Edit My Query Letter

Good morning, my lovelies.  I have a challenge for all of my readers, or  the ones that care to comment.  Below you will see my query letter that I hope to get out to a few literary agents this week.  Provided that my letter is actually decent.  I wrote on Escaping the Inkwell that I had a goal of submitting a couple query letters by my birthday.  Since my birthday fell on the weekend, I am fudging the actual time of letters being sent out.

Digressing some, but in regards to birthdays, think about this.  “Have you realized that your age is the number of times you’ve been around the sun?”  I read this on Tumblr earlier today.  What a motivating, exciting and well just thought provoking idea.  I’ve done my fair share of traveling having gone around the sun 31 times.  How many miles is that?  Well, in one year I travel 585 million miles.  Whew, I don’t even want to add that up.  It’s a bit astounding to think that I have ‘technically’ traveled that many miles.

Anyways, back to my query letter.  Feel free to take a harsh look at it as I will take each idea and play around with my letter.  I just need an outside opinion.  Does this make you want to read the manuscript?  If not, then I need to work on the letter.  If you would rather not leave comments, feel free to email me at  [kate_wordpress@hotmail.com]

Here goes:

Dear Blank,

I am querying you along with one other agency in the hopes that I have something to pique your interest.

When a girl loves hats as much as Lulu does, she has to have one for every occasion.  However, out of all the hats Lulu owns, she is lacking a fancy hat to wear when she goes out for ice cream on Sundays.  Lulu enlists the help of her best friend, Mimi, and the two of them scour the city looking for the perfect hat.  From large floppy hats to tiny ones that look incredibly silly, Lulu tries on everything without any luck.  Some hats are too big and others are too expensive.  Just when Lulu and Mimi are about to give up and go home, they spot one last shop they haven’t tried.  Does Lulu find her hat?  Of course! Because a girl has to have a hat for every occasion.

Lulu Buys A Hat is an unillustrated picture book complete at 1089 words, geared towards little girls, which is clear from the hat theme.  Hats are one of those quintessential items girls seem to naturally love, so I chose to write about a girl finding a hat after the experience of looking for my own hat.

I have been writing various things for 15 years, including managing two blogs, however I choose to write children’s fiction as a career, drawing from experiences in life.  I also draw on years of reading picture book at my home, grandparents, and many trips to the library.  While I want there to be the fanciful quality, I also like stories to have some realism included. Something a child can relate to when they read.

So, there you have it.  Again, I am open to any suggestion you want to give.  And thank you for taking the time to read this.

Signing off

~Kate

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Savoring Letters

I love letters. I love writing them. I love receiving them.  Letters harken back to the days when that was the only means of communication between people who lived further than a couple miles.  Why, even if you lived close you could send a note or letter because, hey, there were no phones.  Just think about any Jane Austen film, or book, and at some point someone is getting a folded, wax-sealed letter or note.  Ah yes, letters are definitely something that has still hung around despite the technological age of computers and phones.  You still write letters (type) one a computer.  They have not died.

That being said, while I love letters, I’m quite terrible at replying to them.  It’s not that I don’t want to reply, but well, I savor letters.  If someone sends me one, I read it over and over, or mull over it, or think.  The minute I start replying to a letter, I start to forget what was in the letter.  It’s like this mind emptying thing.  So I hold off on replying to letters. I’m sure people wonder if I am ever going to get back to them.  Mrs. Austen would be one that comes to mind recently. I have received several nice emails from her and a letter and I’ve yet to actually reply!  I have things started.  It’s terrible.

Letters are incredibly exciting to receive in the mail.  Actually, anything addressed to one that is not junk or a bill is fun to get in the mail.  My favorite things are letters or books. You really can’t go wrong. I think the only thing that might top it off is if someone could figure out how to send a cup of hot coffee in the mail.  That would be something.  You open your package and there is this perfect steaming cup of joe.  Ah yes.

I go all out for letters a lot of the time.  Pretty stamps, nice paper, written with a fountain pen.  Or I try to do something unique. I  just sent a friend of mine a short letter that I wrote on one half sheet of card stock, folded in thirds, and printed with the tiniest print I could manage.  He was teasing me about my small script, which I thought was relatively normal.  Apparently not.  I like doodling on margins. I like trying new different methods of writing.  I like scribbling notes in margins, though I try to avoid that.  I get my notes better than other people.

I’ve even made my own envelopes by pricking them with a pin to achieve a punched out design.  Wax seals, stickers, letters written on one sheet of paper then folded into an envelope.  I’ve tried it all.  I love having that bit of creativity on hand.  And while I do like email thing, I still savor and take forever to reply.

So, if you have written me a letter and haven’t gotten a reply recently, even if I have promised a speedy reply, don’t take it personally.  I’m still enjoying your letter.  Savoring and digesting it slowly like a really good book.   Oh, and I keep almost every letter I receive.  I have boxes and email folders, and such.

Happy Friday.  Good Friday.

Signing off

~Kate

 

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Pin Curls – Flash Fiction

Old postcard of Mount Shasta

Hello my lovlies.  (I have seen other girl bloggers use that term and it’s so cute)

As you read this, I am off to the wilds of Mount Shasta.  Okay, not actually the mountain as it is covered in snow, but the city below.  I hope it will be a sunny clear day so I might be able to snap a shot or two of the mountain.

