Face-Lift 58

Guess the Plot

The Wog Manual

1. What’s a wog? Max doesn’t know, but with the mysterious Wog Manual, he’s suddenly in business. It may save his factory--or destroy the world!

2. Len struggles to overcome ridicule of his speech impediment as he earns a living—and respect—as a log-cutter in the harsh Canadian wilderness.

3. Sabiha and Brian want to be more than just friends, but Sabiha's mother would prefer she date Edo, the hunky Muslim Bosnian apprentice hairdresser.

4. A young boy comes of age when confronted by his father’s past as a writer of installation instructions for Pakistani VCR’s.

5. He’s part fish, and she can’t swim. When interspecies romances are as tricky as this, sometimes you need a manual.

6. William Wog strikes it rich with his manual on leaf blowers. Apparently, money does grow on trees.


Original Version

Dear Evil Editor

The Wog Manual is a 90,000 word young adult novel. Set in Australia in 1994 the main character is Sabiha Cengic, a fifteen-year-old girl of a Bosnian-Muslim background.

The Bosnian community considers Sabiha and her Mum white trash because of her Mum’s manic depression and man-chasing ways. [Also, the three cars parked on their front lawn, two of them on cinder blocks.] Her grandfather and aunt come to Australia as refugees during the Balkan War and Sabiha has the chance for the one thing she’s desired, respectability. But when her Mum gets engaged to a former university professor who claims his wife and children died in the war, her claim to respectability starts to unravel.

[Sabiha's "friend": Your mum suffers from depression. You . . . wog.

Sabiha: My aunt and grandfather just arrived from Bosnia.

Sabiha's "friend": Ah. Suddenly I have new-found respect for you.

Sabiha: Also, my mum is marrying a university professor.

Sabiha's "friend": Wog! ]

The one place where she could drop the wog tag [Which, one assumes, is the "white trash" tag?] and pretend to be a normal girl [So she isn't a normal girl?] was in school. [Which is probably the only important place anyway.] When her best friends’ parents discover they went to a male stripper show Sabiha is identified as the instigator and they’re not allowed to see each other. [Kids are allowed in strip shows?] [Chippendale's Junior. Fourteen-year-old boys stripping down to the partial monte. It's an Aussie thing.]

After being bullied she’s forced to change schools and the only thing she has going for her is that she’s popular for the first time in her life with girls using her to be close to her spunky cousin Adnan. And she is making some new friends, if you count Jessie James the school oddball who’s pastime is making lists of people he will kill [Given the choice, any kid would rather be friends with a serial killer than be bullied.] and his best friend Brian O’Connor who wears foundation and denies that he’s gay. [He's gay all right. Not because he wears foundation, but because he denies it. Okay, also because he wears foundation.]

As if she doesn’t have enough on her plate she’s involved in a love triangle. Or is that a love quadrangle? She and Brian are tempted to cross the line from best friends to something more, Jessie’s strength and dependability tempts her, while Edo, the hunky Bosnian apprentice hairdresser, [He's gay too.] wins her mother’s vote. After all he’s Bosnian, he’s Muslim, he’s available. What more could a girl want? [When your mum has the wog label, you don't want the boyfriend she favors--odds are you'll be sharing him with mum.]

I have been published in a variety of genres in short fiction including the 2004 and 2005 Best Australian Stories published by Black Inc and edited by 2001 Miles Franklin Winner, Frank Moorhouse. Both stories have received special review mentions. Australian Book Review called my short story Siege “a powerful and moving story of family dissolution and the suffering, deprivation and terror of war,” and the Bulletin said “Amra Pajalic’s Bosnian Diary is a masterpiece of broken elegy.” You can view all my publication achievements with links on my webpage amrapajalic.blogspot.com.

The Wog Manual is complete and ready for submission. Enclosed are the first five pages, 1000 word synopsis and SSAE for your response. Thank you for your time and attention.


Revised Version
[Not much changed other than eliminating the paragraph about the aunt, grandfather, mum's marriage, as it didn't explain why Sabiha's respect level would be affected.]

Dear Evil Editor,

The Wog Manual is a 90,000 word young adult novel set in Australia in 1994. The main character is Sabiha Cengic, a fifteen-year-old girl of a Bosnian-Muslim background.

The Bosnian community considers Sabiha and her Mum white trash because of her Mum’s manic depression and man-chasing ways. The one place where Sabiha can drop the wog tag is in school. But when her best friends’ parents discover they went to a male stripper show, Sabiha is identified as the instigator and they’re not allowed to see each other.

Taunted and bullied, Sabiha eventually changes schools, and for the first time in her life she’s popular, with girls using her to be close to her spunky cousin Adnan. And she is making some new friends, if you count Jessie James the school oddball whose pastime is making lists of people he will kill and his best friend Brian O’Connor who wears foundation and denies that he’s gay.

As if Sabiha doesn’t have enough on her plate, she’s involved in a love triangle. Or is that a love quadrangle? She and Brian are tempted to cross the line from best friends to something more, Jessie’s strength and dependability tempts her, while Edo, the hunky Bosnian apprentice hairdresser, wins her mother’s vote. After all he’s Bosnian, he’s Muslim, he’s available. What more could a girl want?

I have been published in a variety of genres etc. etc.

The Wog Manual is complete and ready for submission. Enclosed are the first five pages, 1000 word synopsis and SSAE for your response. Thank you for your time and attention.


Notes

Have things changed so much that this couldn't happen in 2006? If not, perhaps updating it to current times would make it more appealing to today's YA Bosnian/Muslim/Australian market.

Does the book move toward a climax? Is it the coming-of-age story of Sabiha? Is it the struggles of a wog family to overcome bias? Is it just a series of vignettes? Tell us the focus of the book. The plot summary leaves us wondering where we're going.