Dear Agent,
      I enjoyed your interview with (insert name) for the (whatever magazine or blog), and believe, from your comments, you will be interested in my 70,000+ word novel about prejudice, friendship, and courage―and how two unsettling chapters in American history, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, affect the fate of one family, two friends, and their community. 
     Fate Carries Its Own Clock takes place in Hadlee, Mississippi, a town no bigger than a flea turd on the map.  It’s the 1980s, and racism lingers, but Jason Lee Rainey’s friendship with a black boy named Samson never wavers, despite the bullying they endure from others. 
     Jason Lee never knew his daddy, but he does know he marched for civil rights, and he’s been told the man died a hero while fighting in Vietnam.  The boy worries he won’t ever measure up to that kind of person. 
     He lives with Mama, a woman of unwavering strength, and his Uncle Mooks, a man of simple wisdom due to a head injury.  Mama holds the family together until her suppressed grief develops into a melancholy she can’t shake, and has to seek help at a clinic. Her absence coincides with Jason Lee’s discovery of his daddy’s hand written journal from the ‘65 Selma-to-Montgomery march.  It enlightens him and Samson about the true power of the civil rights movement, and incites them to want more than a life in Hadlee―to become men who make a difference.  It’s also when he finds out the real truth about his fathers death.
     In Fate Carries Its Own Clock, Jason Lee learns the lessons of inequality; flourishes with the bond of friendship; finds the courage to stand up to his uncle for what he believes is right; endures the senseless death of his best friend; and is always true to himself.  It’s 1984, the year he turns fifteen, and truly becomes his father’s son. 
     I wrote this novel as a work of literary fiction, in the vein of Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees.  It has been suggested it could also crossover into the YA category due to the age of my protagonist.  I’ll leave that decision to the experts. 
     I’ve been honing my writing skills for ten years now, mostly on short stories, until Fate insisted on becoming a novel.  I just received word it is a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards, unpublished novel category.  The winner will be announced in early June.  I have been a two time finalist for Glimmer Train short story contests, took home Best Unpublished Short Story and a finalist honor at the San Diego Book Awards in past years, and won four Excellence In Writing awards from the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.  My first published story appeared in “Art Times.”
     I have included the first few pages below.  If you would like to see more of Fate Carries Its Own Clock, please let me know.  I look forward to hearing from you.
    Sincerely.

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