readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)

Subject: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 05:14 PM

I have been working on a synopsis of my novel, Prairie Child, which I wrote a couple of years ago during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) A few people have read it, including two Mudcatters, and I've had very good feedback for which I am most grateful. Instead of publishing it myself, this time, I've decided to look for an agent, partly because this is one of a series, of which another is written and in its first editing stage, whilst the next one is about half-done. Most of them want a well-written synopsis, something which tells them about the progression of the book, main characters, etc. NOT like a blurb on the back cover, yet something which compels them to want to read it. Each one has slightly different submission guidelines, as do publishers.

Anyway, though one Mudcatter, who has read the novel, has read my synopsis and declared it good, I'd also like a few readers, who have not read the novel, to give it a go and let me know what they think. (No offense to you-know-who-you-are!:-) If they have experience in the agent/pub. fields all the better. I do not want to post it, so would send it by PM or email whichever is preferred. I would also like to keep this to just a few, so not necessarily first-come-first-served, just my choice. Regardless, I'd still love to hear from anyone else about their experiences, etc. in this thread.

Thanks, very much,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: Melissa
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:25 PM

I'd read if you run short of offers.

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:47 PM

Thanks, Melissa. Right now, I have three, possibly four. I think I'll see how that goes, then maybe do a bit more. I really appreciate it!

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: Melissa
Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:52 PM

three or four sounds like enough..

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: fat B****rd
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 01:32 PM

Whatever happens Kat, I wish you success.
Charlie (Cheap pretentious slasher story writer) in Dunfermline.

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: gnu
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 01:38 PM

Ditto what fat B said.

Subject: RE: BS: need a few readers for novel synopsis
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 10 - 04:11 PM

Thanks! I'll keep ya posted.:-)

Subject: RE: need a few readers for novel synopsis (novel,now)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:32 PM

First of all, thanks, again, to those of you who helped me out with the synopsis of Prairie Child. I have finally managed to start sending it out.

This is a more extensive request, time-wise. Some of you may remember I was working, years ago, on a book based on my dad's oral history. In 2008, I decided to fictionalise it during NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org)in Nov. So, I came up with a just over 50,000 word novel. I have had one reader, a 98 yr old friend of my dad's, say he really likes it, which is great, but I need more input. I am not interested in actual editing or anything, just any impressions it may leave after being read. I realise this is a lot to ask for, but I would really value your opinion. As before, I would like to keep this to just a few people and only if they have the time and inclination to do so. Thanks, in advance, for any interest.

I haven't written the synopsis, yet, but below is the prologue, with some names/birthdates removed, for now:

JUST THE FACTS


In 1878, when Harvey Burton Crawford left Nova Scotia to try his luck in Leadville, Colorado, it was in its second boom. Silver had been discovered in the heavy lead deposits of the earlier gold mining days and everyone flocked to the promise of riches. Harvey was twenty-one years old. Like thousands of other, he travelled over Mosquito Pass to reach the boomtown. It is said another Nova Scotian, Miss Elizabeth Elinore Fountain, followed him, as she'd set her sights on him for a husband. Her year of immigration is listed as 1882. They were married in Leadville on the 19th of August of that year.


Harvey made his living as a muleskinner, a freighter with his own team of mules and a wagon with the capacity to haul several tons of ore up and down steep and treacherous trails, from mine to smelter, and back.

The Crawfords eventually had ten children, three of whom died in infancy, one of them a twin. Their fourth child, Beulah Rebecca, was the author's grandmother. She grew up in Leadville, graduated from high school and Normal School where she obtained a teaching certificate.

According to family lore and a biographical sketch in the 1905 book, Progressive Men of Western Colorado, Lorenzo Dowd Hudson, followed the Arkansas River to Leadville in 1880 when he was twenty-six. He also made his living by hauling ore and, by all reports, as a lawman during Leadville's rough and tumble days of high-living, when the money flowed like manna from heaven. Having made his acquaintance with a certain Miss Mary Beulah Forsythe on the wagon train up the Arkansas, he went on to court her in Leadville. She was a Southern belle whose father had been a Rebel spy from Fayette County, West Virginia. Having won her heart, Dowd , as he was known, married Mary Beulah the 1st of December 1881, in Leadville.

