[stylist] synopsis

Mon Oct 18 14:15:29 UTC 2010

Danny, You make good points.  I emailed the publisher and asked what length 
I should make the synopsis, but he never answered.  I agree that the 
synopsis, in my mind at least, should be like the back cover burb on a book 
jacket.  Like I said in the email I haven't written a synopsis since Jr. 
High and I'm way beyond high school!  Thanks, Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Danielle Montour" <hypoplexer at gmail.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 12:09 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis


> 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.
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site:
> http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/
>
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> stylist:
>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/poetlori
> 8%40msn.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site:
> http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/
>
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> stylist:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/hypoplex
> er%40gmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site:
> http://www.nfb-writers-division.org <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>
>
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> stylist:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/jbron%40optonline.net
>