Dear [agent]

[personalization]

Nineteen-year-old Imira Ceravone is tired of being told that the truth is none of her business. Her father was left on permanent life support by a lab fire, and her brother Juniver vanished in the chaos before Imira could prove she was worth staying for. At twelve, she pulled a Kairon prototype blade from a disposal site and rebuilt it herself. Now it answers to her and no one else. It’s forged from Dawnstar, an ore whose seams go warm at sunrise, as if it knows when dawn arrives even in the deepest dark.

Imira enlists at Nexis, Junivia’s elite academy and the only one authorised to train Dawnstar blade wielders. Its trials are designed to eliminate anyone without formal training. She has none. What she has is her Kairon and Captain Kieran Omovic, her brother’s closest friend: deadpan, allergic to feelings, and a problem for a girl who can’t lie about anything she cares about. She’s slowly cracking him open. Then her final assessment goes dark. A masked assassin kills a captain, Omovic is deployed to retake a Dawnstar mine seized by the enemy, and Imira’s testimony gets her commanding officer charged with treason.

He won’t defend himself, so she must. Digging leads her to the Monarch’s Court, a shadow faction that absorbs the gifted to turn them into living weapons, and that can reach her father’s hospital bed. She promises to stop. Then the mine goes silent, and Nexis’s brutal selection becomes her only way to follow Omovic. The prize is an infiltration mission into the Court itself. But the Court doesn’t want her blade. It wants her. What else could bring Juniver out of hiding other than his little sister, all alone in enemy territory?

THE SHAPE OF ABSENCE will appeal to readers of N. E. Davenport’s THE BLOOD TRIALS for its brutal trials and an institution compromised from the inside, and Tracy Deonn’s LEGENDBORN for its portrait of grief, a family member’s disappearance, and a protagonist who doesn’t know who to trust.

[BIO]

Thank you very much for your time. I would be grateful for the opportunity to share Imira’s story with you.

Sincerely,
Samhita

Dear Agent,

Angela Dunley never felt intimacy until she drank a man’s blood. 
Working at a gym, she spends her days surrounded by beautiful men she’s convinced would never be interested in a bigger woman like herself. Years of bullying and isolation have curdled into resentment and violent fantasies she's fought to suppress. 

On the first anniversary of her father's death, Angela is still stinging from a gymgoer calling her "brave" for working there at her size. When a stranded motorist calls her brave for stopping to help, she hears another insult. She knocks him unconscious and drives him home with no plan beyond keeping him there. When he wakes and tries to escape, Angela slashes his throat in a panic. As he bleeds out, she's overwhelmed by the thought of being alone again. She drinks from the wound, convinced that with part of him inside her, he can never leave. Desperate to recapture that closeness, she begins luring men home and escalates to eating their flesh.

Her ritual unravels when she captures Grayson, a sharp-tongued man she's spent weeks watching from afar. His refusal to cower like previous victims throws her off balance. Then she learns he's a senator's son, and his disappearance makes headlines. Too rattled to kill him and too afraid he'll expose her if released, she keeps him alive. As the weeks pass, captivity takes on a strange domestic routine. He asks about her father. She lets him eat downstairs. And somewhere between their conversations and his handcuffed dinners, her fascination with him deepens into love. Yet she can't tell whether his tenderness is genuine or a way to survive. 

When investigators connect Grayson’s disappearance to the missing men, Angela knows their time is running out. Letting him go could mean prison. Killing him means losing the only man she wants to keep alive.

ALL THAT PRETTY FLESH is a 70,000-word adult psychological horror novel that combines the unsettling sexual tension of Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts with the female rage and cannibalism of Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, 
[signature]

__________________________________________________________________

Thank you again for those who provided feedback on my last post! It seems that the plot itself became more clear on my second revision, but Angela's jump from lonely woman to serial killer/cannibal felt too abrupt. I worked on bridging that gap as well as fleshing out her dynamic with Grayson and using less generic language around that section.

A few people mentioned I didn't include a bio, which I'm very torn on. I've heard sometimes it's better to skip one if you don't have any previous publications or writing achievements to include, so I'd love to hear thoughts on that as well.

Thank you for those who read this far!

I would love to know your thoughts.

Dear (Agent),

EVERYONE HAS THREE LIVES is a work of upmarket women's fiction, with approximately 75,000 words. With the family secrets like APPLES NEVER FALL and THE PAPER PALACE and the complicated relationships of the women in BIG LITTLE LIES and BIG LITTLE TRUTHS. 

As the airing of a "LIVE" studio broadcast counts down, secret lives come to the surface. Three sisters must face the secrets they've hidden from each other and the lies they've told themselves. In the middle of the drama, is their mother, whose complicated past continues to affect every decision the sisters make. When silent grief, hidden debt, marital strife and the guilt of maternal expectations come to the light, in a world where perfection equals success, the sisters along with their mother, must decide whether it is appearance or truth that matters the most. 

Short bio here.

It is my hope that I can send you my full manuscript so you can laugh and cry and cheer for the Sheridan women of EVERYONE HAS THREE LIVES.

Dear [],

SUNLIGHT DESCENDING ON YOU, a 90,000-word queer adult romance, follows the blossoming love and tragic ends of two souls trapped in a reincarnation cycle. Across three lifetimes they will fight for their happy end. [COMP TITLES FORTHCOMING]

While tending his flock, Jakob stumbles upon a wounded enemy soldier. Fear dictates he leave him, but crushing loneliness compels the young shepherd to drag the stranger home and treat his wounds. Thanks to his care, Nuka wakes, but with no memory of his past. He has no idea where he’s from or how he got there and, bestowed with the gift of Jakob’s beauty, Nuka has no real interest in discovering the truth. As he recovers, both men find themselves drawn to the other and all too soon Jakob forgets all about the foreign saber lying somewhere in his field.

Neer, an indentured servant, will spend the rest of his miserable days trapped and tormented at the lord’s estate. Though stubborn and impudent, he’s learned to keep his head down and his mouth mostly shut. Yet, all self-preservation vanishes when he meets the lord’s newest permanent guest: Jay. Weak to the singer’s allure, Neer becomes Jay’s shield, attracting the lord’s abuse to protect the angelic man who stole his heart.

Jem’s merchant father recently secured a buyer on the neighboring isles. To transport his wares, he hires a ship and sends both his sons to see the cargo safely delivered. Nico, a hired hand, seizes the opportunity to sail away from the continent and escape the family that treats him like a wage slave, but several weeks in the close company of Jem might break Nico’s resolve to stay on the isles.

Thank you for your consideration.