05/20/2012
Tracy Holczer (ScoutF on QT) has signed with agent Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio.
I highly recommend tailoring each query. I did hours of research on each agent. I probably read every single interview online. And thank goodness I did. Because I found this one sentence where my agent commented on having a soft spot for the very book I’d written. Because she is more known for commercial YA, if I hadn’t read that interview, I might never have contacted her.
Also, read their titles. You will know you are a good match if you do.
Dear Ms. Stimola,
Your interview on Cynsations, as well as several of your titles, inspired me to contact you. Sparrow Road completely knocked my socks off, one of my favorites this year. You stated that you'd never walk away from a character-driven middle grade with the right blend of humor and pathos, so I thought my 40,000 word middle grade novel, The Secret Hum of a Daisy, might be a good fit.
When thirteen-year old Grace finds an origami crane at her new school, she believes it's a sign from Mama who used to make junk-art cranes. Strange things don't usually happen to Grace who is confronting her mother's sudden death, and the secrets she left behind. But as more signs follow, Grace is convinced Mama is trying to tell her something from the Great Beyond. Obsessed with finding the answers, Grace resists her new life in a close-knit small town, and refuses to see her Grandmother as anything more than an unwelcome stranger. But the real stranger Grace has to get to know is herself. She and Mama had spent years moving from one place to the next. Now that Grace is forced to stay put, she wonders if she'll ever learn to trust people, and as she stumbles onto more answers than she bargained for, if she'll be able to see beyond Mama's past, and more importantly, her own.
Not just about the loss of a parent, this story is about acceptance and the importance of community (not to mention the importance of mail-order butts, sarchophagi, and a good bowl of soup).
The Secret Hum of a Daisy won the Sue Alexander Award for most promising new work, first place in the SCBWI Los Angeles Writer's Day, and was a finalist for the Katherine Paterson Prize (under different titles - Title Queen, I am not). Additionally, I have attended the Highlights Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua on scholarship and two Highlights Founder's Workshops in Honesdale with Patti Gauch. I am a member of SCBWI.
Thank you for your time and consideration.