Workshop Wednesday

By repeated request we've started Workshop Wednesday. It will definitely play out through 2011, and beyond that we'll just have to see. We've received well over 200 queries at this point, but we are choosing at random, so don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.


Dear Ms. Faust,


Prepare to give audience to the amazingly dim-witted account of one girl’s misadventures. Readers of all ages can identify with my heartwarming tales of pushing my sister down a steep cobblestone hill in a wheelchair, having my head rolled up in a car window, wanting to stab my boss in the face with a Samurai sword, my traitorous ovaries launching Jihad against me, and having to listen to my parents have sex in our shared motel room because they thought I was asleep.

I'm not too keen on this opening paragraph. It sounds a little like the circus ringmaster calling the audience into the show. In other words, it sounds a little forced.

Humor is a tough thing, which is why comedians are some of the most respected professionals in my eye; what one finds funny others will not. I'm afraid I didn't connect with the "heartwarming tales" that sounded less than heartwarming. I get after reading on that you're trying to be funny, but for me it didn't work. Others might disagree.


“Ray of F***ing Sunshine” is a collection of humorous non-fiction essays that comes in at 60,000 words. Authors of similar works doing well in today's market are Chelsea Handler, Jill Connor Browne, and Laurie Notaro. I feel that in today’s world of crashed economies and ADHD, my book would be welcomed for the brevity of the stories as well as the laugh factor. To break up the monotony of hilarity, I’ve also included pieces that shed light on my struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following a violent robbery. This disorder is becoming better known but there are very few personal accounts of how it affects the victim.

I like your title. I think that's actually very striking. What I don't get from your first paragraph is how the title connects with the stories. Do you have a humorously bitter take on these stories? I didn't get that.

Since Chelsea Handler's success in publishing I get a lot of queries from people comparing themselves to her. The problem is that Chelsea Handler was a celebrity in her own right well before she ever put pen to paper. The comparison doesn't work. I'm also completely thrown by the PTSD tie-in. I'm not sure how that connects or will work.


I have worked at and maintained a headlining blog for a major Gannet publication, the Asheville Citizen-Times, home of Pulitzer nominated writer Susan Reinhardt. This blog lives on today on my personal page, being pushed on by a band of loyal followers, famous and otherwise. When I’m not embroiled in a passionate affair with a back massager named Burt, a 64 pack of Crayola crayons with built-in sharpener, and a Cinderella coloring book, I am working on a novel that draws off of the experiences detailed in “Ray of F***ing Sunshine”.

This is a fun bio and works for me.


Thanks in advance,





Jessica