First Draft of Novel Complete

First Draft of Novel Complete

Well, I can now say that I've written a novel. I even did a self-edit to catch any glaring discrepancies. I found surprisingly few, which probably means I missed a lot of things. The actual date I finished was on 9 May, 2013. After abandoning the first effort and discarding it's 25,000 words, I made my second start on New year's eve, 2012. Four months and a week later it was done.

As I begin to look at what happens after that, the actual writing starts to look easy by comparison. The novel will need to be critiqued, edited, and polished. That process will become a bit more formal when I attend the First Paragraph Slam on 23 May, where I will do a reading of the first paragraph of the novel. Twelve other writers have signed up for the event so far. After that get together, GBW will focus on writing groups, where I should start to see some help improving on the first draft and learning about agents, publishers, etc.

I'm currently obsessing over the query letter. Sooner than later I hope to be actually promoting the book and submitting it to agents and publishers. The query letter is a single page cover letter generally divided into the Hook, a short synopsis of the book, and an author biography. It sounds simple enough, but a lot rides on the query letter. I've been writing and re-writing it for a week now and I still don't think it's as good as it needs to be.

For practice and comment, I am providing my current, working version. It should be intriguing enough to get the publisher/agent interested enough to ask for more. They get thousands of query letters, and if you don't hook'em quickly it'll go quickly from the slush pile (the stack of stuff waiting to be read) to the garbage pile.

The Hook:

When Innkeeper Jaundice discovers a renegade goddess in the basement of her inn claiming to be from the mythical world of Chord, the twin sister to her own world of Spark, she must choose between a life lived vicariously through the tales of her customers or to believe the fantastic story spun by the proclaimed goddess Mela-nnee. 

The Synopsis:

Jaundice has serious doubts, but what she could not explain away is the sentient mandolin named Flea that Mela-nnee declared carried the Song of the Worlds. Mela-nnee admitted to stealing Flea, but claimed it was done to right ancient wrongs. Jaundice wants to believe the myths. That Chord held a power called Song which used music as the bedrock of their culture. That Chord used Song as the ultimate weapon to betray and isolate Spark from Chord. That the betrayal led to the rise and fall of the majik wielding wizard's who warred amongst themselves and turned Spark into a world both bereft of the Song and decaying from within.

Jaundice has a thirst to explore beyond the walls of the Shining City and the counter of her inn, and a need to find answers to past horrors she kept hidden. At Mela-nnee's urging, Jaundice assembles a troupe of young peers, among them three Norgen, like Jaundice, looking to make their own mark. A Thump warrior estranged from his home country of Savagevista also joins the troupe. Eighteen year old Philly is the last to join, an orphaned Skelly with wild majik talents she can hardly control.

Mela-nnee's arrival with Flea creates ripples across their world. The great wizard Taint rises from the ruins of the wizard fortress, Kracckndoom. The ancient rivalry between the Norgen and Skelly people races toward war. Strange beasts and once-men are belched out of The Drain in an Outflow not seen in generations. 

Into and through that chaos Jaundice and her troupe set forth on a journey to find the Custodian Keys lost during the Wizard Wars, uncover the location of the Vessels of Blood, and connect it all into a weapon capable of breaking the Seal that isolates Spark and brings the Song of the Worlds back to them. And on Chord, the ancient powers of that world turn to Spark. Chord will have Flea back, even if it means the final destruction of Spark.

The Biography:

The Majik of Spark is my first novel. It's the first of a planned trilogy set in the twin worlds of Spark and Chord.

I published science fiction and horror short stories in numerous small press magazines during the 1990's. In 2011 I consolidated my previously published stories as well as new work into an eBook collection called "Raised by the Fox." I write under the pseudonym J Walker Bell.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you. The beginning paragraphs of The Majik of Spark are available on my website, jwalkerbell.com.