Scribbles & Munch

      Sometimes, writing is like getting wet in the rain: it just happens, so sit back and let it flow, Baby. Other times the process is more of a struggle. I am currently at a point in my latest project that is requiring all of my stubbornness* to work through. The best analogy is that I have wad of "Play-Doh" and I'm trying to mold it into a reproduction of someone's face, only to wind up super frustrated and mash it back into a wad and start over--probably because a) I am not a sculptor and b) I don't even know what the person's face is supposed to look like, so how can I reproduce it?
      The problem is that I didn't put enough detail into this portion of my story outline. So I've been taking the time to go back and fill it out, which takes time and struggle and - metaphorically speaking - lots of "Play-Doh." This morning as I was taking a walk it occurred to me that working on my pitch might be a good creative exercise, and help me get back in the vibe. These are just drafts, of course, it's silly to work on a final, polished pitch before the manuscript is even complete, but it's a small exercise and will hopefully give all you out there in Readerland a bit more insight into the publishing process.
      Pitches come in two very similar flavors: the verbal pitch (which is essentially an elevator speech) and the written pitch (which is what appears in a good query letter). Both should be brief, concise, intriguing, accurately represent the story and contain a good "hook." My friend and fellow writer Camela** wrote an excellent blog entry about the verbal pitch process, which she has used to successful ends. Thus far in my writing career I have been using written pitches, which have the benefit of being a couple sentences longer and don't require me to try not to stutter and/or pass out during the delivery.
      So here I'm going to try three different pitches for my current writing project. In case you're wondering, it's what we call an "alternate history"; basically, you pick a point in history and say, "What if this had happened instead?" I think you'll catch on to my "what if" pretty quickly. The manuscript's about half-finished, with a full outline. If I can get through this stubborn bit (mash mash mash) I hope to have it complete before the end of summer, and then hopefully start sending out queries by the end of fall.***
      Ok, here's the pitches--feel free to weigh in with considerable feedback!

In 1848, they discovered gold in the Sierra foothills of California. In 1850, they discovered zombies. 

#1 - Llewelyn Brix was no stranger to corpses, but after five years of bounty hunting Man Eaters, it was a shock to find a murder scene. Even more astonishing: she knew the victim. Llewelyn only wants to put the dead to rest, but instead she finds herself pulled from one end of the country to the other, following a trail of gold, greed, and conspiracy between the living and the dead.

#2 - Llewelyn Brix came to California as a nurse to fight the unholy plague sweeping the goldfields. She would soon discover the only cure for a Man Eater was a well-placed bullet in the brain. For Llewelyn, there's more money to be made in bringing in Man Eater bounties than can be dug up out of the ground. But gold is "the great unkept promise of California," and it can drive a man to murder--or tear a country apart.

#3 - It's been over ten years since the Man Eaters first appeared in San Francisco, and for half that time Llewelyn Brix has been making her living as a bounty hunter, gunning them down. But when she finds a murder scene in the rocky Sierra foothills, she finds her past isn't as dead and buried as she thought. It takes a sharp eye to put a bullet in just the right part of a Man Eater's skull; it takes an even sharper eye to spot a conspiracy that could cross the country faster than the Transcontinental Railroad. How much gold does it take to keep a country together--or tear it apart?

Ta daaa! Whaddya think?


*Fortunately, as my friends and family can attest, I can make being stubborn look like a fine freaking art.

**She writes thrillers and horrors. I like to hang out with her at Halloween.

***Because nothing makes the holidays memorable like the stress of awaiting rejections from agents. Dear God, I must be an idiot.