Clash of the Query Letters 2022—1st place

Congrats to Franka Zeph on winning first place in our first-ever Clash of the Query Letters contest!

Content warning: the following story pitch deals with the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self harm, please seek professional support. Click here for a list of international help lines.

Dear Agent,

I am writing this letter to introduce my latest novel for publication, THE TRAGICLY LOVELY SUICIDE OF BEE, a supernatural fiction piece of 60,000 words.

Devastated by the sudden death of her mother, 28-year-old data analyst Bee Walters commits suicide with the intention of joining her in the Afterlife. She soon discovers it’s not so simple. For one thing, she must contend with The Ministry Of Tragick Affairs whose bureaucracy frustrates her efforts. Suicides are segregated from those who died of natural causes and The Ministry won’t disclose her mother’s whereabouts. Her Suicide Division support group is populated with disagreeable souls enrolled for reform prior to reincarnation. She discovers that a lot of dead people on Earth have a difficult time accepting that they are dead. If you tell another ghost that they can’t climb back into their cadaver, they will kick your ass. And her iPhone won’t work.

If Bee had known that suicide was such a headache, she would have chosen to live.

After forty days of shuttling between Earth and the Afterlife, she must either return to her support group or risk becoming trapped in limbo. First, she wants to atone for the distress she has caused the living. Her sister Alex thinks Bee is a selfish bitch who died without insurance and left her with the funeral tab. Roommate Amy’s life is in tatters after being the first to find her corpse. Making amends won’t be easy considering Bee is now a ghost, invisible to everyone except the cat and her baby nephew Michael.

I am an emerging writer based in Scarborough, Ontario. By day, I work as a copywriter for a marketing agency and polish my literary gems by night. I hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from York University.

My sci-fi thriller short story “Door Crashers” will be published by Tor in 2022. Other credits include Augur Magazine Issue 3.2 and The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto’s newsletter. For 10 years I have blogged about dance music and underground art at frankenraver.wordpress.com.

If you would like to consider THE TRAGICLY LOVELY SUICIDE OF BEE, I’d be happy to forward the manuscript to you. Currently, it is on multiple submission.

Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Franka Zeph hails from the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and is currently based in Scarborough, Canada. She works as a copywriter in digital marketing by day and polishes her literary gems by night. Her upcoming sci-fi short story Door Crashers will be out on Tordotcom in 2022. Other works have been published under the pseudonym Frankie Diamond in Augur Magazine Issue 3.2., dance music blog frankenraver.wordpress.com, and The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto's newsletter. Franka is an avid consumer of English literature, cosmic philosophy, vintage clothing, and dark chocolate. Find her on Twitter @FrankaZeph.