattered coat dozens of times. But when her next burden is a book that writes itself, Rowena’s filthy hands hazard far more than a constable’s cuffs.

They carry the fate of humanity.

Corma is a city of iron and steam, its sooty streets a maze Rowena runs for a smuggler who pays her in beatings as often as sovereigns. For years, she’s struggled to settle the debt that condemned her mother to Oldtemple prison, praying against Reason for a bit clink, and a lot of luck.

A different fortune finds Rowena when a harried scholar thrusts his research text into her hands, desperate to evade the killers pursuing its secrets. This book records the lives of the Nine: the ultimate subjects of the Creator’s Grand Experiment, the unsuspecting souls whose actions will determine humanity’s deliverance or doom. Access to unspeakable knowledge entangles Rowena in a ruthless nobleman’s scheme to derail divine judgment. Now a witness to a dangerous conspiracy, her final wage may be the steel slipped in her back.

To survive, Rowena must find allies. Cracking the courage to put herself in another’s hands proves harder than jimmying the locks of Oldtemple – yet suspicion is a luxury she can no longer afford.

Not when the noose readied for Rowena will do more than tie up a loose end.

Not when the book reveals her name among the Nine.

THE NINE is a 125,000 word fantasy novel with a clockwork heart, steam soul, and series potential. I hold a Master’s in Writing and teach creative writing and science fiction/fantasy literature at an elite public boarding school. 

Thank you for your consideration.

First 250:

Rowena Downshire fixed the lanyani with her best glare, not even regarding the stack of coin it had placed in her palm. She knew by its weight it was shy three sovereigns, and that was difference enough in clink to earn a solid whack of Ivor’s hawthorn. The lanyani, its wooden face as rutted as old oak, blinked at her with white, irisless eyes.

“You’re short,” Rowena said, loudly and slowly, translating to half-wit. “The deal was sixteen. I en’t come two miles getting chewed to bits to leave with less than what’s due.”

She hadn’t let go of the vervet’s cage yet, either, though she wished the little beast would stop worrying at her hand under the shearling cover. The lanyani leaned for the cage, willow-whip hands sweeping wide.

Rowena danced backward, out from under the gypsy’s fringed tent and out of its reach. She ignored the curse of a costermonger whose foot she trod, though she did look up at him just to be sure he wasn’t a Constable. He spat by her boot and lifted his barrow of soft, waxy apples, wheeling off to some other corner of the Shipman’s Bazaar.

Rowena turned back to the lanyani.

“Three more clink, or no little rat,” she said. Slowly, she edged closer, the little rectangular cage clutched against her chest.

The lanyani did not speak its reply; the long drought of the summer and the cold air of autumn had left it brittle and slow, the curled remnants of a once-leafy pate drifting to the ground with every movement.

DARCY DARKLING: MG Urban Fantasy

Title: DARCY DARKLING AND THE FORGOTTEN CITY
Genre: MG urban fantasy
Word Count: 45,000

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

I don't like the sun, or the moon, or my city with its high walls, so I live for the moments I can escape into the darkness of the underground. It's the best place ever, and my worst fear is that I'll get caught and not be
able to go back. I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of losing the dark.

I mean, the creatures with their howls and snapping jaws… they're kind of freaky and all (don't tell them I said that) but they won't stop me from going back. You'll see.

Query:

Twelve-year-old Darcy is bored of her city, with its high walls, fake grass and a whole lot of sameness. That is, until she finds a secret tunnel leading to an abandoned underground city. Every night she sneaks away to explore more of the winding tunnels and empty streets of The Forgotten City.

Her very own secret.

The underground seems empty at first, but the creatures who live in the dark don't appreciate a little girl poking her nose in their business. They don't trust the "sun-dwellers," a.k.a. humans. But Darcy refuses to stay away. She belongs to the dark, whether they like it or not.

When the creatures push her too far, Darcy gets lost in the labyrinth of tunnels and doesn't make it home by sun up. Now the humans know she's missing and they're coming after her—into the underground.

Because of Darcy, the forgotten race of goblins will come face to face with humans for the first time in two hundred years. An old feud turns into a fight over a girl who belongs nowhere and everywhere at once. Half human, half goblin.

