Friday, June 02, 2006

Face-Lift 46


Guess the Plot

Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo

1. Amnesia victim KITTY HAWKES discovers a mysterious white tattoo on her left buttock, and enlists the help of her hunky doctor to discover its significance.

2. Single-mom Tammy had it all – an Alabama double-wide, five kids, the welfare checks -- until the hunky Alaskan biker rode into town, stirring her true desires.

3. The story of a hunky researcher stationed in the Arctic, and the woman he loved who was allergic to ice.

4. Candice's husband will be in Bangladesh on business for a whole month. While he's gone, the first man Candice ever loved comes to town. Uh oh.

5. The sequel to my 1998 novel, What I learned from having my arms ripped off by a Grizzly Bear.

6. By day, Alice and Tony come up with clever Jeopardy category names. At night, they both secretly fantasize they're with Alex Trebek.



Original Version

Dear Ms. Agent,

After reading through your site, and having enjoyed the books by your author Joe Blow, I believe that my first novel, "Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo", would fit in nicely with your list. The completed manuscript is available upon request.

Candice Warburton's husband has just left her. [Why, that miserable, no-good jerk!] It's no reason to call him names, though: he's gone to Bangladesh to build a new school and hospital. [Is that what he told her? Can she possibly be that naïve?] He'll be gone a month, [Comment heard by neighbors as far as three houses away from the Warburton house after Mr. Warburton announced his trip: Like hell you're going to Bangladesh for a month!] [A hospital and a school in a month? Is he bringing the Extreme Makeover: School and Hospital Edition crew with him?] [You'd think a guy who wants to ditch his wife for a month-long affair could come up with a better story than I'm needed in Bangladesh.] [On the other hand, it's the last place she'll go looking for him.] leaving Candice free to decorate the house, improve herself and her cat, and try to get ahead at work. [And to change the locks.]

Naturally, things don't go as planned, especially when a new project at work throws Candice back into contact with Kegan, the first man she ever loved. His departure from her life (claiming "I've had a smart girl, now I want a beautiful one") had left her shattered and insecure. With Ian's help, Candice reassembled herself, but that comment has stayed with her. [Of course, Kegan is still quite the hunk, so . . . forgive and forget.]

Seeing Kegan again gives her an opportunity to challenge him; [She finally demands to know whether "Kegan" is his first name or his last.] she is shocked to find that he doesn't remember saying those terrible words. [Or so he claims, to get out of apologizing; what do you expect him to say, I've had a smart girl and a beautiful girl, now I want a gullible one?] Old feelings are reawakened, [No! Don't do it, Candice!] and Candice finds herself in a drunken encounter that goes much farther than it should. [Unbelievable.] She is left with the burning question of whether to tell Ian what happened. Is honesty really always the best policy? [By now Ian's had half the women in Chittagong; where does he get off complaining about Kegan? But he's a man, so of course he will, so mum's the word, Candice.]

I am now a full-time writer with several published stories to my credit, as well as a short-listed co-author finish in the 2005 Three Day Novel Contest. I am now working on my second novel, about an escort service receptionist looking for love. [I call it, Life, Love, and the Label from a Jar of Olives.]

I appreciate your taking the time to consider my submission, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Revised Version

Dear Ms. Agent,

Candice Warburton's husband, Ian, has just left her. It's not what you think, though: he's gone to Bangladesh to build a new school and hospital. He'll be gone a month, leaving Candice free to decorate the house, improve herself (and her cat), and try to get ahead at work.

But things don't go exactly as planned; a new project at work throws Candice back into contact with Kegan, the first man she ever loved. His departure from her life (claiming, "I've had a smart girl, now I want a beautiful one.") had left her shattered and insecure. With Ian's help, Candice pulled herself together, but that comment has stayed with her.

Seeing Kegan again gives Candice an opportunity to challenge him; she is shocked to find that he doesn't remember saying those terrible words. As they spend time together, old feelings are reawakened, and Candice finds herself in a drunken encounter that goes much farther than it should. She is left with the burning question of whether to tell Ian what happened. Is honesty always the best policy?

The completed manuscript of Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo is available upon request. I appreciate your taking the time to consider my submission.


Notes

Does the "drunken encounter that goes much farther than it should" end with Candice getting a gigantic polar bear tattoo that covers her entire back, bottom, and upper thighs? Because if that's what she doesn't want to tell Ian, he may find out anyway, eventually.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How come we never hear about the polar bear tattoo? I want to know where it's located.

Anonymous said...

Consider "Candace Warton's husband, Ian, has just left her," to avoid the, "Wait--who's Ian?" reaction that I had when his name first appeared.

This sounds like the kind of book I gleefully devour, IF it's funny. Is it funny? The title and cat-improving hint at humor, but the low-self-esteem bit sounds like a downer.

Anonymous said...

Is Candice supposed to be the smart girl from the "I've had a smart girl now I want a yadda yadda hoo" line? She evidently bought the "trip to Bangladesh" hook, line and sinker and so I don't find it to be such a stretch of the imagination that she'd accept "I don't remember saying that" from Kegan (Kegan? Really? Okay) and then jump his bones in a drunken stupor.

Evil Editor said...

Done.

Anonymous said...

[His departure from her life (claiming "I've had a smart girl, now I want a beautiful one") had left her shattered and insecure.]

I happen to love that line. I plan on using a variation when I file for divorce: "I've had a penniless bonehead, now I want a rich one.":)

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

Hilarious and great comments from the almighty evil one, who was not very evil with this query!

And I just got the strangest word verification in the world, which might make for a terrific main character in a sci-fi book--

JEKZEK... nanu nanu friends.

Rei said...

While it sounds suspicious when presented as one line, I'm sure that within the book, Ian's trip to Bangladesh comes across as sincere. I'm betting that he does this sort of work all the time. Candace might even have joined him from time to time. Just because a person is away doesn't mean that they're sleeping around; in fact, it usually doesn't.

On the other hand, except for something just short of alcohol-aided date rape, I really can't picture Candace, as presented in the query, as sleeping with this guy. At all.

Anonymous said...

Virginia, if you want to see the first little bit of the book, email me at ninjacatrocks at hotmail dot com (email address set up specifically for the book) and I'll send you a few chapters so you can see if it's funny. It still makes me laugh when I re-read it, does that count? (No, probably not. :)

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I got tired of blogger eating my posts, too. Now I do them in Word and do a copy-paste when I'm done. It saves a lot of frustration.

Just a thought.

McKoala said...

After reading the letter, I agree that what's missing is an idea of the tone/genre. It could go humour/literary/chick lit - I think that it would be helpful to your prospective agent/editor to know.