I wrote this up for a workshop on query letters I gave somewhere sometime ago. I ran the class through the rules, gave them the sample query letter, and then made them write queries of their own.
And then we read them out loud.
And then I made ‘em do it again.

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query letters — the rules

1 — Three, maximum four paragraphs. Keep it to one page.

2 — First paragraph, introduce yourself. If you met or corresponded with the editor before, say so here. If you’ve published before, say what here.

3 — Second paragraph, introduce the work you wish to sell.

4 — Third (optional) paragraph, identify potential markets.

5 — Fourth paragraph, say thanks, goodbye and get out.

6 — Oh, and did I mention? Keep it to one page.

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query letters — a sample

POBox 123456
Pierre, South Dakota
wannabewriter@badlands.net
(701) 555-1212
October 16, 2003

Joan Editor
Huge, Gigantic Publishers
666 Madison Avenue
New York, New York

Dear Ms. Editor,

My name is Wendy Writer, and I am the author of the “Little House on the Prairie” murder mysteries, set in DeSmet, South Dakota in the late 1880’s and featuring crime-fighting schoolteacher Laura Ingalls. We met at Bouchercon last week.

This series will be an adult take on the well-known children’s series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. As my series opens, Laura has just received her second-class teacher’s certificate and is taking leave of her family to take up a teaching position in a faraway town. The first day she arrives in her one-room schoolhouse, she finds the body of a student on the floor. Suspects include the drunken father, the crazed mother, a jealous classmate, a blackmailed minister, and a corrupt school superintendent.

The Little House on the Prairie murder mysteries will find an immediate market not only with fans of crime fiction but also of the Wilder books. Ma and Pa Ingalls will make appearances, as will Almanzo Wilder, Laura’s determined beau, and Almanzo’s sister and Laura’s enemy, Eliza Jane Wilder.

I have completed the first novel in the series, Little Body in the Big Woods, and I’m looking for a publisher. Would you like to take a look?

Thank you.

Wendy Writer

cc File

Here’s that recipe for the artisanal bread I keep talking about on Feast For One.

I started with this recipe by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City. I experimented and I did a (very) little research, and this is the one I make today.

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Rustic loaf

Twenty ounces all-purpose white flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast
2 cups cold water

Start your loaf on or before noon.

Measure dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk together.

Pour in water and stir into a wet dough with a spatula. Scrape down the sides, spray with olive oil, cover with Saran wrap, and let rise for 12 to 18 hours, about double in bulk. I like to let the first rise start on the counter and finish in the refrigerator.

Fold dough down gently using oiled spatula (As Mme. Loez would cry in my cooking class in Paris, “Avec respect pour la cuisine! With respect for the food!”). Spray again with olive oil, cover again with plastic wrap, and stick in the refrigerator overnight.

Pull out the bowl in the morning and let it sit on the counter until it warms up enough to double in bulk, anywhere from 6 to 8 hours. More won’t hurt. The dough will start bubbling in an almost stop-motion boil, big blisters, you’ll know it when you see it. (It’s really kind of disgusting, now that I come to think of it. Looks like a creature out of a science fiction movie–”It’s ali-iive!”)

Put dutch oven with cover into a cold oven and set oven for 450F.
When the dinger goes, bring out the dutch oven, set the lid to one side and use an oiled spatula to gently (”Avec respect pour la cuisine!”) scoop/scrape dough into the pan. Shake the dough in the pan, centering it and rounding the loaf. Spray lavishly with water, cover with lid, and put in the oven. Set timer for 45 minutes.

When the timer goes off, remove the lid from the dutch oven, reset the oven temperature for 425F, and reset the timer for 20 minutes.

When the timer goes off, remove the pan to the stove top and let sit for ten minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan and put it on a rack. Let it cool thoroughly before you slice into it. If you have the self-control. I almost never do.

Crusty and chewy and full of flavor, this is a real woman’s bread. I make artisinal bread, hear me roar!

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This is a two-day recipe, and sometimes I forget there is dough rising and it’s a three-day recipe. I have yet to hurt this dough by throwing it into the refrigerator at any stage prior to putting it in the oven. Sometimes I start the dough just before I go to bed and it goes directly into the fridge and I pull it out in the morning and usually bake it that evening. However you do it, it has to rise twice before you’re there. The first rise can take as long as 18 hours, the second 8 to 10 hours. Your patience will never be so well rewarded.

It is very important to weigh the flour, not measure it out. I’m not even going to tell you how much flour that is in cups in case you’re tempted. The dough has to mix up wet and sloppy and if you measure the flour instead of weighing it you’ll have too much and the dough will be too dry and it won’t rise. And upon your own head be it!

Table salt is better than sea salt. Kosher salt works, too.

The best snack in the world is a slice of this bread dipped in olive oil spiced with a pressed clove of garlic, some Italian herbs, and a glug of balsamic vinegar.