First 250 words:

The best place in the whole world is a mile below my feet.

Damp sludge drips from the stone walls of the underground tunnels, surrounded by darkness so thick it's like a living, breathing thing. There are new adventures everywhere. Every turn is a new secret waiting to be uncovered.

Too bad I'm not supposed to go there, and if I was ever caught I'd be a lot worse than grounded. So right now I'm stuck above ground, in my boring apartment, doing my boring homework just waiting until I can sneak back to the tunnels.

No one can keep me away, not even Mom.

“Darcy!” Mom calls.

“What? I’m doing my homework, just like you said.”

She walks into my room carrying a pair of muddy tennis shoes. “Explain to me how these got so dirty.”

Whoops. She wasn't supposed to find those.

I shrug, playing it off. “I was playing bee with Joe.”

“Bee?”

I hold up a Frisbee. Lucky for me it’s got some dirt on it too. Otherwise she might suspect I’m not telling
the truth.

“Leave it to you to find the only dirt in the whole city."

Here we go.

"Why do you think they did away with those parks I played in as a kid? They were dangerous. Stick to the
astro-turf, okay?"

She says it so serious that I can't help but roll my eyes. Astro-turf is just a stupid name for fake grass.
Seriously, a little dirt isn’t going to hurt me.

LOGIN: YA Spec-Fic/Adventure

Title: LOGIN
Genre: YA Spec-Fic/Adventure
Word Count: 82,500

My Main Character's Greatest Fear:

I wanted to live so badly, I let my parents die. I said I would never let anyone else be hurt because of me, but I’m being hunted now, and in my unending selfishness, I’ve allowed Kyran to run away with me. If he dies too, I don’t know if I can handle it. I already live with guilt. My greatest fear is having weight added to that guilt.

Query:

My novel LOGIN is a YA spec-fic/adventure, complete and standalone at 82,500 words (with series potential).

Technology is no longer just a part of life; it’s a part of the population.

Z-Tech produces everything from diapers, to the babies who wear them. Several generations have passed since Z-Tech first started selling Customized Children: humans genetically personalized, and physically integrated with technology. These cyborgs are now the majority, and natural-births are not only rare, they are illegal. Z-Tech owns exclusive rights to human life.

Sixteen-year-old Fayten Lena can’t stand the vacant stares of Customized Children. Fake eyes connect them to the web, the world, and each other, but sometimes Fayten wonders if cyborgs ever see what’s going on right in front of them. As a Natural-Born, Fayten is unable to use technology. Denied most basic privileges, she’s not protected by the government, and when her parents pay the ultimate price for infringing on Z-Tech’s copyright, Fayten is completely unprepared for life on her own. The world is full of black-market slavers, and vigilantes who prey on evolutionary throwbacks like Fayten. But the people hunting her now are far more dangerous. Fayten couldn’t possibly have inherited a code capable of halting Z-Tech’s global invasions, but that won’t stop Z-Tech from trying to take her down.

Along with Kyran, a tough young man with shady connections, a stubborn personality, and a complicated sense of loyalty; and Rian, a shy hacker who can literally get in the heads of his fellow Customized; Fayten must find a way to stay alive, protect a code she doesn’t even believe she has, and save a foreign country from Z-Tech’s corporate takeover.

First 250 words:

I’d woken with a jolt early this morning, peacekeepers beating on my door. I thought we still had one more day, but my parents’ Grace Period to raise me was over. They had prepared me for much, but not this—how could they? While a Customized would be thinking about blowing out candles on their sweet-sixteen, I was at the Judgment Building, trying to decide which of my parents to feed to the flame. Before I’d be allowed to leave the balcony room above the Pit, I’d have to choose which of my parents would die for me.

I dug my nails into the pale skin of my arm, not removing them until they left deep marks. I couldn’t really feel any pain. It was vague, a distant sting to a nervous system that no longer belonged to me. My consciousness seemed to float above my body, but it couldn’t escape, and neither could I. I remembered how I used to wake screaming when I was a little girl, plagued by guilt over a choice I hadn’t made yet. Now that that choice was before me, I was too numb to feel anything.

