Summarize!

My editor has asked me to write a tag line for book II, Ketha’s Daughter. This is a single sentence that encapsulates the meaning of the book and “hooks” the reader. Twenty-five words or less…

It’s tough.

How do you take a book of 129,000 words and condense it into twenty-five words?

I have already done this exercise once, with Heart of Hythea. So it should be easier the second time around, right? And yet every book has its own special meaning, and I have to find the right twenty-five words for Ketha.

 

Progress

My characters are gaining personalities. One has become painfully shy. The heroine has a relationship with his brother. The conflict, taking place in the first chapter, involves these three young people, an assault, and a case of mistaken identity. Hopefully this initial bit of excitement will hook the reader (if they haven’t been already–this is the fourth book in the series, after all.)

A word on plot. I am writing a series of books, so I have to write stories that work on a number of levels. There is the story that begins and ends within each book. There are main characters, conflict and a satisfying resolution within this framework. THEN there is the big story that stretches over the course of the four books. It also has main characters (some different,) a much larger conflict and a resolution that wraps up all the loose ends from all four books (a tall order.) In addition to this there are the hidden themes that I incorporate into each book.

More about that next time.