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Author: Santino Scalici
Date: 11-18-09 09:51
I have submitted the following query to one editor and have recieved no response. I fear it is not well-written. I have learned the lesson and will revise it before sending it back out. Is this a good place to start for assistance?
For your consideration:
Query- Bent Metal and Damaged Goods: Curious Tales of an American Autoworker by Tino Scalici.
Dear Agent,
Bent Metal and Damaged Goods: Curious Tales of an American Autoworker is first-person narrative fiction that chronicles life through the eyes of one Jimmy Antolini, assembler at the American Motor Company, located in Kansas City, MO.
The story opens with Jimmy getting a hair cut at the Dogwood Barber Shop, where one barber and recovering alcoholic, Robert, grows mad with fury over the loss of his favorite snack from the shelves of the local grocer, making everyone uncomfortable, including his employer and especially Ella, Jimmy's loving wife. After they escape, they fly down the main corridor leading to their home in a rundown industrial neighboorhood, located just a few miles from the area's largest employer, the American Motor Company. Jimmy works at American Motor and is minutes away from being late for his shift.
We see and feel the full, dynamic movement of a man locked in a hideous reality he will not easily escape with his only comfort being found in the loving arms of his wife and children- the last vestige of normalcy. Jimmy is terminated in the first chapter for accidentally setting fire to his locker at work and the union gets him back, but this will not be the last time he loses his job. No. He will be fired again at the end for impeding production- a move brought on by the death of his friend, who loses his leg in an elevator shaft trying to make repairs after the line speed is increased. We also see Jimmy at church and in bars, at the home of his parents, and in hospitals. We follow him and his best friend, Joe Fallon, into hotel rooms with exotic dancers, strong drink and illicit drugs of every variety. He screams through life, in a battle with the forces of good and evil, in the world and within himself. Can he be redeemed or will the revolutionary fire within him consume everything he holds dear?
This work of fiction is informed, in part, by own life's experiences and is set against a very real and historically true backdrop covering analysis of the various industrial, economic, political and social questions of the day. I am a ten-year veteran at the Ford Motor Company Kansas City Assembly Plant. Given the current flux of the industry and the heavy media spotlight- I am in a unique position having intimate knowledge of the everyday inner workings of factory life and the automotive industry in general. This work is intended for twenty or thirty-somethings, men or women, with working-class sensibilities and a flair for the weird.
World-renowned English writer, artist, sculptor and illustrator Ralph Steadman from personally named the book. He had this to say after a reading, "you write well and it is coming from an odd place in the best possible sense!" and "very naughty and playful!"
The manuscript is complete at 64,000 words.
Many thanks in advance for your time and consideration. Should you be interested in having a closer look, I can send any part or the whole manuscript in its entirety, via USPS or email, to anywhere in the world you see fit. I look forward to your response.
Yours,
Santino A. Scalici
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