The Query Letter

   Ok, that seemed to go fairly well.  Next, I'd like to post the query letter I'm working on the find a literary agent to represent me. Gone are the days of submitting a manuscript directly to a publisher.  Today you need an agent to submit it for you.
   The query letter hopefully will interest an agent in representing me and my novel.  It is a daunting task to try a sell a novel that you worked on for years using a one-page letter.
   How does this grab ya?

H. Joseph Horacek, Jr.

3932 Miriam Drive

Charlotte, NC 28205

Phone: 704 9624523

E-mail:brainstorms@earthlink.net

 Name of Literary Agent / Publisher

Address of Literary Agent / Publisher                                                      Date:

Dear   ,

Title: The Merchant of Arimathea

Genre: Historical Fiction Word count: 100,233

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 mentioned 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 merchant of his time and how he witnessed the life of the most remarkable spiritual leader of all time. Spanning the most of the first century and the then known world, it is 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. Pilate, who Caesar reputedly executed 4 decades earlier, lives on the tiny island in hiding under an assumed name. Pilate offers help to Yosef and his fellow prisoners escape in return 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 insisted, "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 placed in this crucial era of history. Yosef narrates an intimate family perspective on Yeshua’s birth up to the time when he takes his 13-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.

After a falling out between the two while in India, Yeshua refuses to travel further with Yosef and remains behind in India. After studying the eastern religions in India, 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.

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. This book included fictional case examples that were humorous, entertaining, and illustrative of important medical concepts.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Enclosed please find an SAE / SASE that I have included for your reply. Upon your request, I will be happy to send you the complete manuscript.

Yours truly,

H. Joseph Horacek, Jr.