Guess the Plot
1. When Earth's atmosphere becomes toxic, only one settlement remains: the Township. Can the last humans work together to avoid extinction, or will they split into warring factions leading to civil war? They're humans, so that question was rhetorical.
2. When a Venus-sized ice meteor combines with global warming to raise the sea levels higher than they've ever been in history, Mac "Noah" Knicker and his neighbors decide to build a boat under their entire town. It's home flipping at it's finest ... and worst.
3. Susan has been living on the Sweet Delilah all her life. The township was sailing the seas even before her grandmother was born. But now there is a new smell in the air, mixed in with the sea salt breeze: Blood.
4. When the good folks of Midsomeplace Kansas sail free into the climate changed canals of New USA, nothing can prepare them for redneck cries of WHERE'S MY FRICKIN' PANTS? and THIS THURSDAY YET? resounding from the underhollow of their discomfort. This too-close-to-the-knuckle apocalyptic abomination of a book may slay every family pet you hold dear. EVEN BEFORE THEY READ IT!
5. How three women living in a township outside Johannesburg sparked a movement to end apartheid. And how two decades later their dreams were finally realized . . . with all the credit going to men.
6. On its surface, Barton Township is Small Town, America. Mayberry, incarnate. Until you look under the covers, behind closed doors at the seedy underbelly of this seemingly idyllic community. This book blows the lid off the shrouded secret lives of the sleazy residents of one squalid township.
Original Version
Dear Evil Editor,
Sandra Evans, Chair of the Council and the highest-ranking authority in the Township, tries desperately to keep the peace. She conceives of the expedition as a way to unite the population behind their shared cause of survival, but the project sparks the very civil war that she had been trying to avoid. [Obviously the first faction to find a 3D printer used it to fabricate assault rifles instead of barcode scanners. Humans are so predictable.] With the violence spiraling out of control, she attempts to assert what authority she has left to prevent the final extinction of humanity. [Do both factions consider her an authority figure?]
The Township is my 105,000 word climate fiction novel. [Is climate fiction a genre now? "Dystopian" might be a better descriptor.] The setting is based on the Permian Extinction, which was the largest of Earth’s 5 mass extinctions and is believed to be the result of rapid global warming. [The Permian global warming, I believe, was caused by volcanoes. Yours, I assume, was caused by humans, who, typically, are now blaming it on the climate, hence "climate fiction."] My readers have compared it to [Fans of] Wool by Hugh Howey and Colony Mars by Gerald Kilby [will enjoy this book].
Thank you for [taking] the time to consider my novel. The first X pages are below. I hope you enjoy them.
4 comments:
Thanks a lot for the comments. I appreciate having someone with experience look over my query letter - it's probably been more difficult to write than any part of the novel!
An issue that you point out is that there appear to be two plots in the letter and ask which is the subject of the story. I find this a bit hard to pitch - but the answer is both. More generally the story is about the unraveling of the Township, the reasons behind it, and the efforts of a few characters to stave off disaster. I could try to just include one of the paragraphs, but it would feel like not a very accurate reflection of the novel. There are two other perspective characters in it as well that I did not mention. Any advice on how to pitch that?
Also, climate fiction is a thing (google it.) You might call it a sub-genere of science fiction, and like any good SF, it's the product of thinking about the present. I think it serves the same purpose as the books set in the aftermath of nuclear war written about 40-50 years ago such as A Canticle for Leibowitz.
You are correct that the Permian Extinction was caused by volcanos, or at least triggered by them, and the scenario in the novel was triggered by humans. However, in both cases the worst part of the problem is caused by methane clathrates (google the clathrate gun hypothesis - but you might lose some sleep) and sulfate reducing bacteria became the dominant life form on earth. At risk of being info-dumpy, I think I'll add a sentence about that to the query letter.
Ah, and answers to your questions in case you are interested.
Economy? Its more of a command economy than a market economy. Imagine Russia in 1942. Also, it's not possible to breathe the air outside and plant life is nearly extinct except for the sealed greenhouses, so thatched roofs and zucchini farming are out.
Do they have an electrical grid? Yes, and it needs to be online at all times to keep the air inside cool and non-toxic.
Televisions? No, but computers, yes.
Trucks? Yes, but they do not deliver Amazon packages.
Cell phones? No, but shortwave radio, yes.
The welding accident leads to a structure being breached which lets in the outside air and renders the structure uninhabitable. That's an important detail and I'll add it.
There is an ideological group in the story called 'misanthropes' - I think you get along well with them.
Hi query writer. Does the story take place on earth? You might want to mention that up front since the setting described is fairly common for lost colony/alternate planet stories, so that was my first assumption.
If the plot deals with the climate itself in some way you might want to specify how in the query. Otherwise, you might want to consider labeling this as post-apocalyptic (or dystopian) since that's more what the plot you do have sounds like.
Thanks - it is on earth and the setting represents a worst case scenario for climate change (caused by us). I'll try to make that clearer.
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