imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
LADIES, START YOUR ENGINES!
While surfing the lit blogs recently, I read that NASCAR, Harlequin gear up for love stories. "It's a partnership between two extremely brand-loyal groups," says Kerry Tharp of NASCAR. "We're trying to reach out and do more to appeal to our female fan base."
NASCAR fans buy $2 billion in licensed products annually. Harlequin devotees bought 130 million books last year.
This morning I was checking out Evil Editor, an editor who critiques writers' query letters. Like Miss Snark, who recommended the site, Evil Editor is primarily instructive yet snarky, too. Lo and behold, there's a query letter from a writer who has written one of the NASCAR Harlequin romances!
Here's a taste of it ...
Indy racecar driver Jessica Drake lives to win. When her father is violently killed, Jessica finds out that he led a secret criminal life. This earth-shattering deception thrusts her into a race for her life [A race with whom?] and makes her question everything she knows [a possible exaggeration.] – including her own motivations for racing. Not used to needing others, and especially not used to asking for help from big, strong men, [On the rare occasions she's asked for help, it's always been from 98-pound weaklings.] Jessica must turn to a hunky mechanic for protection. [No wonder I can never find a mechanic on duty; they're all off moonlighting as bodyguards.] [What does she need protection from?] Along the way, she learns how to trust again and discovers that she doesn't have to win to find love. [Win what? Indy-car races? She thought she had to win Indy-car races to find love? Guess it's just a matter of degree; Evil Editor used to think he had to pick up the dinner tab to find love.]
I wonder what Chris, over at Lucky Dawg News, thinks of this? How 'bout his wife?
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