Query

For the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge this year, I’m posting a 100 word piece of flash fiction every day. It might be a self-contained story, or a scene–whatever, it’ll be fiction, and it’ll be over in a flash! Today’s story is…

Query

Dear Ms. Price:

Angela was a hard-nosed literary agent with a flair for snark, and a rejection count as large as the national debt. Then she received the query she couldn’t turn down. The email threatened her life if she didn’t say yes, and the sender had attached the 150,000 word manuscript. There was no name at the bottom, just the signature, “I know where you live.”

TWO DAYS TO LIVE tells the story of Angela’s search for the writer who would try to kill her—and probably will. The 150,000 word manuscript is attached.

I know where you live.

Check back on Monday for R…

cds

Colin D. Smith, writer of blogs and fiction of various sizes.

You may also like...

20 Responses

  1. katyupperman says:

    Clever and creepy and hilarious. I think this is my favorite so far!

  2. mirymom says:

    LOL! That’s hilarious. And a letter many of us have wanted to write.

    • cds says:

      Thanks, Samantha! If I were to ever actually make a novel out of this idea, this would be a great query letter for it… except I’m not sure how an agent would take it. :\

  3. Kim Graff says:

    Oh, I like this one! It’s creepy. I don’t know what I’d do if I found this in my inbox.

  4. LOL! That’s both funny and creepy! I hope no one ever sends something like that to an agent. Yikes!
    PS, thanks for the query tips!

    • cds says:

      Thanks, Melanie. I agree–though from what I gather, some people are insane enough to write back to agents complaining about getting rejected, so you never know…!

      You’re welcome. I hope my comments are helpful. 🙂

  5. Hah! I’m taken back to a podcast I watched with agents, where the begged you not to write creepy queries. Nicely done.

    True Heroes from A to Z

    • cds says:

      Yes, this is definitely a good example of the query letter you DON’T want to write. Please! Not the best way to get an agent’s attention. 🙂

  6. Cath Smith says:

    A very unoriginal ‘creepy!’ I like!

  7. That was creepy. Gave me chills.

    ~Patricia Lynne~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, YA Author

  8. Andrea @ Maybe It's Just Me says:

    Yikes!!!!

  9. Kitty says:

    I love it! Ingenious and thoroughly creeptastic. You really have a knack for flash fiction. 🙂 Happy Easter!

  1. February 2, 2022

    […] Here’s my favorite of the stories (or pieces, since they’re not all strictly-speaking “stories”), originally posted April 19: […]

  2. February 10, 2022

    […] the right under April 2014 and find the individual stories. A couple of my favorites are Invisible, Query, and […]

Share your thoughts... I usually reply!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.