Cioran
01-09-2013, 03:22 PM
A few months ago, I published the draft opening chapters to a novel that I had begun, "Eternity Invasion." I later found out that this was a bad idea, because for some inane reason publishing fiction on the Internet makes agents/publishers less interested in publishing the works as books.
Anyway, the novel is completed and edited, and I intend to send it to agents. I thought maybe I could get some feedback on the draft cover letter. Any thoughts appreciated. If any agents and/or publishers actually DO read these threads, I have four completed novels, with a fifth, sixth and seventh on the way. They're all terrific. Please drop me a private message if you'd like to learn more. Thanks, Cioran.
The letter:
Dear agent,
Enclosed are the first five chapters of a novel, Eternity Invasion.
In November 1963, shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, a massive orb is spotted in the sky, 25 light years distant and heading for earth. Radio broadcasts from the object begin, promising death from the sky in a sea of fire for all of earth's inhabitants, except for a select few who will be granted eternal life in exchange for eternal slavery. The invaders are to arrive in 2013, fifty years hence.
The novel bounces back and forth over this fifty-year period, focusing on the lives of several subjects, and on the theme of how humans would react if the whole world were placed under a death sentence with no apparent hope of reprieve.
The principal characters include:
Julius Pick, an effete Jewish intellectual and secretly gay, a devotee of male prostitution and the underground sadomasochism scene, who is catapulted into unexpected (and unwanted) fame and fortune by penning a pretentious article for an obscure philosophical journal holding that the invaders do not really exist, but are a Jungian psychic projection of the wounded world soul. The claim is embraced by millions desperate to stave off extermination.
Norma Jean Baker, who either is a Marilyn Monroe impersonator or the real Marilyn who faked her own death in 1962. She is a bag lady selling off Marilyn memorabilia when she meets Pick in New York City, launching a bizarre dalliance that ends in marriage at home plate in Yankee Stadium in 1980 before millions of TV viewers worldwide.
Howard, aka the Dream Maker, aka Charles Zugzwang, chess grandmaster and serial killer. He grants wishes to his victims and then kills them, reasoning he is doing them a favor because everyone is going to die anyway when the Others arrive.
Latisha, a bargirl in the Nevada desert near the iconic Area 51, a maroon-haired, tattooed, live ball of energy and sex who is dying to live before she has to die prematurely. She is Zugzwang's latest target for dream granting and then death, but an unexpected twist skews his plans and promises salvation for everyone when Zugswang undertakes a chess game with the invaders for the biggest stakes imaginable.
Barclay Savors, a mentally disturbed, millionaire hermit living in poverty in New York City, but collecting artifacts left behind by advanced scout ships of the invaders with the intention of earning immortality from them, even at the price of eternal slavery, by showing his inventiveness in mastering their advance technology. His hubris ends in a labyrinth of madness.
The president of the United States (and his advisers) who is never named, but who is a parody of George W. Bush. He must guide, with what resources he has, America's actions as the aliens draw nearer. His advisers seek inspiration in Magic 8 Balls and yarrow stalks, while the president constantly gets his fingers tangled up in multi-colored balls of yarn suggesting ultimate futility.
This alternative history novel incorporates the real-life great events and personalities of the era 1963-2013 through the prism of an alien invasion that promises a sea of fire except for the chosen, a secular parody of religious thought. The lives of the principals eventually intertwine as the clock ticks down to Armageddon: New Year's Eve, 2012. The fireworks begin at midnight.
The novel is about 90,000 words long. Thank you for your consideration.
Anyway, the novel is completed and edited, and I intend to send it to agents. I thought maybe I could get some feedback on the draft cover letter. Any thoughts appreciated. If any agents and/or publishers actually DO read these threads, I have four completed novels, with a fifth, sixth and seventh on the way. They're all terrific. Please drop me a private message if you'd like to learn more. Thanks, Cioran.
The letter:
Dear agent,
Enclosed are the first five chapters of a novel, Eternity Invasion.
In November 1963, shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, a massive orb is spotted in the sky, 25 light years distant and heading for earth. Radio broadcasts from the object begin, promising death from the sky in a sea of fire for all of earth's inhabitants, except for a select few who will be granted eternal life in exchange for eternal slavery. The invaders are to arrive in 2013, fifty years hence.
The novel bounces back and forth over this fifty-year period, focusing on the lives of several subjects, and on the theme of how humans would react if the whole world were placed under a death sentence with no apparent hope of reprieve.
The principal characters include:
Julius Pick, an effete Jewish intellectual and secretly gay, a devotee of male prostitution and the underground sadomasochism scene, who is catapulted into unexpected (and unwanted) fame and fortune by penning a pretentious article for an obscure philosophical journal holding that the invaders do not really exist, but are a Jungian psychic projection of the wounded world soul. The claim is embraced by millions desperate to stave off extermination.
Norma Jean Baker, who either is a Marilyn Monroe impersonator or the real Marilyn who faked her own death in 1962. She is a bag lady selling off Marilyn memorabilia when she meets Pick in New York City, launching a bizarre dalliance that ends in marriage at home plate in Yankee Stadium in 1980 before millions of TV viewers worldwide.
Howard, aka the Dream Maker, aka Charles Zugzwang, chess grandmaster and serial killer. He grants wishes to his victims and then kills them, reasoning he is doing them a favor because everyone is going to die anyway when the Others arrive.
Latisha, a bargirl in the Nevada desert near the iconic Area 51, a maroon-haired, tattooed, live ball of energy and sex who is dying to live before she has to die prematurely. She is Zugzwang's latest target for dream granting and then death, but an unexpected twist skews his plans and promises salvation for everyone when Zugswang undertakes a chess game with the invaders for the biggest stakes imaginable.
Barclay Savors, a mentally disturbed, millionaire hermit living in poverty in New York City, but collecting artifacts left behind by advanced scout ships of the invaders with the intention of earning immortality from them, even at the price of eternal slavery, by showing his inventiveness in mastering their advance technology. His hubris ends in a labyrinth of madness.
The president of the United States (and his advisers) who is never named, but who is a parody of George W. Bush. He must guide, with what resources he has, America's actions as the aliens draw nearer. His advisers seek inspiration in Magic 8 Balls and yarrow stalks, while the president constantly gets his fingers tangled up in multi-colored balls of yarn suggesting ultimate futility.
This alternative history novel incorporates the real-life great events and personalities of the era 1963-2013 through the prism of an alien invasion that promises a sea of fire except for the chosen, a secular parody of religious thought. The lives of the principals eventually intertwine as the clock ticks down to Armageddon: New Year's Eve, 2012. The fireworks begin at midnight.
The novel is about 90,000 words long. Thank you for your consideration.