Hextacy

NIGHT CHILD query

2007-10-26T22:27:49Z

Hi all,

Here is the query letter that I sent out for NIGHT CHILD, which resulted in a very nice deal with Ace-Penguin. I got six requests for partials, and one super-agent.

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Dear [Name],

I am seeking representation for my thriller/adventure novel, Night Child, which is complete at 87,000 words. The sequel, Magic is Murder, is in outline form. What would a vampire courtroom look like? Can you analyze a warlock's DNA? How do you seek 'justice' for a dead demon? Night Child explores the magical underworld from a forensic angle, following Tess Corday, an Occult Special Investigator, as she cracks demon cold-cases and supernatural murders. In Night Child, Tess is a struggling OSI level one, trying to balance her 'calling' with her desire to have a normal social life. When she agrees to protect Mia Polanski, a teenager with untapped mystical abilities, she finds herself caught in the middle of a political power-play that could get her killed-or worse. As Tess explains to Mia: "Demons, vampires, immortals-they're always fighting. This world is their battleground. They've got the power, but we're the ones who enforce the law-the ones in between, maintaining order, not just through magic, but through science." I have been publishing poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction articles for ten years, and my work has appeared in literary journals such as The Capilano Review, The Saskatchewan Review, Canadian Literature, Mosaic, and Modern Fiction Studies. I am the author of "Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel" (McFarland, 2005), and "Farscape: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction" (I.B. Tauris, forthcoming 2006). If you are interested, I can send along a synopsis and/or the complete manuscript. It would be a pleasure to work with [Agency] Best Jes --- PS: even though I'm still very new to fiction publishing, I'm always happy to look at queries (or partials, or messy drafts, or whatever) and give advice

jbattis @ 2007-06-30T15:42:00

2007-06-30T22:42:27Z

So, I'm designing a website for my work--can't put a cover for NIGHT CHILD up yet, since it's not ready, but I can link to other books that I've written. Any suggestions for content/look/feel? Since the novel is basically a CSI procedural with magic, I'm thinking something with crime-scene tape, maybe a body outline?

Jes

Webhosting

2007-06-30T00:12:37Z

This may be the wrong question for this site, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me advice on finding a host for a new website. I am terrible at this. I registered a domain name (jesbattis.com) with DNS, but now I need someone to host the page, and I don't know where to start. I've built webpages before, that's not the problem, but they've always been for university sites where I was just given filespace.

Any advice--mucho appreciated!

Jes

jbattis @ 2007-06-28T21:32:00

2007-06-29T04:50:48Z

Hi all,

Bear with me as I make my first foray into the livejournal community. I am a new author with Ace, currently working on an Urban Fantasy series with a forensic theme. My first novel, NIGHT CHILD, will be published as an original mass-market paperback in the Spring of 2008, with the sequel, HEXTACY, following in 2009.

I'm also a new professor. As of August of 2007, I'll be a postdoctoral research fellow at the City University of New York, developing an academic book on the emergence of gay and lesbian teen literature. I'll be teaching in the department of Film and Media Studies at CUNY-Hunter College, and living in Brooklyn (oddly enough, that makes me the only Ace writer who actually lives in New York). My editor is Ginjer Buchanan, and my agent is Lauren Abramo of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.

I have published two other academic books:

NIGHT CHILD is my first novel, and I'll post a cover image as soon as it's available. For more information on my other projects, visit my website: here

Contact me at jbattis@gmail.com with comments, advice, or chocolate bribes