[stylist] synopsis

Judith Bron jbron at optonline.net
Mon Oct 18 19:32:06 UTC 2010 

It makes perfect sense.  Now I have to figure out how to do it with my 
novel.  Thanks, Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 3:11 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis


> In order to not have it disjointed, I'd maybe talk about one girl and then 
> talk about the other, then make a connecting part.
> Does that make sense?
> That way you say: on one hand we have this girl, on the other hand we have 
> that girl and in the end?  Well, there's the suspense of why there are the 
> two different girls.
> 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: Monday, October 18, 2010 1:49 PM
> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>
>> Hi Donna, Let me answer your point about publishers and first time 
>> authors. This publisher has already published several very successful 
>> books from first time authors.  That's why I approached him.  As for 
>> there being a problem with the synopsis, I already decided to take it 
>> back to the drawing board.  If you have any notes on a synopsis, please 
>> feel free to send them over.  Thanks, Judith
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
>> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:31 AM
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>>
>>
>>> Hi Judith,
>>> I agree with Chris's post on the unclear sentences. I wouldn't expect a 
>>> publisher to answer your question on length personally, though they may 
>>> have submission guidelines on their site. The question of how to 
>>> construct a query letter with summary is addressed in "Getting Your Book 
>>> Published for Dummies" which NLS has in audio/digital download format. I 
>>> recently re borrowed it because I haven't been able to locate the notes 
>>> I took on it years ago. I would suggest that, whatever the length, that 
>>> a summary of the book such as what you would read on the cover be your 
>>> first paragraph.
>>>
>>> My other thought has to do with your contacting the publisher directly. 
>>> Perhaps it's a mumpsumus on my part, but I thought this was your first 
>>> novel. In general, publishers don't work with first-time novelists 
>>> except through literary agents.
>>>
>>> HTH,
>>> Donna
>>>
>>> Read Donna's articles on
>>> Suite 101:
>>> www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/donna_hill
>>> Ezine Articles:
>>> http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=D._W._Hill
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>>> www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3885
>>>
>>> Connect with Donna on
>>> Twitter:
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>>> www.facebook.com/donna.w.hill.
>>>
>>> Hear clips from "The Last Straw" at:
>>> cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
>>> Apple I-Tunes
>>> phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374
>>>
>>> Check out the "Sound in Sight" CD project
>>> Donna is Head of Media Relations for the nonprofit
>>> Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind:
>>> www.padnfb.org
>>>
>>>
>>> On 10/17/2010 6:16 PM, Judith Bron wrote:
>>>> 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/>
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>>
>>
>>
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