Wednesday, November 14, 2007

It All Comes Together

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm close to finishing SHADOWING FATE (Alexa's first book) and that the plot took a very unexpected twist on me.

Twists can be good.

Twists can be incredibly good.

This one opened doors to a vast sea of possibilities and suddenly, I could see the conflict arc for the entire series, the conflict and romantic entanglements for each individual book, and what kind of stakes are needed to drive my characters to make the kind of desperate choices it will take to defeat the evil they face (and which characters will choose to join, rather than defeat!).

As I'm pouring the words out on this one, I heard back from the publisher who has DYING TO REMEMBER. She wants to re-pitch the manuscript to her new editor. Great, I say. Go for it. Then she asks "what's new?".

And I decided to take the opportunity for a two sentence pitch for DYING TO PUNISH, the sequel to DTR, and send my revised hook for SHADOWING FATE. I'll be pitching to agents next week and if this publisher is interested, I'll let my agent know.

I had to revise the hook (some of you remember my hook from the contest on fangs, fur, and fey) because some of the conflict in that hook never made it into the book and the end game is now much more serious.

So, for all interested parties, here is the hook for SHADOWING FATE that I'll be sending out to agents (sandwiched, of course, between the proper greetings and salutations it takes to make an excellent query letter).

SHADOWING FATE Hook:

Recipe for Disaster, New York City style:

Take one seriously toned single girl. Add a pinch of “please-God-just-kill-me-now” blind dates and some kick-butt vigilante justice under the cover of darkness. Mix in a handsome cop who should be off-limits and blend violently with a killer skilled in mind-control and focused on destroying New York City. Put on a pair of Manolo Blahniks, your best little red dress, and slam it down.

Alexa Tate is more than human. She can swim underwater without holding her breath, scale a brick building in five seconds flat, and hear the emotions of those about to commit a crime. A secretary by day, she uses her skills to hunt down evil at night. She is stronger, faster, and more lethal than anyone she’s ever met.

Until now.

A non-human hunter has come to town. Using mind-control to inhabit his victims and through them commit unspeakable crimes, the hunter leaves a trail of bodies leading right to Alexa’s door.

Suddenly, Alexa is the prey in an ancient war whose rules she is just beginning to understand.

To stop the hunter and save those she loves, she must uncover the truth about her origins, keep a certain handsome cop from suspecting her of crimes she may have committed, and unleash the tremendous power locked inside of her without becoming what she fears most: a killer.

Living in New York City can be murder.

14 comments:

  1. Yay! I'm glad you liked it. You know your opinion is important!

    I thought it nicely covered all the relevant bases without giving too much away.

    That's what the synopsis is for. *snarls* I'm writing that next week. Yuck.

    Anyway, this sounded like something an agent could use to pitch the book and like something the pub could use on the back of the book...heck, I'd buy this if I read this at the store. =)

    One less thing to worry about. Now to just finish the book, make the outline, and write the *snarls again* synopsis.

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  2. Wow! That really does sound like the back of a book - and one I would definitely buy. You're going to get snatched up by an agent when you send this out.

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  3. I got goosebumps when I read it. *grins* Even better than the first time I saw the hook.

    Synopses are evil evil things.

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  4. Goosebumps are good!

    Synopses reside in the 6th level of Hell.

    (You'll recall that the 7th level of Hell is reserved for Back to School shopping.)

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  5. Oh well, I'll just have to write my own book...I'm still stuck on "Fate and Beans." I think I'll have to title my next blog post that just to get it out of my system.

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  6. Should make for an interesting post. =)

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  7. OK, now you have wet my appetite...when does it come out!
    The "other" CJ Redwine

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  8. Lol. Don't worry, the second I get a contract for it, I'll announce it here!

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  9. Oooh, I love that, very catchy. And it's taking me a while to wrap my mind around the title, lol, I keep thinking of it as the Alexa Tate book, but oh well.

    And congrats on having a helpful twist. I hate when I get a twist and it opens so many doors I have no idea where to go with it. So it's awesome that your twist gave you not only something for the first book but the conflict arc for all of them.

    I don't know if you said this somewhere before but how many books are there going to be in the series?

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  10. At the moment, I think the series will be three books but after I finish SHADOWING FATE (yes, it's taking me a while to stop calling it Alexa Tate Book One...), I'm going to sit down and run with all the possibilities and see if there's room for 5 instead.

    She is such a fun character to write and this twist really does open all kinds of doors so I'd like to spend more time with her if it makes sense plot-wise to do it.

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