[stylist] synopsis

Mon Oct 18 19:35:28 UTC 2010

Judith

Another thing I noticed is that the synopsis starts with Randy (friend of Jennifer and captain of the football team);  he then disappears.  I would not emphasize him if he turns out to be a bit character.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Judith Bron
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 3:31 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis

Thanks, Sean.  Judith
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacobson, Shawn D" <Shawn.D.Jacobson at hud.gov>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 3:10 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis

> Judith
>
> What I've seen in book reviews where you have multiple lines of a story is
> linking language.  For instance, you might want (when moving from Jennifer
> in Curtis Cove to Pessi in Jenna is to say something like "Meanwhile in
> Jenna New York, Pessi lives with her mother.....
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Shawn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Judith Bron
> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 2:53 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>
> You pinpointed the problem.  This book is not about two characters who
> live
> the same life in the same town, going to the same school and eating the
> same
> foods.  I have to think longer and harder about the whole thing.  Thanks,
> Judith
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jacobson, Shawn D" <Shawn.D.Jacobson at hud.gov>
> To: <jsorozco at gmail.com>; "'Writer's Division Mailing List'"
> <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 1:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>
>
>>I don't know how long a synopsis is supposed to be, so I won't talk about
>>length.  I did notice that it seems disjointed.  You talk about Jennifer
>>and her mother, then you talk about Jennifer's problems with Jewish
>>identity, then you jump to Pessi.  And who was Sheila?  I Jenna a town?  I
>>think it is from context.
>>
>> I suspect that this is a good book, but from the synopsis, I wonder if
>> you
>> can hold it all together.
>>
>> Shawn
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Joe Orozco
>> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:33 AM
>> To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>>
>> Judith,
>>
>> I'm afraid the synopsis was a complete turn-off.  It's complicated and
>> rambling.  Although I do not agree that the synopsis is written in the
>> same
>> way as a book jacket summary, I do believe it should possess some of the
>> same elements of intrigue.  Some of this is achieved at the very end of
>> the
>> synopsis, but by that point I'm too overwhelmed to appreciate it.  There
>> is
>> no cohesion, something I feel would be dramatically improved by putting
>> the
>> course of events into a better chronological account.  I had no trouble
>> following the names in the original excerpt, but this synopsis is a
>> confusing maze that does nothing to tell me whether the story is about
>> Sheila, Pessi, Chavy, Jennifer, and what's that lawyer's role again?
>> Forgive the blunt review, but if your goal is to sell a manuscript, I'm
>> afraid this does nothing to motivate me to read the entire novel.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their
>> sleeves,
>> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org
>> [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Judith Bron
>> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:15 AM
>> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] synopsis
>>
>> 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.
>>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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