[stylist] synopsis

Mon Oct 18 04:09:56 UTC 2010

Hi,
Hmmm ...  just a thought, the synopsis tells me a lot about the 
story, almost too much, like the mystery isn't so much a mystery 
anymore, for example,
when Pessy's mom dies.  I would just suggest editing the middle 
and shortening it down a little bit.

HTH

Danni
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:15:46 -0500
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis

I know nothing about writing synopses except the blurbs I read in 
Braille
Book Review so am wondering if this is too long.
I sure know that I'd like to read this story.
Barbara

...
Yesterday is
A path well-trod,
A familiar lane
Through sacred sod,
A road we travel
Too often, I fear,
For there are the good times
When things are hard here,
...

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 5:16 PM
To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] synopsis

 Hi, The publisher I want to send information about my book to is
 requesting a synopsis.  I haven't written a synopsis since 
writing a book
 report in Jr.  High.  How does this sound?  Thanks, Judith

 Judith Bron 72 North Cole Avenue Spring Valley, NY 10977

 Phone: 845-426-3177 Email: jbron at optonline.net

 Synopsis The Letter By Judith Bron

 Jennifer's best friend Randy, captain of their high school 
football team,
 had been with her since the accident that morning.  After the 
car struck
 her on a street a few blocks from her home in Curtis Cove, New 
York she
 experienced herself being transported to a corridor where her 
long
 deceased mother talks to her.  Now Randy sat beside her bed 
asking what it
 would take for her to go out with him.

 As Randy long suspected, her question about her identity that 
only was
 used by bigoted classmates to identify her as a Jew was the 
basis Jennifer
 couldn't become emotionally involved with anyone.  She needed to 
find out
 who she was and what this Jewish thing meant.

 Her foster mother Sheila, having just left Jennifer thought 
about the
 small package she had in her possession and the day it was 
brought to her.
 A man identifying himself as a lawyer for a family who perished 
in the
 holocaust asked her to give the packet to Jennifer on her 
seventeenth
 birthday.  After accepting the packet Sheila had run to the 
window to
 watch him drive away but saw no car on the driveway or street.  
She saw no
 man walking away from her house.  Spooked by the incident she 
put the
 small packet in her drawer and waited for Jennifer's birthday to 
get it
 out of her possession.

 Pessi Goldberg's mother has terminal cancer.  During her illness 
for the
 past five years Pessi withdrew from any girls her age and 
devoted herself
 exclusively to her mother and family.  Her once rich family has 
fallen on
 hard times.  In spite of the fact that her mother is dying, 
Pessi
 continues to treat her like a mother and argue about seemingly 
little
 things that all girls disagree with their mother on.

 In Jenna, New York on the day of Jennifer's accident, reclusive 
Pessi
 decides to go to a lecture at the school on a Shabbos or Sabbath
 afternoon.  Her classmate Chavy Levy, a pretty but a bit 
overweight teen
 with a great sense of humor, sees Pessi in the back of the room 
and
 approaches her.  Eventually Chavy is successful in cajoling 
Pessi away
 from the back of the room convincing her to sit with other 
classmates.

 That day changes a lot in Pessi's and Jennifer's lives.  
Jennifer recovers
 from the accident that led her to a near death experience and 
Pessi slowly
 becomes involved with classmates.

 Eventually Mrs.  Goldberg passes away leaving her daughter with 
mountains
 of guilt to overcome and questions about her religious Jewish 
identity.

 In Curtis Cove Jennifer, the high school junior continues to try 
to find
 out just what her Jewish identity means while coping with the 
almost daily
 anti-Semitic remarks of classmates.  On her seventeenth birthday 
Sheila
 hands her the book with the inserted paper but, as Sheila 
suspected,
 Jennifer can't read the foreign language on both the book and 
paper.

 Pessi manages to overcome the death of her mother and take her 
place as a
 class leader.  However, she continues to suffer from an 
inferiority
 complex.

 On her seventeenth birthday Sheila presents Jennifer with the 
packet
 delivered by the lawyer.  This is the only thing Jennifer has 
from her
 parents killed in a fire when she was two.  Until the second 
part of the
 story when Jennifer reveals the packet, she uses these objects 
to
 communicate with her long dead parents.

 Jennifer's search for her identity eventually leads her to the 
library
 where she finds a book that explains her religion.  Her foster 
mother
 encourages her to enroll in an observant Jewish summer camp 
hoping they
 will teach her something there that will help this girl define 
herself.

 Camp changes Jennifer's life forever.  She leaves camp and tells 
Sheila
 that she wants to continue living as an observant Jew.  A family 
in Jenna
 agrees to take Jennifer in.  Before Jennifer leaves Jenna Sheila 
tells her
 the truth about the messenger who delivered the packet.

 But that family doesn't work out.  Chavy's father, Rabbi Levy, 
consents to
 take her in and the lives of Pessi, Chavy and Jennifer become 
intertwined.

 Before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashannah, The high school 
principal,
 Mrs.  Newman asks Jennifer if she has a Hebrew name.  Jennifer 
has learned
 enough Hebrew to learn from the paper she carries in her back 
pack that
 her Hebrew name is Breindle.  From that moment on the letter 
takes on new
 importance in our story.

 Jennifer is kidnapped.  The letter contains a financial section 
and she is
 really an heiress that stands to inherit a large fortune from 
her
 grandfather.  But there is more to Jennifer than her identity of 
being an
 orphan from Curtis Cove.  Pessi's family is also changing.  But 
the
 mystery surrounding the letter is the centerpiece of the story.

 Identity questions, questions about religion and growth of two 
girls in a
 tumultuous world define The Letter.  The mystery thread keeps 
the reader
 riveted throughout the novel.  Many of the conflicts captured in 
the
 Letter are universal.  Teenagers everywhere will identify with 
the pain
 experienced by the teenage characters in the novel.
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