Craig Faustus Buck (cbuck1 on QT) has signed with agent Ann Collette of Rees Literary Agency.
Dear _________,
I've just completed a noir mystery called Go Down Hard which takes readers on a dark romp through the worlds of aging rock-and-rollers, live Internet sex shows, abusive psychiatrists, Slavic mobsters, child molesters, emotional betrayal, deceit, arson, murder and estate planning. I chose to write the kind of book I like to read, a character-driven page-turner that aspires to live in a neighborhood where Elmore Leonard might hoist a glass with Charlie Huston.
Nob Brown is a divorced, disillusioned thirty-something ex-cop turned freelance tabloid writer whose friend and occasional lover, LAPD detective lieutenant Gloria Lopes, gives him exclusive access to the confidential case file of the most notorious homicide of the 20th century -- the unsolved murder of rock legend Lana Strain. Unrepentant in his worship of Lana Strain and hopeful that her story will finally propel him from the tabloids to best-sellerdom, Nob dives into his research with gusto, only to find himself sucked into a mud-hole of violence and bleak family skeletons.
Soon after he interviews Lana's younger daughter, a neurotic Internet porn queen, she turns up dead and the cold case turns hot. As the body count rises, Nob becomes convinced that the next victim will be Lana's other daughter Sophia, whose secrets dwarf those of her murdered sister. Nob and Sophia become emotionally entangled as he defies beatings and death threats to protect her and solve the murders. The dramatic threads finally twist together in a deadly showdown with Lana's killer, whose sordid past gave birth to all of this novel's high crimes and misdirections.
I have been writing professionally for 35 years. I''ve written network TV drama, pilots, miniseries and movies including the blockbuster V: The Final Battle, an Oscar-nominated short film, and mysteries such as Magnum P.I. and Simon & Simon. Before that I worked as a print journalist and co-authored nonfiction books, including four self-help books, one of which was a NYT #1 bestseller and is still in print after more than 15 years. That book, Toxic Parents, along with my first book, Betrayal of Innocence (also still in print), addresses the emotional wreckage of childhood trauma, which is the underlying theme of Go Down Hard.
I have already begun laying the foundation for marketing the book to its natural genre audience through social networking. I have more than 4,900 Facebook friends, all of them readers, who've been following my writing progress, and I've been forging relationships with book bloggers, online reviewers, bookstore owners, Tweeters, fellow Mystery Writers of America, Sisters In Crime, Writers Guild members, etc. In addition, I plan to leverage my experience in the self-help world to reach out to mental health professionals and their organizations, as well as to victims of child abuse and therapist sexual abuse, who I'm sure will identify with the ethical and emotional dilemmas buried in the subtext of my novel. I plan to use these same themes to solicit invitations from book groups who might not otherwise consider hard-boiled novels.
I have included the first five pages in the body of my Email below, just to give you a taste. The complete MS weighs in at about 100,000 words. I thank you in advance for your time and attention.