MOURNING DOVE is 81,000 words. Inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s apocryphal quote to Harriett Beecher Stowe, I wrote it to be the little novel that starts the great war against global warming. I am sending this to you because you represent X, whom I admire, and you ask for Y on your #MSWL.
Jen, sleeping, sensed that Mom entered her
room, bent over her, and kissed her cheek. Jen loved it when her mother woke her this way.
“G’morning, Honey,” Mom said. “It’s our
last launch day. We have to talk. You turn sixteen tomorrow and you've never experienced friends your age, especially someone who makes your heart flutter. That's not right for a teen. I need you to persuade Grams. You're the only one who might be able to convince her to leave with us. And even if she refuses, we’re flying to our family and civilization in Antarctica without her and Grandpa. You've got to be my partner in this. If anything goes wrong, it could be very dangerous, with people trying to kill us. But we have to do it. Are you in? Can I count on you?”
“Mom. Of course you can. I’m in. It will
be my mission, from almost sixteen onward.”
Mom put her arms around Jen and hugged her
close. It felt good.
#
A flash snowstorm coated the ground seconds
before liftoff. Jen and Grandpa in the command bunker followed the take-off on
live video. When the rocket left the camera’s view, she watched another video feed
showing her older brother, Fred, at the outdoor weather station. He bent over
backward as he tracked the flight. Suddenly, both legs flew
out from under him. Their launch center
was on top of a mountain. He was on a narrow asphalt path, overlooking a steep
drop, and the blacktop was slippery. Mom, suddenly in the picture, reached for Fred
to keep him from going over the cliff. But as she grabbed him she lost her
footing, too, and they both slid over the edge clutching each other. On a speaker somewhere, she heard her mother scream. Seeing
the empty cliff, Jen shouted, “No! Mommie! Come back. I need you. Mommie!” Grandpa wrapped
Jen in his arms.
#
At the funeral, Dad turned a wheel that gently lowered Mom’s coffin into her grave. Watching, Jen said,
almost out loud, Mom, I won’t let you down.
Ballantine Books published my novella
"Oceans Away" in Stellar Short Novels. I ghosted for Senator Paula
Hawkins, and my op-eds appeared, under her name, throughout the United States. I've spoken about climate and MOURNING DOVE on 5 podcasts so far, as well as to a high school, and I will be featured in a Netflix climate documentary. On Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I have 65,000 connections following MOURNING
DOVE. I expect cover blurbs from the most famous of these. My author page has had 100,000 hits and my blog 10,000. My day job is Beltway bandit wordslinger. I'm submitting this query to multiple agencies. Thank you for your time and consideration.
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