My counselor tapped her clipboard with long fingernails. She was sitting somewhere behind me, reminding me that she was still there—and that I was still wasting her time—every few minutes when she shifted the order of her crossed legs.

After a long silence she prodded me yet again, “Fayten? It’s been another hour.”

RAGDOLL: YA Dark Contemporary

Title: RAGDOLL

Genre: YA Dark Contemporary

Word Count: 53,000

My Main Character’s Greatest Fear:

I fear my antique dolls. How they come to life in the shattered moonlight, creep across my bedroom floor, and whisper aged-torn secrets meant to stay buried. They slip up walls and bang, bang, bang their heads on my metal bed frame. I cover my ears to drown their terrible sounds, but their sounds come from within me – sorrowful, loud, and mocking. Somehow their voices blend with mine, and oh god, it’s driving me crazy.

Query:

Sixteen-year-old Jasmyn Rayne isn’t the only one writing in her Diary Dearest. Her other personalities are, too. And one is doing it in blood.

Jasmyn received the diary from Mother to ease her troubled mind, but she can't trust the soft spoken trickster who gave her to sadistic strangers as a child. They raped her more times than she can remember, and now pain and self-loathing are cancers that eat away at her soul. Jasmyn finds her only remedy at the edge of needles and razor-blades. However, when she gives into the ecstasy of tearing her flesh, she loses her hold on reality and writes in her diary from the perspective of ancestors that mimic her heirlooms: a loving slave doll and a bitter porcelain doll. One yearns to heal her emotional scars, and the other begs her to cut a little deeper.

As Jasmyn struggles to forgive her cold and distant mother, she turns to someone who has dark secrets of his own – her best friend’s older brother. His relentless pursuit and charming smile seems to ease Jasmyn’s nightmarish past and insane present. But if Jasmyn doesn’t start seeing things for what they really are, her sanity will crumble even more, and her porcelain-doll-personality may just get its death wish.

Eerily enough, Jasmyn’s only hope may lie within the blood-drenched pages of her diary.

RAGDOLL, a YA dark contemporary, is complete at 53,000 words. It is written in diary format and multiple POV between Jasmyn and her two doll personalities. It will appeal to readers of Laurie Halse Anderson’s WINTERGIRLS and Nova Ren Suma’s IMAGINARY GIRLS. 

I’ve studied creative writing at Northland Pioneer College and am an active member of SCBWI. Recently, I made it to the top 60 in Brenda Drake’s Pitch Madness contest and am the sole winner of Mike Anthony’s mini-contest for short stories.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

First 250 Words:

ragdoll

i crinkle to life when her blood spills.

i move in red and breath.

she don't see me as i truly am and she don't know that i see,

everything.

i am her childhood doll.

i seen since we first found each otha’.

she was four.

that be twelve years ago.

i been ‘round lots longer.

i don't know how long.

i only remember the smell of smoke and turpentine,

the taste of oiled cinnamon,

the feel of hard straw and needle pinch as it sewed on each stitch of mouth and coarse yarn hair.

i didn't have to see to know it flamed red.

it was a long and painful process.

creation always is.

the nimble strength and rough tenderness in my maker's hands taught me everything

i needed to know

'bout love.

my button eyes were sewn on last.

i saw my maker.

old and weathered, battered by time, her skin dark chocolate, and her eyes rheumatic.

she saw me smile and smiled in return, patting my stuffed arms and legs.

she’ll need you, she whispered in a voice i recognized as my own.

i travelled great distances, through many hands and lives,

none of ‘em right for me,

to find the girl who needs me most,

the one my creator created me for.

Friday, October 31^st

My dolls haunt me. They jump inside me and make me write things I don’t want to write. Things I don’t need to remember. I try to ignore them, but it doesn't do any good. 

My Favorite Books

I just wanted to take a minute to share some of my favorite books. These books are the reason I'm a writer and they inspire me in all my writerly endeavors. What are some of your favorite books? What are books that inspire you?

Hi Batman!

Every writer is Batman, NOT Superman

We are not born with literary super strength or the ability to leap 120k word books in a single bound. We can't fly directly to an agent's desk and wow her with our manly (or womanly) physique and strong jawbone. Nope, no laser vision either (though I'm not sure why we would need that in the first place). 

