Election over, Thank Goodness

Well, the election is over and I just might be able to get my mind back on my work. I will take time each day to say a prayer for this very young and inexperienced president that he surround himself with knowledgeable and experienced people and keep us as safe as we have been for the last eight years. ( And I hope people will remember that about President Bush; he did keep this country safe from attack.) That said, Obama's on his own. He wanted the job, now let's see what he will do with it.

And I want my job too--that of writing and having other people get enjoyment from my work. So I have to write. NO more excuses. I used to keep a candy jar on my computer desk and, after I wrote so many words, I would reward myself with one piece of candy. I think I'll start that again. It worked very well.

I read my query letter at critique group the other night and received many suggestions. It's hard to capture the flavor of a book in a one page letter. I know you need to describe your book in two or three sentences; if you can't then maybe you don't know what your story is about. Telling the premise and theme of the book is not enough--I did that in my letter. The group suggested that I missed out on telling about the main character's personality in that she always ends up in some kind of scrape even when she's trying to do the right thing. That's what I mean about flavor. If the book is amusing, what makes it amusing? If the book is heartrending, what makes it heartrending? So it's back to the drawing board. Yes, I will include the premise and theme (young girl thinks she can solve all problems by herself:premise and girl finds out that sharing problems makes life easier:theme) but, somehow, I have to capture the flavor of Sarah in a few lines. Query letters are harder to write than the entire book!!!!

I believe Moira Allen has a book that describes how to write a good query letter. I'll look up some others at the library and list them. All the help we can get, right?