Mar 12, 2005

Next Week's Assignment: Back Cover Blurb

For next Wednesday's critique group writing assignment we all wrote down a suggested "setting" in one bowl and a "genre" in the other and then drew out one from each.

I'll give you a list of each to choose from (since it would be difficult for you to pick from the bowl.)

Setting: deserted island, southern plantation in the Louisiana Bayou, the market with 3 screaming kids, backstage at a Broadway theater, cockpit of a jet, downtown Boston during a blizzard, comedy club near New Jersey airport, gynocologist's office, Texas State Fair, hotel suite hot tub.

Genre: historical, chick lit, romance, western, fantasy, mystery.

Now, write the back cover blurb for your "cockpit of a jet historical", your plantation chick lit" or whatever you pick.

Unfortunately, my choices were random (the market with 3 screaming kids fantasy.) I'll post what I come up with next week...

If you post by Wed. at noon I'll read yours to the group and bring back their comments here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Setting: In the market with 3 screaming kids
Genre: Fantasy

In Myrtha, a sleepy village on the edge of The Valley of Pastora, Mistress Willyth and her children, Sympathy, Smyte and Byle, set out for the market just on the other side of the Wycket Woods. Their quest is a simple, perfect melon to prepare in celebration of the Eve of St. Slyverstone.

When the last piece of fruit vanishes under their noses by the dark magic of Ephedra, Duchess of the Gypsy Dwarfs, the children begin to wail. As they walk away empty-handed, Willyth coaxes them into silence with promises of ginger cake upon their return home.

Back through the gloomy, damp forest, young Byle begins to cry again. This time a sharp, poisonous thorn has punctured the sole of his ragged boot. Before Willyth can soothe and shush her child, evil Lympid, Pool of Darkness, is awakened from his ancient nap. In a fit of hellish rage he opens up the mossy forest floor and casts the four inside, to fall through the Tunnels of Time forever. But before Lympid can close the crevice caused by his unearthly anger, a nearby wood-sprite, Bogo Friggins, tosses beautiful Sympathy a key.

Now that the trapped family possesses the ancient golden key, they must find the gate it unlocks before feverish Byle dies from the poison. Follow Willyth and her children as they journey through the unnatural perils of the underground tunnels, struggle to foil Limpid’s malicious traps and battle the fire-breathing Beast of Ages who guards the gate that will lead them homeward.

Nankin said...

setting: the backroom of a failing comedy club somewhere near Newark International Airport
Genre: Detective story

The call came in at exactly 2:43 AM. I knew, because I’d looked at my watch when the phone rang. I was holding down the night desk in homicide at the 43 rd precinct. It’d been a boring night until then.

The Cotton Patch Club; a seedy red neck comedy club in an even seedier part of town just outside Newark International Airport.

Apparently someone had taken a real dislike to the club’s star attraction. This guy billed himself as “The Executive Transvestite” and was fond of saying “put your money where your mouth is”. Only problem is, someone had cut out his tongue and put another part of his anatomy into his mouth.

Now it was up to me to find the perp and I didn’t think it was going to be easy.

Karyn Lyndon said...

Thanks, Nankin, for posting. It was at 1:35 p.m. I knew because I looked at your blog post...lol