The proof copy is in the mail! Now I’m waiting on Canada Post. In the meantime, I’m sending out a few queries to Canadian agents for another novel, HIDDEN. This one isn’t in the Dangerous Journeys series although the protagonist is well-travelled by book’s end. Below is a very short synopsis:

Bella, a young Toronto doctor, leaves her narrow life, bounded by her condo, her addiction meetings and her volunteer work at a refugee centre, to save her immigrant clients from a gang of imported thugs from Chechnya. The next three weeks take her from Toronto to Rome to Venice to Dubrovnik, finally bringing her face to face with a killer in a toolshed in Toronto.

Writing synopses is one of the more difficult tasks for a novelist. One needs to write more than one: one for the jacket and then a series for different agents and different publishers. There isn’t uniformity in the publishing world.

And then there is something else called the “pitch”. This is a very short, 20 second sentence that can be blurted out to agents or publishers at conferences, at lunch or in the elevator. It seems strange to me that a decision on whose work to read can depend on a practiced sentence, possibly not even written by the speaker.

Another item is “the hook”, a brief description of some aspect of the work that sets it aside from others and can capture the reader.

All this for the business of writing.