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 Well, I'm ready to go the next step. After 36 years of writing, I've decided that I could use some help getting my work recognized and distributed so I'm in the hunt for a literary agent. My local guild is having an literary agent at their fall conference, so I decided to get the jump on them and apply now. I figure, if they are going to the conference then they are actively recruiting and there will no better time to introduce myself.
With the Soul Eclipse Trilogy my sole focus (no pun intended), I looked at their requirements: query letter, synopsis, and first 2 chapters. That seemed easy enough until I started writing the synopsis. The query letter wasn't too bad, but summing up the storyline? Whew! Nightmare. I must have spent nearly 3 hours on the task and I'm still not sure if I've sold it. I let my 16 yo daughter review it and she thought it made Lakshmi Rising sound intriguing, but she's biased.
I would like to recommend a website that provided examples of selling queries and synopses. It's a romance author's site, so her examples are schewed towards romance examples, but I was still able to use it. For the synopsis, check out www.charlottedillon.com/synopsis.html. For the query letters, check out http://www.charlottedillon.com/query.html. As I said, her examples are ones that sold books so you won't be working from bum materials.
P.S. Since writing this two days ago (it took me a couple days to get this article ready), I've discovered a renewed vigor and determination to finish my book and I have to directly accredit it to having a concrete goal. Soooooo, I'd have to say that perhaps, what I've most lacked over the past few years has been a concrete goal.
Would you like to see mine? Hmmm. I'm almost afraid to show it, but...oh well. If it doesn't take, you'll have an example of what NOT to do.
Query Letter
Dear....
I’m currently working on a fantasy trilogy I’ve tentatively entitled, “Soul Eclipse.” The series loosely builds on Hindu and Mesopotamian mythologies. The great triune goddess Shakti was viciously torn apart by her grandson Marduk thousands of years ago, her blood and body parts flung into the heavens. He was confident her destruction was complete. In time, Marduk like so many other deities before and after him, lost power and influence, sending him to sleep in the dust…until the ripples of Shakti’s consciousness jolted him awake.
In the first novel, Lakshmi Rising, Shakti’s incarnation Lakshmi, reacts to her mother’s call, but she’s not whole. Without her memories, she’s weak and vulnerable—an easy target for a maddened god like Marduk to slay. Vishnu, an incarnation of Brahman, and once-upon-a-time consort of Lakshmi, desperately tracks her across the planet to restore her power and memories, but other forces are at work. In the mortal realm, civil war threatens the island kingdom of Hastinapura where Vishnu finally tracks Lakshmi. In the spirit realm, immortals begin aligning and choosing sides.
Will the soul eclipse kill them all? Or will it bring the universe back into its original harmony? Neither gods nor mortals can know the intentions of Shakti. Neither gods nor mortals can stop her once she’s become whole.
I’ve been writing for over 36 years, perfecting the craft. I’ve published two novels and five nonfiction through iUniverse but I would like to reach a greater audience. For that I need an agent who believes in me and my stories. I’m no longer writing nonfiction, but I use a great deal of the research and knowledge I acquired from those books to write science fiction/fantasy novels. History, mythos and legends provide the diverse and rich background from which I most enjoy drawing storylines.
I truly believe I can be a success in this field if given the opportunity. I’d love to talk to you and see what you think about my writing.
Sincerely,
Synopsis
A Soul Eclipse Novel by Marla Vendret
The Mesopotamian dominion is in an uproar, the godstream buzzing with angry, fearful voices. Shakti was supposed to be dead. Her blood littered the sky with stars and her severed limbs reached into new galaxies. How could her voice be stirring the cosmos, calling out for her incarnations to return? Reintegrating her daughters would decimate the galaxy, perhaps irreparably destroy the universe. Who could possibly stop her?
Marduk. He’d killed his grandmother once. He’d kill her again…once he regenerated his flagging energies.
Lakshmi, an incarnation of Shakti, has no memories. For as long as she can recall, she has swam as a dolphin in the oceans of Viakuntha, replenishing and restoring damaged ocean habitats and beaches. That changes when Shakti strikes her with a powerful jolt of energy. Pelican and sea gulls fall to the ground around her, writhing, their forms shifting. Terrified, she flees back into the ocean, but not before recognizing Vishnu, the pelican-man.
Years later, Lakshmi leaves her watery refuge for good. She no longer feels emotionally capable of restoring the oceans to their pristine condition; not when a hated trawler stayed on her trail, plundering the ocean wherever she went. Admitting defeat—that she was giving up—was excruciating, but no worse than seeing everything she did destroyed.
Uncertain and wary, she shifts into human form and seeks a new life on land. Before morning comes, she’s under the protection of a local ruffian and petty thug.
When Vishnu watched Lakshmi dive under the ocean’s waves, he knew. Though his memories were spotty, he knew she was his purpose. Her energy signature lured him like an exotic perfume promising untold delights. He was incapable of resisting her. Abandoned on the beachfront without even a stitch of clothing, Vishnu struggled to survive so that he could find her again. For that, he’d need resources and transportation—both readily available on the hated trawlers—but he knew something they needed: the best hunting grounds in an increasingly empty ocean. They struck a deal.
In the meantime, Marduk recruited unwilling minions to his side. Minions who had knowledge he needed. They had found a lost god and were stealing his expended energies—a crime punishable by genocide of the entire chameleon race. Marduk had a better purpose for them. Blackmail sent them back to Viakuntha with renewed purpose and vigor. Residual energies? Fah! They could take it all, with none the wiser. So they attacked.
Vishnu was drained dry, his regenerative energies siphoned off, with a portion funneled Marduk’s way. In one act, he’d ended Vishnu’s ability to aid Lakshmi, empowered himself, and began rebuilding his immortal forces. Too bad for Vishnu it turned him into a perpetual banquet for demons.
Too bad for Marduk that Vishnu eventually escaped.
Years of demonic torture left him too weak, depleted and incapable of sensing his prey to continue the hunt for Lakshmi, but it didn’t stop him. As he worked on rebuilding his strength and agility, he joined forces with his rescuer, Arjuna, the third son of a murdered king. Together, they embarked on a journey to restore the Pandava fortunes and throne, and find Vishnu’s elusive consort. A consort that was closer than either realized.
Their proximity was having an unexpected effect. Lakshmi was beginning to remember. Bits and pieces at first, but then it all returned with a rush. Seeing no reason to delay her transformation back into goddess, she initiates the flux between realms.
Miles offshore, Marduk collapses an ocean ridge, setting off ripples that grew stronger with each mile. Lakshmi, caught between realms, can’t move or escape the massive wall of water. The collision splinters her energies and scatters her like so many grains of sand.
Further ashore, Vishnu is desperately trying to save Arjuna from being impaled or drowned. Either deadly fate seems imminent…until a glowing substance splatters around them, coagulating like a cocoon, providing air and shelter from certain death.
The scent is unmistakable.
As the last wall of water retreats, the opaque goo collapses to the ground. Lakshmi is dying.
Calling upon the combined forces of Shakti and Brahman, Vishnu restores her life energies and merges her within himself.
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