We do, however, have a f**king AWESOME utility belt. We have big brains and the drive to challenge the odds. We have grappling hooks to pull us out of the depths of depression or frustration. We don armor that makes us (mostly) bulletproof. Each of us has a team of Alfreds and Robins, advising us, encouraging us, protecting us, and fighting for us. Our talent isn't a product of genetics or selective breeding. We had to exercise our brains and work hard for our abilities. 

And though a writer can still kick butt without a utility belt, I want to focus on the perks of having that belt, and the gadgets that I keep in mine.

• AgentQueryConnect: By far the best tool in my belt. AQC provides a community that a serious writer can't live without. From query crits to a shoulder to cry on when you make a stupid mistake, this is writer paradise.

• QueryTracker: Sending out queries takes A LOT of organization and research. QT brings almost all of the info to a single, well organized location. And to top it all off it Tracks the Queries you send...whoda thunk.

• Twitter: Following agents, agencies, and other writers on Twitter will guarantee you stay up to date on any and all writerly news. New agents, contests, agents closing/opening to submissions, agent wishlists, answers to FAQs, who sold what to where...all that and more can be found on Twitter.

• Reddit: Also known as the Front Page of the Internet, Reddit is a lesser known writing resource though it has some exceptional advice when it comes to writing, publishing, self-publishing, marketing, etc. Not only that, but there are numerous writer interviews (called Ask Me Anythings or AMAs), explaining writer's mistakes, successes, and everything in between. You DO have to dig a bit to find the info, but it's there. And here's proof, and more proof, and an AMA

• Absolute Write: Great info, great forums. Very helpful in doing research on the reputation of agents and agencies. Any time I'm researching an agent, this is the first place I check.

• Preditors and Editors: A very large list of agents, agencies, publishers, and even lawyers. They let you know whether they charge fees (always avoid these agents) or if there is/was any funny business going on in the past or present. The site gives you a very clear 'Not Recommended', 'Recommended', or 'Highly Recommended' next to most agent's names. Also, alphabetized.

If you have any more 'secret weapons' to add to the list, mention them in the comments below and I'll update the post. The above sites are just the sites in my bookmark bar utility belt. :D

Mike's Monsters!!!!!!!!

ARE YOU READY QUERIERS!

ARE YOU READY?

The submission window opens at 12 noon (EST) on SATURDAY, October 19th! The window will close at 8pm or when we receive 100 entries, so please send early, but not before 12 noon. Early entries will be deleted.

We are accepting all age categories and genres, excluding picture books and exotica. Despite the title of the contest, your book does not have to be horror.

Michelle, Mike, and SC will make ten picks each for their teams, and those ten picks will go up on our blogs from October 25th through the 27th, where agents will make requests! Check the NINE agents to see if they accept your genre.  

To participate, you have to be following all our blogs (Michelle, Mike, and SC).

The Format:

Send your one and only submission to nightmareonquerystreet (at) yahoo (dot) com. Only one submission per email address or person is allowed.

Here's how it should be formatted (yes, include the bolded and everything!) Please use Times New Roman (or equivalent), 12 pt font, and put spaces between paragraphs. No indents or tabs are needed. No worries if your gmail doesn't have Times New Roman. 

Subject Line: NOQS: TITLE, Age Category + Genre 

(example: NOQS: PYGMY HAZARDS, MG Fantasy)

In The Email:

Title: MY FANTASTIC BOOK (yes, caps!)

Genre: YA dystopian (Age category and genre. YA/MG is not a genre.)

Word Count: XX,XXX

My Main Character's Greatest Fear: 

My MC fears potatoes. (Can be in your MC's POV, but doesn't have to be. 100 words or less.)

Query:

Here is my fantastic query! Include it all, even the bio, greeting, closing.

First 250 words:

Here are the first 250 words of my manuscript, and I will not end in the middle of a sentence, even if I hit 259 words :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conformation emails will be sent. If you don't get one, ask one of us on twitter. Submissions will cut off after 100 entries. We'll announce closure of submissions on twitter.

