Face-Lift 453

Guess the Plot

Hench

1. Hench Williams has made a career of running the organizations of supervillains. But now super heroes and supervillains are disappearing, thanks to the evil overlord known as The Magnate. Worst of all, the media have decided that Hench is the Magnate. Can Hench prevent The Magnate from achieving world domination?

2. When the people of Plainville become completely desperate with boredom, they call on Trudy Hench, actress and playwright extraordinaire, to stage a production of her latest work. Soon everyone in town has a spear and a costume or a jar of blue goop and is learning lines. They're going to burn the whole village in a romantic opera celebrating the Roman invasion of Britain.

3. The One Big Problem that kept Professor Hench from taking over the world was Lucille, his neurotically skeptical wife. Now that she has run off to Mexico with the landscape guy, the Professor readies his costume and guitar and prepares for his final transformation into a reincarnation of the world's greatest rocker -- Chuck Berry.

4. Basement recluse Drew Hench inherits a run-down villa in southern Italy and three adorable children from his cousin. While attempting to dig a new basement under the villa, he discovers a talking harp with oracular powers, which advises a hasty departure, but Drew does not believe. Too bad. Two carloads of Mafia thugs are on their way to kidnap the children and Mt. Vesuvius will soon be erupting.

5. Undercover cop Steve Hench infiltrates a gang of poodle snatchers. He must break up their international smuggling ring before his evil twin "The Hound" succeeds in taking over France, one kennel at a time.

6. At Hench, one of London’s toughest boarding schools, four tenacious boys invent a fictitious bully named Ivan. Touting tales of his knack for breaking noses, the boys dangle Ivan over the heads of the other students, rising to the top of the social food chain. But all that power is too much to handle, and the boys turn on each other.


Original Version

Dear Ms. Anthrope:

I am seeking representation for my superhero novel, Hench, incomplete at 13,390 words and counting.

Running an evil empire isn't easy. Harry "Hench" Williams has made a career of it--keeping villainous organizations running smoothly while his superpowered employers plot and cackle their way to world domination. [Hey, it's a living.] Such plots rarely pan out, though, and Hench has just received the latest in a long series of pink slips.

But the criminal underworld has bigger problems than the capture of Doctor Maniac. [Who? Okay, I've figured out who, but to make it easier on readers, you might add to the previous sentence: . . . thanks to the capture of his latest employer, Doctor Maniac. Then in the current sentence you can change his name to Dr. M.] Superpowered villains and heroes alike are disappearing. [Heroes disappearing is hardly a problem for the criminal underworld.] The newspapers are hot on the trail of The Magnate, an overlord so mysterious that even Hench has never met him. Worst of all, Hench has gotten word that his most psychotic ex-boss has escaped from prison...the one who swore to kill him when he got out. [Although we can figure out that it's not the prison who swore to kill him, it might be better to say: Worst of all, Hench has gotten word that his most psychotic ex-boss--who has sworn to kill him--has escaped from prison.]

Before Hench knows what's happening, his sister is in jail, his friends are disappearing, and the cops are breaking down his door. Not a great week. To top it off, an overzealous media has decided that "The Magnate" is none other than a man with a hand in every supervillain's affairs...one Harry Williams.

I would have included a synopsis and sample pages if they were already written, and I should be able to send sample chapters by request, assuming I don't wipe out sometime in mid-November. Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy NaNoWriMo to all, and to all a good night!


Notes

Hope you stuck with it; it sounds like fun.