This is the first query letter that I will send. I am waiting until I finish writing the synopsis on the novel, as I want to have to have it ready to send if he is interested. If so, he would ask for the synopsis and 4 - 6 sample chapters.
The synopsis is the most difficult writing task I have ever endeavored. I need to summarize the essence of the story in one or two pages!
I am tempted to go ahead and send the query letter and assume I will be finished with the synopsis by the time he asks for it. That would certainly turn up the pressure on me to get it done!
How do you think the following query letter reads? Any suggestions?
Steven Chudney
The Chudney Agency
January 10, 2017
Title: The Merchant of Arimathea
Genre: Historical Fiction Word count: 100,233
Dear Mr. Chudney,
I was delighted to learn that you grew up in Israel. I think you will find this project very much in keeping with your interests in the Middle East.
The Merchant of Arimathea is “the greatest story ever told,” as conveyed through the eyes of its most mysterious character. Yosef of Arimathea is the subject of legends around the world, though in the biblical scriptures, he appears only once very briefly and mysteriously to bury Yeshua, in his own tomb, then disappears and the scriptures never mention him again. Is it possible that he alone knows the truth about what happened on that famous day two thousand years ago?
This historical epic tells the full story of one of the most powerful and wealthy men of his world and how he witnessed the life of the most remarkable spiritual leader of all time. Spanning most of the first century and the then known world, it is a story that takes a human look at his life and that of his great nephew Yeshua.
In the ninth decade of Yosef’s life, he finds himself a prisoner of war as one of the few survivors of the last battle of the Jewish-Roman war – the Siege of Masada. Yosef and Miriam are two of eight survivors from that battle who are in transit to Rome for interrogation. An unlikely encounter on the island of Melita finds Yosef face to face with the former Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Though it is widely believed that Tiberius Caesar executed Pilate four decades earlier, he in fact escaped. He now lives on the tiny island in hiding and under an assumed name. Pilate offers help to Yosef and his fellow prisoners escape in exchange for the “true story” of the crucifixion he ordered four decades earlier and what happened afterward."
“To address your questions would require telling a long story, that I am not sure I remember." Yosef warns the former Prefect.
"Tell it," Publius insists, "We will see what you remember. I want to know what is true. What to believe."
Yosef narrates and discusses the almost one hundred years of his life as the two aged men compare remembrances and try to piece together an understanding of the roles their lives played in this crucial era of history. Yosef’s narrative includes an intimate family perspective on Yeshua’s birth up to the time when he takes his thirteen-year-old, great nephew under his wing following the death of his father, Yosef ben Jacob of Nazareth. The wealthy merchant brings the young Yeshua with him as he travels the world from The Galilee and Judea to Britain, Egypt, and India.
Yosef’s pragmatic approach to dealing with Roman oppression continually clashes with Yeshua’s vision of his life’s mission. Yosef is determined to save Yeshua from what he considers the brainwashing of his religious upbringing, which he is convinced, will only lead Yeshua to a bad end. After a falling out between the two while in India, Yeshua refuses to travel further with Yosef and remains behind in India to study the eastern religions there. Yeshua spends three years walking back to the Galilee via the Silk Road. There he begins the mission that culminates in his crucifixion as seen through his eyes of his great uncle.
Following the crucifixion of Yeshua, Yosef returns to Britannia to escape Roman oppressed Judea. There he finds himself an unwilling apostle in the spread of early Christianity there. At the same time, the Roman invasion of Britannia entangles him into fighting on the side of the Briton Celts. When the Jewish-Roman War breaks out, Yosef returns to Judea to rescue Yeshua’s mother Miriam from the siege of Jerusalem. The two flee to seek refuge at Masada, only to come under siege again by the same army.
I bring to the project four decades of full-time clinical practice as a Child, Adolescent, and Adult psychiatrist. My work involved dealing with the developmental growth of psychologically complex real people. I endeavor to bring this experience to this work of fiction in such a way as to make the story and its characters distinctly human, tragic, funny, sometimes unfathomable, but always believable.
This is my first work of fiction. I have a published nonfiction book, Brainstorms: Understanding and Treating the Emotional Storms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood. Jason Aronson/Hardcover/1998-01-01/0765700803, Jason Aronson / Rowman & Littlefield / Softcover / 2000-04-01 / 0765702835. Though a medical textbook, the book included fictional case examples that were humorous, entertaining, and illustrative of important medical concepts.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I will be happy to send you additional materials upon your request.
Yours truly,
H. Joseph Horacek, Jr.
Charlotte, NC 28205
Phone: 704 9624523
E-mail:brainstorms@earthlink.net
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