Kristine Carlson Asselin (golfergirlkca on QT) has signed with agent Vickie Motter of .
With the family golf course on the verge of bankruptcy, Kate Anderson decides she's going to be the first girl to win the Junior State Championship to draw the crowds back, but her plans are derailed when her best friend and crush is accused of vandalizing the course with a blowtorch.
(This won a pitch contest sponsored by QueryTracker.net in March 2010—I'd like to send a shout out to Jason Yarn of Paradigm Agency, who judged that contest. His feedback enabled me to make some great additions which ultimately led to my success with Vickie.)
My parents owned and operated the a golf course in central Massachusetts from 1979-1996. The course was a real "working-man's" club. The setting of THE SWEET SPOT is 100% drawn from that memory. The rest of the details, experiences, and plot are completely made up—well, almost completely. There's a lot of me in Kate. Except she's a much better golfer than I am.
I think it's really easy to get down on yourself during this process—I mean, there's a lot of rejection—but my critique group helps me to stay positive. I've also got a very supportive family who are my cheerleaders when I feel like giving up. I've worked on other projects and have had some other successes while querying this project, so that helped keep me focused on "the prize."
The writing community online is pretty great. Between all the great blogs out there and writer's boards like this one, you can always find encouragement when you're down.
I have revisions moving forward with my agent, but no major rewrites.
A lot of my "good" rejections came from agents who said they liked the writing, but they didn't "like golf" or "get golf" or "play golf." And certainly while my story takes place on a golf course, the gist is more about Kate's internal struggle and her relationships. Vickie got my story. I immediately knew, after talking to her, that she was my agent. She doesn't play golf, but she GOT that the story wasn't about golf per se.
Dear Ms. Motter,
With the family golf course on the verge of bankruptcy, Kate needs to be the first girl to win the Junior State Championship to draw the crowds back, but her plans are derailed when her best friend and crush is accused of vandalizing the course with a blowtorch.
For fifteen-year-old Kate, being the first girl to win the Junior State Championship means more than bragging rights or a college scholarship. The gigantic media blitz that comes with it might draw the crowds back to her family's almost-bankrupt golf course. But golf is a game of focus and Kate's distractions are mounting by the day: the hotshot bully; a pair of Brits her dad hires for the summer; and the sweetest distraction of all, her best friend Scott.
When vandals torch part of the golf course and the cops find the "smoking blowtorch" in Scott's car, it rocks Kate's world—first Scott withdraws from her and then she finds out the family might lose the prestige of hosting a major tournament. She suspects her friends, stakes out the bad guy, and gets her hands dirty for the first time in her life to prove Scott's innocence and guarantee the course is repaired in time. Maybe then Kate can tune out the distractions and prove she can play to win.
Though not a memoir, THE SWEET SPOT is inspired by my experience growing up on my family's golf course in central Massachusetts. It wasn't always easy being the only girl playing golf competitively in the area, but it was fun!
The Knight in Tan Khakis, a short story excerpt of THE SWEET SPOT, was published in Golfer Girl Magazine in December 2008. My elementary non-fiction TAURUS, VIRGO & CAPRICORN: ALL ABOUT THE EARTH SIGNS for Capstone Press was released in January 2010. OUR SUN, STARS, and WHO REALLY DISCOVERED AMERICA with Capstone were all published in January 2011. I have completed two additional titles for their fall 2011 catalog.
THE SWEET SPOT is a contemporary YA novel complete at 68K words and available for your immediate review should you be interested. This is a simultaneous submission. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Kristine