Saturday, February 9, 2008

The First Rejection

This is the e-query I am sending out:

Sixteen-year-old Carrie Sutton lives in exciting times; it is 1860 Wyoming, the Civil War is heating up, and the Pony Express is making its inaugural run. Carrie yearns to be one of the Pony Express riders and own the spirited black stallion, Outlaw, one of the finest Express horses. To realize her dream, Carrie must convince her widowed and fearful stepmother and overcome the resistance of the sinister Pony Express supervisor. Before her adventure is over, Carrie encounters a mysterious Indian, helps to expose a secret society, endures loss and finds love in unexpected places, and grows from a wild-eyed girl to a self-assured young woman.

Riding On The Wind, complete at 48,200 words, is the first of a series. Researching the shelves at Barnes and Noble and Borders, I find most of the books directed at pre-teen and teen girls are fantasy or topical subjects. Girls are ready for a heroine like Carrie Sutton -- unconventional, independent and ready to make it in an 1860's man’s world. To appeal to and increase readership for this series, I have written several short stories, telling of Carrie’s life as an eight-year-old in the gold mining camps in the Black Hills and am setting up a blog, which will be Carrie’s Diary. The second book, Outlaws, in which Carrie joins with a band of Shoshone Indians to search for her horse in California, is also completed.

I self-published Riding On The Wind in 1996 and I have always felt it deserved a larger audience than self-publishing permits. It received very favorable reviews from Library Science Journal and KIATT, among others, helping to sell it to many libraries across the country.

I am a housewife, mother and member of SCBWI.. I write for juveniles and young adults because I want to write the kind of books I loved as a young girl. I think I’ve done that with Riding On The Wind.

I start at the top, as most do, when I query. So this went out to Trident Media Group in NYC. And they said:

Thank you very much for your query letter. Unfortunanately after careful consideration I regret that I am not the right agent for your work at this time. Of course this prcess is a very subjective one, and often times what is not right for one agent will be perfect for another. Here's wishing you great success in all of your writing endeavors.


So there I go. Next up is another NYC big agency for this book. And a list of publications for my list of shorter projects.
Cross fingers.