While I wait to hear back on any of the book proposals (could be months) and trying to get the freelance writing going again (TravelAwaits was sold), I'm focusing on the mystery that I started years ago. Time to do a re-write. It's the story of a murder that occurs in a Southern port city radio station (any resemblance to actual persons, towns, and radio stations is purely coincidental...kind of...sort of) during World War II. I'm starting the research in the La-Z-Boy watching hours of Ken Burns' "The War" and a classic from Reader's Digest (on VHS no less), "The Homefront: 1940-1945" to get the vibe once again of the time.
The renewed interest in bringing this project back to life came during this year's Mobile Literary Festival. I decided to enter the Pitch War and submitted a pitch for the manuscript. The idea of the Pitch War is for the short synopsis of the book, only a few sentences long - an "elevator" pitch - is read anonymously and the audience gets to vote on whether it's a book they would buy or not. The agent critiques the pitch and announces if they would pick up the book or not. The audience and the agent who reviewed it overwhelmingly loved it. Some said it was the best of the afternoon. I was shocked, and humbled. So, here I am. Here is the pitch I submitted:
The staff at a local wartime radio station in a bustling Southern port city watch with horror as the body of their dear friend, radio actress Samantha Starr, is wheeled down a hallway on a gurney, her arm, now pale white, dangles from beneath the blanket covering her body. The only color comes from her highly polished Chen Yu Opium Dream nail polish. Her husband is accused of her murder by a local police detective, but the station’s foley artist, Art Foley (he will tell that the name is just a coincidence), believes an innocent man is being hung out to dry, perhaps literally, and sets out to prove his friend’s innocence.
