-
Queries and Other Things
In Pages I have just entered the query I used for The i Tetralogy. I worked hard on that one, saying what is hard to say but struggling to say it nevertheless on one page. As the months go along I revise it, and this version reflects recents events. Tonight Derek Alger, editor of Perigee (see Perigee.com) which is a cleverly done ezine, will engage me in conversation from New York. After that he will compose some questions based on our talk and I will compose my answers via email. So I look forward to that. Alger has said that I will then…
-
Another Query Letter
I have put into Pages a query letter for Gruffworld. You may find it of interest. The first story of the novel, “Covenant,” is also filed here as well. For some reason many of you out there selected my query for Down to a Sunless Sea to visit repeatedly. The composition of any query letter, believe me, takes as much effort and clear-thinking as writing a story. Read both queries and then be free of mine. Do not emulate. Cut down the brush for your own path.
-
The First Chapter of Gruffworld — See Pages
In the eighties I was trying my hand at science fiction and science fantasy. “Covenant” was submitted to a very good mag, Owlflight, its editor Millea Kenin. She wrote me how she was taken with the natural history of my Gruff. Encouraged, during the summer I took out about a dozen or so manila folders and each week I wrote a story or two of the continuing adventures of my creature. By the opening of school in the early fall, in essence, I had a book. Menanwhile, if memory serves me well, I was in a psychoanlytic training institute with…
-
Tomorrow’s Pesach (Passover)
The last Passover I went to was last year in Tucson at a local Jewish Center. The food was the standard fare for the night, but it was dreadfully prepared. Jane, my companion, took a dislike to the food and I could not blame her. . . (She loves brisket and sour tomato.) How do you explain matzoh smeared with schmaltz, that cholestrol-driven thickener rendered from fat or gefilte fish which is bland but takes on flavor with white or red horseradish, the white more terrifying to the palate? As a child I would have some Manischewitz wine, a heavy brew, that…