Monday, June 25, 2012

Critique my query!

I'm participating in another one of Heather Webb's fabulous contests (more here), and this time it's all about crafting a great query letter! Whether you're participating in the contest or not, feel free to give it a read and let me know what you think...

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After 18-year-old Anne Marie is shipped off to Paris to live with her grandmother, she plans to uncover the secrets surrounding her mother’s death. In her pursuit of the truth, she stumbles across the diary of Charlotte Corday, a French aristocrat entrenched in the politics of the French Revolution and someone Anne's mother once considered a hero.

Strange things start happening with the diary, causing Anne to time travel and become Charlotte, a seemingly calm and unpretentious woman who is known in history for having murdered Jean-Paul Marat.

Her two realities become increasingly intertwined. As Anne, her new friend Pierre tries to bring her in touch with her mother's past, while dealing with his own troubles that revolve around the riots ravaging Paris in November 2005. As Charlotte, Anne struggles in deciding whether or not to follow through with what Charlotte considered her destiny--killing one man to save 100,000--or to follow her own path.

THROUGH CHARLOTTE'S EYES is a 78,000 word YA historical fiction novel. I wrote a version of this story for my Masters thesis at The University of Chicago, where I also received an Honorable Mention in the 2007 Emerging Writers Series for Fiction. It should appeal to fans of Jennifer Donnelly's REVOLUTION and Laurie Halse Anderson's FEVER 1793.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth SanFilippo