The Hudsons had one son, Horace Forsythe Hudson, who died of diphtheria, when only a toddler. They were expecting a second child, the author's grandfather, when they left Leadville, in the dead of winter in 1885, to homestead a ranch on Garfield Creek, south of New Castle, Colorado. They did so following the advice and earlier settling in Garfield County of her father, Abraham Forsythe.

New Castle, at that time, was known as "Grand Buttes" so named after the "Grand River" later known as the "Colorado." It was not named New Castle until 1886. It wasn't until about 1887 that it became "civilized" boasting "a local cannery, brickyard, brewery and cement factory, fifteen saloons, five restaurants, three livery stables, two bakeries, several hotels with bars, and a volunteer fire department."

The second son of Dowd and Beulah Hudson was born before they reached New Castle. They named him Paul Franklin, known affectionately as "Frank." He grew up to be a fine man well over six feet with broad shoulders, well-suited for the ranching he was born into.

After Beulah Rebecca Crawford, the author's grandmother, began teaching, she moved to the Western Slope of Colorado, teaching in such places as Fruita, Mack Creek, and Sunlight. At some point, she and Frank Hudson met. He courted her and they married on the 11th of June 19XX. They had one son, X.X. Hudson, born XX of May 19XX.

X.X. grew up on the ranch his Grandfather Hudson had homesteaded. We children used to beg him for stories of our grandparents and great-grandparents, as well as his time as a young boy with plenty of room to roam and a favourite horse and dog to accompany him.

He grew up to marry another New Castle native, V.V. Youmans, whose father owned the general store and whose mother was also an educator like his Grandmother Crawford. They had four daughters and one son.
Quite often, their family would be out camping or just out for a Sunday picnic when the stories would begin to flow. The campfire would have died to embers by the time he'd finally say enough, "My voice is starting to go." In among the stories, he would also lead us, along with mom in her beautiful, sweet high voice, in singing old cowboy songs and others which the two of them had grown up hearing, old Victorian favourites of their parents. Imagine if you will, a slow, Western Colorado drawl in a deep, gravely voice, spinning tales of spellbinding fascination to eager young children:

If there is interest, I will also post the first chapter, so potential readers may get an idea of how it goes.:-)

Thanks a bunch and, please, I understand if no one has the time or energy for this. Lots going on in all our lives, I know.

kat

Subject: RE: readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 01:03 PM

Interesting reading, kat.

Subject: RE: readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)
From: ichMael
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 07:41 PM

You might want to look for beta readers. There are threads devoted to the subject at absolutewrite.com. Total strangers, avid readers, will read and critique your work.

Congrats on your synopsis. Those are hard to write. I churn out a novel every year or two, and writing the synopsis can be the hardest part of the process. Reductive writing. I limit my synopses to one single-spaced page. I write as much in the first pass as I think is needed to tell the story, then I start reducing. Agony.

You mention you're sending out your synopsis of Prairie Child. Just curious, do you send out query letters too? I send queries asking if the recipient wants to see the synopsis and some pages. The query's like the movie trailer (where you don't give away the ending), and the synopsis is like a fast-forward of the whole movie. People in publishing are busy and want initial contacts that are brief, so I send them short little queries.

I can copy and paste the query to my last-year's novel, if you want. Amazingly, it's not been picked up.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 11:14 PM

That's okay, thanks, though. The synopsis I was working on was going to agents who specified wanting a synopsis and short bio with the query letter.

I subscribe to Writer's Market online and use their tracker function as well search function for all kinds of markets, etc. It's really a good way to keep track of what's been sent out and to whom.

kat

Subject: RE: readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)
From: LadyJean
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 11:25 PM

Be careful of editorial services Most of them are scams. There are a fair number of scammers out there looking for new writers. If they want your money, they're probably scammers, even if they're listed in Writer's Markets.

Subject: RE: readers for novel synopsis(other novel mss, now)
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Aug 10 - 10:31 AM

Oh, yes, I know, thanks. I always research to see what other writers have to say about a company before I even think about sending anything out. And, if they want money from me, forget it.

Anyone know of any samples of books which have been released, chapter by chapter, in a blog? Besides the girl who did the Julia Childs thing which got her a fat book contract AND a movie starring Meryl Streep?