Sunday, November 26, 2006

describe a book in one sentence

One-sentence descriptions seem scary, but they always end up being fun. Kind of like flash fiction. Here's the new one for my current project, plus all the old ones.



PALE IMMORTAL SEQUEL: THE PUBLIC DISPLAY OF A MUMMIFIED VAMPIRE AND THE DISCOVERY OF A MASS GRAVE COMBINE TO AWAKEN DARK ELEMENTS IN THE TOWN OF TUONELA, WISCONSIN.


PALE IMMORTAL: A BODY IS FOUND DRAINED OF BLOOD AND RESIDENTS OF TUONELA, WISCONSIN, FEAR THE RETURN OF THE PALE IMMORTAL, A VAMPIRE WHO HAS BEEN DEAD A HUNDRED YEARS.


HUSH: A WOMAN HELPS TRACK DOWN THE CHICAGO SERIAL KILLER WHO MURDERED HER INFANT SIXTEEN YEARS EARLIER.

SLEEP TIGHT: ESTRANGED SISTERS REUNITE TO CATCH A MINEAPOLIS KILLER.

PLAY DEAD: SOMEONE IS DRUGGING SAVANNAH RESIDENTS WITH A SUBSTANCE THAT MIMICS DEATH.

BEFORE I WAKE: AN EX-CRIMINAL PROFILER UNDERGOES A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT TO RESTORE HER BLEACHED MEMORY IN ORDER TO CATCH THE MAN WHO MURDERED HER FAMILY.

21 comments:

Sandra Ruttan said...

Okay, I'll try.

Suspicious Circumstances: A whole lot of shit happens.

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as yours. How about:

Investigating a suspicious death and a missing baby help Detective Tymen Farraday and reporter Lara Kelly uncover the truth about corruption in the local police department and put them in the path of a killer.

I'm horrid with plot sentences. And really, that doesn't quite cut it.

anne frasier said...

haha! i vote for the first one.

the second one isn't bad either!

Heather Harper said...

I would join in the fun, but I'm uber paranoid about discussing non-contracted work.

Of which I have zero... ;)

Heather Harper said...

I mean zero contracted work. I have zero contracted work.

I'm pathetic.

anne frasier said...

heather: lol! i don't blame you one bit. i'm paranoid about contracted work too!

bekbek said...

This is freaking me out. Syd Field is big on the one-sentence description being the be-all and end-all. I dunno... Maybe you all need to check out Syd Field. Who knows!

The thing I've been working on? Hmm.

"the tension is here: between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it could be, I dare you to move..."

Ah, lyrics.

Hah. The thing I'm working on? Spend 20 minutes trying to write the synopsis. GOES TO SHOW YA! I shall sign off and pursue... but gosh darn, that's hard... something to do with big-city girl making friends with military pen pal... dammit...

Rob Gregory Browne said...

Best way to come up with a one sentence pitch is to look at it this way: Who, What, How.

The Fugitive, for example:

Who: A high-powered surgeon.

What: Wrongly convicted of murdering his wife.

How: Escapes custody to hunt down the real killer.

Which would translate, obviously, to:

Wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, a high-powered surgeon escapes custody to hunt down the real killer.

At the risk of blatant self-promotion, I have an article about this on my blog, called Make Your Pitch. :)

Kelly (Lynn) Parra said...

These are always fun! I think I did my RS last time, here's my YA:

A struggling teen artist, looking for acceptance for her artwork and finds herself torn between two boys -- one with a beautiful eye for detail and the other who uses the streets as his canvas.

Probably too many words as usual!

Anonymous said...

rob, that's great advice! i have 4 main characters of equal weight. i wonder what you do in a case like that.

maybe choose the character with the most at stake.

kelly, i really like that!!

emeraldcite said...

i have 4 main characters of equal weight

A lawyer, a doctor, a rabbi, and a priest walk into a bar...


stop me if you've heard this one ;)

anne frasier said...

LOL!!!

Jeff said...

I don't think they are very easy to do. Yours are good, Anne.

anne frasier said...

thanks, jeff. it really isn't that hard once the panic goes away.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Ooh, a game! I'll try it on my current WIP:

IN THE OUTER: An unwilling hitman becomes part of a crime syndicate that reaches back to turn-of-the-century Sydney.

anne frasier said...

ooooh, that's a good one, daniel.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks, Anne. Although the turn of the century was really only 6 years ago, I'm talking about the one before that.

bekbek said...

"turn of the century" turns out to be problematic for a world that has serious records of such things.

Not bad at all, to suffer from too many recorded words. Graffiti: 2, Libraries: 100.

emeraldcite said...

CARDBOARD CUTOUT -- Lowly novelty photographer in DC inadvertently captures the face of a presidential assassin on film.

3 LAYERS -- Unwitting dermatologist turned amateur sleuth stumbles upon an underground black market for human skin.

CRUELEST MONTH – Sly tax accountant faces a deadline like he never expected when he meets a buxom blonde with two large accounts and a hankering to marry.

I like games. This is fun. Maybe I should write one of these...

anne frasier said...

i had a little trouble following that comment, but i think i figured it out. :D

emeraldcite: CRUELEST MONTH – Sly tax accountant faces a deadline like he never expected when he meets a buxom blonde with two large accounts and a hankering to marry. haha!

i think 3 layers would sell and later be made into a movie.

Lara Adrian said...

Coming in late on this, and I'm not going to subject anyone to my feeble attempts to log-line my books, but Anne . . .

The description for PALE IMMORTAL 2 (Electic Boogaloo) sounds great! So full of possibilities. I can't wait to hear more--as in, a pub date, maybe? :) I'm taking PALE IMMORTAL (Uno) with me to Mexico next month on vacation. At last, some reading time!

anne frasier said...

oops. my above comment was for bekbek. sorry about that.

lara, LOL! that IS a great title. haha!

i'm waiting to hear about a pub date myself. last i heard it was a very rocky october 2007, so i'm feeling pretty doubtful about the date. october would be a great month though!