I was puttering around with an idea so here is a smidge of flash fiction to start you off on a Monday.  A bit of back story; I love pin curls, and I love putting my hair up in pin curls.  I’ve yet to master it, in fact I usually come out looking like a cross between a poodle and a fight with an electrical socket.  Not a pretty picture.  But I do try and I hope someday I might have them tamed when I do them.  So, there I was, picturing one of my heroines, Rena Bliss, putting up her hair in pin curls.

Enjoy.

She sat at her vanity putting up her hair in pin curls.  She wore a filmy white and pale blue concoction of a summer nightgown; more slip than anything else, though everything essential was modestly covered.  Her glasses were perched o the end of her nose and she frowned intently as she carefully rolled her blond hair up, securing the curl with two bobby pins.

Milo watching in fascination as Rena sectioned and rolled.  She had this perfect set up, her brushes and combs laid out in front of her, spritz bottles of setting lotions and grooming sprays, her bobby pins and other clips in miss matched teacup saucers.  There was a little click and rattle of metal against porcelain every time Rena pulled one out of the dish, then a flash of white teeth as she pried open the pin and jammed it into the curl.  Sometimes she would stop mid curl to take a sip of tea from her pale teal polka-dot teacup.  One hand held the curl in place while the other lifted the cup to lips that were full and very pink.

Rena was pure femininity.  The movements she made, the clothes she wore, down to her pale pink fingernails, she was ultra girl.  Which was funny since country life was hardly conducive to all the girly things about her.  But that’s what made her such a fascination to Milo.  And watching her put up her hair; well that just sealed the deal. 

Pretty, flirty, and sexy as hell.  Yeah, she was a dream girl.

Signing off

~Kate

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Springtime, French, and Should I Write About It

English: Dirty Weather Over Hagg Wood Not quite the May weather I had in mind for my walk. From the path above Swinburn’s Park (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I set about to walk to town yesterday and it was a lovely walk, albeit a bit on the blustery side.  For some reason, I always manage to walk when the nastier weather is coming down the mountainside.  Yesterday was no exception.  Fortunately I had my cloche hat on, though it did require me pushing it down squarely several times due to a brisk wind.

As I walked, I had a selection of French music playing on my mp3 player.  There is something about spring, wind, rain and French music that just goes together. The old adage of springtime in Paris perhaps?  Whatever the reason, Zaz’s La Pluie was tres parfait for the moment.  I highly recommend the song.

As I walked I contemplated on how the weather was perfect for something to write about.  Have you ever noticed that right at the height of a season, you are so immersed in it that you must write about it?  And yes, even though it is right at the ‘first of spring’ we are smack dab in the middle of it.  Spring started back in February when just the start of things came out.  I’ve only come to this realization after reading Liza Dalby‘s East Wind Melts the Ice, which I commented on just the other day.

But seriously, when you are at the height of the season, you just want two immerse yourself in it and kind of wallow.  I feel that way in the summer when it’s hot and muggy, or when that summer storm comes through with all it’s ravaging brilliance of a thunderstorm.  The lightning and thunder, the oppressive moisture cloying the air and pressing down.  Or in autumn when the leaves swirl around you as you walk home.  The all consuming desire to wear plaid and eat apples while carrying a pumpkin home to carve.

Okay, it might be just me, but seasons, weather and nature are very important to me.  They impress upon me not unlike music.  It’s all very important to me and my writing.  So, now I have to add or write something about walking in the blustery weather, wearing a cloche hat and French music playing….. Funny thing, all but for the French music thing, I started something last year that highlighted some of that. I just never finished it.

Typical.

Signing off

~Kate

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Rainy Nights In The Springtime

Here I am on a rainy spring night.  Yes, it is really finally spring.  Bing is confirming it. (I had to check)  It’s one in the morning and I just had to type something.  I should be picking a picture for Wordless Wednesday, but you are going to get two posts today.

There is something kind of magical about rain on a spring night.  The freshness.  The clean mountain air where I live.  The silence that is far from silent.  The air moves differently and you can feel the change.

Right now I’m reading Liz Dalby’s East Wind Melts the Ice.  It’s a journal mixed with cultural and historical information of Japan.  It takes the Japanese calendar and breaks it down into individual weekly essays.  It’s incredibly fun to read, though I have yet to ever finish the book despite checking it out half a dozen times from the library.  It’s one of those books that’s so good you don’t want to finish it.  Ha ha, that is a really sad excuse, but it’s actually true. I’ve shied away from finishing it.

I am drinking a tepid cup of coffee, though it was hot a bit ago (black, no sugar) and I have Penny and Sparrow’s Ten Boom album playing.  Penny and Sparrow are a new band I found after seeing a post by rainydaysandblankets a Tumblr blog.  Her blog has got to be one of my most favorite to visit.  I really should do a favorites of Tumblr’s blog post.  There are some really great blogs out there.  Anyways, Penny and Sparrow is a really amazing band of two guys.  Check them out if you can.  Quite impressive in the folk-slash-rock genre.

Well, now to see what to post for Wordless.

Signing off

~Kate