Your Query Letter

I just had a good friend get a critique of her query letter by an editor who said she looked for three main points in the letters she received. were three main points made by this 

The query should answer three things:

1. Who's story it is.

2. What they want.

3. What's stopping them from getting it.

So I'm going to go back and look at my query letters and ask myself these questions.

Have a really written about the protagonist. Sometimes I get caught up in letting the antagonist take over. Sometimes they are interesting enough and powerful enough to do it.

Do I state what the protagonist really wants. What is his or her quest? Even in my picture books I don't know that I have done this as clearly as I could.

Now I can say what's keeping my hero from getting what he or she wants. Now's the time to let the antagonist have a little glory in the sun. (Not that much,but a little.)

I know  summer is  a busy time, but take a few minutes and see how your letters stack up. I'm going to.

Happy writing.

Christy

PS Sorry I've been kind of out of commission. My mom has stage 4 bladder cancer, and we thought we would lose her the last few weeks, but she has rallied and will be with us a little longer. What a blessing for all of us.

Will Ida Mae survive Her Own Wedding?

 

If you’ve been following Tristi Pinkston around, you know she’s a little kooky.  Til Death Do Us Part, the last installment in the Secrets Sisters series, is no exception.  Ida Mae and her friends have a knack for finding trouble.  This is a warm and funny story that will keep you reading.  There are five books in the Secret Sisters series.  You’ll want to read them all, but if you only read one, I’d pick Til Death Do Us Part.  It’s my favorite.

Linda Garner

 

When charming—and mostly bald—widower George Gilmore asked Ida Mae Babbitt to marry him, she was surprised and delighted.  But now he has made another proposal—to hold the wedding in two weeks, while all his children are in town.  Flustered but sure she can handle it with the help of her friends, Ida Mae agrees.

The plan doesn’t go over so well with George’s family, however, and Ida Mae finds herself the victim of a plot to stop the wedding.  At first the incidents seem like harmless pranks, but they escalate until Ida Mae finds herself in real danger—and in real pain.  Bells are ringing, but are they wedding bells or death kells?

 

Tristi Pinkston is the author of fourteen published books - "Nothing to Regret," "Strength to Endure," "Season of Sacrifice," "Agent in Old Lace," "Secret Sisters," "Dearly Departed," "Bless Your Heart," "Hang 'Em High," "Targets in Ties," "Women of Strength," "Million Dollar Diva," "Virtual Book Tours," "Taking Out the Trash," and "Turning Pages."

She also works as a freelance editor and online writing instructor.

When she's not writing, editing, or homeschooling her children, she enjoys reading, watching good movies, and taking really long naps.

Reading Rocks!!

Summer is a great time for reading.  It's a perfect time to branch out.  Parents and Grandparents can take advantage of relaxed schedules and encourage the reading bug to bite.  It's a nice time for reading together, trips to the library, and family read- a-thons. 

Here's a fun series for the chapter book set.  Heroes of the Highest Order by R.K. Hinrichsen.  This is an easy read, perfect for developing readers.  The vocabulary is not taxing and the story involves magic and mystery, with enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning.  If your chapter book readers love adventure and super powers, they'll enjoy this series.

 

Book 1 is called The Hidden Kingdom, followed by The Prisoner of the Shadows,  and The Mouth of the Dragon.  You can buy all three in paperback or kindle edition right here.

Reading Rocks.  Especially in summer.

Linda Garner



R.K Hinrichsen has been writing for children for several years. She enjoys history, fantasy and exotic locations. But most of all, she loves to learn about real life heroes.

Allergic

I'm allergic to stuff.  Grass, weeds, hay, trees, that kind of stuff.  The cottonwoods are particularly bad, and our neighborhood is buried in cotton right now.  It's everywhere. 

I sound like I have bronchitis, and I feel like I'm mostly dead.  Not all dead, just mostly dead.

I love spring, but I'm allergic to it.  I'm not getting much done. I'm not very functional. In a couple of weeks this stuff will be gone and I plan to feel better.  Meanwhile, I've been thinking about other things I'm allergic to.  Here's a partial list:

mopping floors
folding clothes
pulling weeds
vacuuming
cleaning up messes

that's bad enough, but unfortunately, I'm also allergic to people:

mean people
negative people
unreliable people
and especially...
people that don't say what they mean and don't mean what they say.

What are you allergic to?

Linda Garner