Using Fiverr I went to some experts to set up my query letter for Paris Once Upon A Time. Tired of using social media and getting zero results from ads and incessant posts. So, here we go. All on one page!!!! What it is missing is genre! AS we know, it doesn't fit in any genre hole... It is not a romance because she dies at the end... no HEA ending. Memoir? To be avoided because no one reads them unless you're famous. Modern Fiction? Women's Fiction? And the letter should include titles of books like it. Do they exist? How to find them. Here's a kicker.... find an author that your agent already represents who writes books ike this.
IMPOSSIBLE!
November 19, 2021
Dear
PARIS ONCE UPON A TIME by Lawrence Rose Steven Dunning is a musician, although not a great one, second-tier, and he knows it. He thinks of himself as a failure in most things. Marisol Pilar de Froissart, educated, blonde and blue, is wealthy beyond decency. She wants to show her lover who she really is. And she strivesto bring him to realize his talents and his depth of character as well throughall of their adventures together. Theymeet in a bistrot in the First….and lonely, taken by him somehow, perhaps byhis song in the Luxembourg Gardens when she dared him to sing something for her, she invites him to her spectacular home overlooking Lyon. Their loveaffair is brilliant taking them all over France and Spain, to the finest hotels and restaurants. But she has afamily of French Fascists. Her grandfather was a bureaucrat who served Klaus Barbie in the Holocaust. And today her uncle and cousins sponsor French right-wing racist politics from the Board of Marisol’s winery and other holdings. With Steven, she works to find out how.
Together they expunge the guilt for theHolocaust that stalks her. They destroy or defang what is left of her familyespecially Uncle Marcel who lives sheltered in northern Spain, but who spendshis money creating propaganda and a private army of right-wing thugs. And wefind that the mayor of Lyon, Herriot, is secretly aligned with Marcel. He becomes a fierce enemy especially afterMarisol spurns numerous proposals of marriage. Another, a subplot, one to foil Marcel’s racism, is to fight the remnants of French colonialism in the Sahel of Africa in the face of bureaucrats in Paris and dictators in Burkina Faso.
The early death of this indomitable woman bringspoignancy to one of the major themes of their lives expressed throughout thenovel... Do not wait to kiss, to make love. They never do wait, havingmany assignations within and without of their relationship. After mourning, Steven sets out on self-actualized adventures of his own garnering all of thestrengths that Marisol gave him.
Paris Once Upon ATimeis filled with travel, music, poetry, food, excursions and love in its manyforms. I believe that it will appeal to a wide range of readers who willreadily relate to the characters within it. And it is, “A Francophile’s dream ofFrance written with heart!”, as said by mystery writer, Erica Miner.
I am a long-time educationand tech writer, published travel writer and have had short stories publishedin several literary reviews. I am from New York,Toulouse, and San Francisco. I now find myself in Medellin, Colombia.
Thank you verymuch for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
LAWRENCE ROSE Pobladoboy@gmail.com
YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS? Sorry for the spoilers. You probably won't be buying it anyway.