Again, the picks will go live on October 25th. You'll have to check the blogs to see if you are part of Mike's Monsters, Michelle's Minions, or SC's Spooks.

Please do not comment on the entries! No cheerleading this time. 

Agents will:

scream for a full request

shriek for 50 pages

Shiver for 10 pages

Good luck!  

Feel free to leave questions in the comments or on twitter.

Nightmare on Query Street Agent Request Info

Has your query ever made anyone scream?

I'm afraid too many of us would say yes, thinking, I'm sure, to their first versions of that letter. Well, if you enter Nightmare on Query Street you want people to scream. And when I say people, I mean our agents. Because what's more fun than a little fear? And this contest crew lives for fun!

Not only will you need to make us feel your main character's greatest FEAR, you'll have to inspire our agents to scream ... with delight! 

Agents will:

scream for a full request

shriek for 50 pages

Shiver for 10 pages

The rules of Nightmare on Query Street are here and the agents are here. So get those queries scream worthy and Mike, SC, and I will see you on October 19th.

What I Live For: Success Stories.

The reason we do these contests is because of moments like this. Moments when stars align, luck is had, and the day all writers hope for isn't near or just around the corner, but here and now. I'm happy elated to share the success story of Melissa Grey, author of the story I will always remember as Burrito Thief.

________________________________

Querying is hard. And if you don’t think that querying is an intensely difficult process (emotionally, spiritually, grammatically), then there is a very good chance you’re doing it wrong. Or you’re extremely lucky, but let’s be honest . . . the former is far more likely.

When I finally reached the point where I felt that my book (now titled FEATHERS AND FLAME, coming from Delacorte/Random House in spring 2015) was ready to be seen by agents, I had completed seven distinct drafts of the manuscript. By the time I had the same level of confidence in my query letter, I’d written over a dozen very different versions of it. The query letter is your first impression with agents, and I knew that if I lost their interest before they’d even reached my sample pages, I was already sunk.

When I learned about Query Kombat on Twitter, I’d just about run out of friends with fresh eyes that I could assault with my letter. Armed with draft #12 and a nifty nickname for my manuscript (Burrito Thief), I submitted my entry, feeling like I had it in the bag. I’d done well in other contests and I assumed I was on a roller coaster than only went up.

Oh, what a sweet summer child I was.

While I did make it into the first round of Query Kombat, I advanced no further. I was knocked out of the competition by a cleverly crafted pitch that snagged the audience’s imagination in a way that mine hadn’t. Draft #12 wasn’t nearly as strong as I believed it to be. I was disappointed, but not dejected.

You see, the point of a competition like Query Kombat isn’t winning. It’s improving.

My query letter was critiqued by well over a dozen people with varying levels of experience in publishing. Certain complaints popped up more than once, which should be a massive red flag to any writer, while other comments proved less than helpful (it must be said that not all feedback is worthwhile). Notes in hand, I attacked draft #12 with a stunning ferocity. I hacked away at the words until they began to resemble something coherent. Something intriguing. Something you could read on the back cover of a book. And then I kept hacking away at them some more. And when all was said and done, I held up draft #13 like Rafiki cradling a baby Simba. It was done.

I took my new and improved query letter into the trenches and within a month, I had six offers of representation to my name. And in every conversation I had with potential agents, the strength of the query letter was mentioned. If it hadn’t been for Query Kombat, let me tell you, that letter would have been a hot mess. In August, I signed with the wonderful Catherine Drayton of InkWell Management, and by the end of September, FEATHERS AND FLAME had gone to auction (if you think waiting to hear back on query letters is bad, just wait until you’re out on submission).

So, next time Query Kombat rolls around, if you’re laboring over your own letter, I strongly encourage you to enter. Honestly, I cannot recommend it enough. You and your query writing skills will be so much better for it. And remember, it isn’t about the thrill of victory. It’s about the (occasional agony) of improving.

_______________________________

Melissa Grey is a writer, teapot collector, and scented candle enthusiast. To read more about her path to publication or listen to her ramble on about The Golden Girls and caramel squares, head on over to Twitter (@meligrey) or Tumblr (http://www.melissa-grey.com).