Write me a query

While we're waiting for the rest of the bio info from our winners, I thought you might want to do a little writing, and at the same time, hone your query letter skills. This should be fun.

I want you to write a query. Not for one of your own works, though. This will be the query you would write if you had written an already published, well-known book. Here's an example to give you an idea of what we're talking about:

When she doesn't make it into the cellar in time, Dorothy runs to the safety of her bedroom. But before she realizes what's happening, the funnel cloud is lifting her home from its foundation and dropping it into a strange new environment filled with singing and dancing little people.

Unfortunately, the tornado has dropped her house on top of a wicked witch. If things weren't already bad enough, now she's got the dead witch's sister ticked off at her, and her problems are about to get much worse.

When the sister of the dead witch, equally wicked, learns that Dorothy has stolen her sister's ruby slippers, she's bound determined to get them back. No matter what the cost. Dorothy's only hope in getting away from the witch and finding her way back home lies with the Wonderful Wizard. With the help of her three new friends, they make the journey to the Emerald City to seek the wisdom of the great Wizard.

But the Wizard turns out to be no help at all. Dorothy has to solve the problem on her own, and she discovers that she's had the power to do that the whole time. 


In case you haven't guessed by now, I suck at queries, and this one is no exception. But I think you get the idea. So think of a well-known novel and create a query for it. Try to imagine what the author would have written, in the style they would have written it, and pen me a masterpiece. Don't give us the title, and we'll see if we can figure out what it is. Are you game? Then get busy. Just post your query as a comment and give it some kind of title so others can comment on it using the title you've chosen.