I finished my final novel read-through today. I sent it out to a few more readers just to see if they think it holds together, and I sent my very first query to an agent.
This is roughly what my query letter looks like. If you’ve been dying of curiosity over what my novel is about, well, your wait is over. Here you go.
The mage-hunters have been burning left-handed people in Cadarnfel for centuries, so Elizabeth Avigaline and her controlling mother have kept the fact that Beth’s blood is blessed by the Left-Hand Gods a closely guarded secret. But when Beth learns that the laws have changed, she uses her magic for the first time and prays to Cione, the Goddess of Change, to help her escape her confining, sheltered life.
Beth is summoned to Velmorn City, Cadarnfel’s plague-ravaged capital. She barely survives her first meeting with the new King, then she offers to hunt down the assassin who is trying to kill him. Just as Beth is settling into her investigation, a dragon arrives and informs them that an army of demons will attack the city on the night of the next new moon.
If Beth can’t stop the assassin and master the magical power in her blood, the demons won’t stop after destroying Velmorn City. The fate of the entire world rests on the defenders’ shoulders.
LEFT-HAND GODS is an 86,000-word fantasy manuscript about blood magic, interfering gods, true love, and dragons. It is a stand-alone book.
I have sold short fiction to over a dozen markets including The Living Dead 2, Stories from the Hearth: Heartwarming Tales of Appalachia, and Daily Science Fiction. I have helped edit the Triangulation Annual Anthology Series for four years, and I read submissions for the Hugo-winning Clarkesworld Magazine. I attended James Gunn’s Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 2010, and I hold a bachelor’s degree in creative writing.
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So, the goal of the first part is to make people (specifically agents, but really everyone) want to read my novel. Does it work for you? That last bit is just to show that I’m awesome. ^_^