Although the book was not accepted for publication, I believe the query got me read. The credits at the end are omitted. If I were to try to get it reviewed on a blog or ezine, I might very well use the same language, with adjustments here and there and a bit of fine tuning to compensate for time that has passed.
Dear . . .:
When Millea Kenin, editor of Owlflight, published “Covenant,” the first chapter in my fantasy novel, GRUFFWORLD, she wrote: “I like the description of an exotic being’s life-style — in a way, it combines the enjoyment of reading a science fiction story with that of reading an article in Natural History. . . .”
The novel I am offering (339 pages) takes a creature (“Gruff”) from primal and instinctual needs to a higher level of awareness; in short, the sequence is an incremental progression of the development — and haphazard — emergence of consciousness in an unlikely life form — a primal bildungsroman, if you will.
Issues of loss, abandonment, separation, isolation, relationship, identity, trust and repetition compulsion permeate the entire cycle. What I have worked on is more than consciousness, but awareness — this creature struggles to see, much as Eastern thought teaches us. Parenthetically, it is more than insight. It is the capacity to see free of past image, prior conditioning, memory, desire or understanding.
In order to create a resonance in terms of intent or meaning, I have purposely created new words to contain and explain this new world — they are not misspellings.
Gruff lives in an apocalyptic world. Unbridled instinct is the internal tantrum within anumal life and evolution is a downward spiral. From this primordial anomie shards of purpose make themselves know to the Gruff. Randomly he has been selected from all his kind to develop in ways that ultimately separate and distance him from his primal horde.
From this hinterland of reality and fantasy, at the horizon at which they merge, I move this creature through a series of adventures — and tasks — that are reminiscent perhaps of early man’s efforts. Consequently Gruff as name-giver, labeller of his world, as self-emergence itself; Gruff brooding his way into identity and selfdom are the internal and external tides that beset him.
As to my own expertise and background, I am etc, etc.
If you would like to review this manuscript please advise.
