By Belynda, March 26th, 2009 in Writing | 4 Comments
Tags: agent, excited, Fiction, nervous, Novel, query, Writing
Hey Everyone,
My Twitter followers have been listening to me giggle about finishing the final edits on my first novel, “Crossing Clouds” this week. Hooray!
Now, it’s time to write the query letter, and I’d love your input!
I’ve been thinking about my pitch for quite some time, but crossing the finish line on this past round of edits has definitely brought it to the forefront. Now I’d love to hear what YOU, my beloved readers, have to say about my pitch!
Love it? Bored? Have suggestions to make it stronger? I want to get your gut reactions, so get out the red pen!
Thanks a million!
Alone in the back of a limo on her wedding day, Cora Caffrey’s first love suddenly becomes a man from her past; her groom-to-be, Christopher, has left a letter at the church, and walked away.
Desperate to escape the well-meaning advice and sympathetic looks in the aftermath of that day, Cora astonishes everyone—herself included— and boards a plane for the village of Sevenoaks, England. The weeks pass, and soon it is clear that the brief reprieve from life in Connecticut has become something very different.
Cora is enchanted by life in the small village, and the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to part with it. Then, a misplaced wallet leads her to the doorstep of Alex Bishop, and her reluctance to return home blossoms into a desire to make a new one. But when Cora’s past visits her in the form of two little pink lines, everything about the burgeoning romance changes.
“Crossing Clouds” is a story about family. It is about discovering our desires, and the virtues we will abandon in their pursuit. The manuscript is complete at 79,000 words and is available for your review upon request.
By Belynda, February 7th, 2009 in Reviews | No Comments
Tags: Book Reviews, Fiction, Foer, Holocaust, Novel, Trachimbrod
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel” by Jonathan Safran Foer
I had seen the movie version of “Everything is Illuminated” probably about five years ago- long enough ago to let the visuals of the movie fade so I could fully enjoy the book on its own merits. As is usually the case, the book was much better.
“Everything is Illuminated” is many things; At moments, it is laugh out loud funny (I couldn’t read it at lunch in work for fear of bursting out laughing at the table!). It shows us slices of life that prove we are not all so very different. It is at times irreverent, surprising, and heartwarming. Even the dog becomes a beloved character, in a way which does not usually occur in most stories.
It is also incredibly serious, unapologetic in its depiction of the war. It deals not only in the horror experienced at the time, but the war that all survivors carry with them for decades after. Jonathan, Grandfather, even Alex, were all in their own way, victims of that war. The holocaust claimed more victims than even history books will ever calculate.
The novel is faithful in its depiction of the real life of the war as well, the life in between the atrocities. The shtetl of Trachimbrod is a symbol of the reality experienced in every village that found itself under the thundering wheels of the Nazi war machine, facing the darkness by carrying on, marrying, loving, celebrating, keeping secrets, keeping traditions. Foer accomplishes something universal in anonymizing the people of Trachimbrod, giving them only so much identity to love, and just enough universality to make us understand that it could have been anyone, even us.
This is an incredible book, touching a wide range of the emotional spectrum, holding us to the end in a firm but careful grasp.
