An Agent's Inbox #18

Dear Agent's Name,

I am a writer of literary fiction who recently received a fellowship to Ragdale to work on a novel-in-progress about a family of downwinders in northern Arizona. I noted from your list for this competition that you represent literary fiction.  I would like to present to you my completed novel, a dark literary work that could best be described as Crime and Punishment in first century Palestine.

Didymus wants to forget his father sold him into slavery for the price of a broken donkey and a few coins. He wants to erase his memories of murdering his abusive master to escape to freedom. And he succeeds. Almost. After ten years of struggle, he has reinvented himself into a successful caravan driver in Tiberias.

But when his business partner, Nathaniel, acknowledges he's revealed Didymus' crimes to a man named Jesus of Nazareth, Didymus realizes the secrets in his past could destroy the life he has so carefully crafted. If Jesus turns him in to the Roman authorities, he faces arrest and crucifixion. He will do anything--even kill again--to prevent that gruesome fate.

He pursues Jesus from Capernaum to Jericho to Jerusalem. But he never expects to fall in love with the mysterious Tabitha, a former leper who claims she was healed by the Jewish prophet. Now he must choose: lie to the only woman who has ever cared for him, or risk losing her forever by telling the truth.

THE BLOOD OF A STONE is complete at 95,000 words.

I hold an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and am the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. My short fiction has won awards from Writer's Digest National Writing Competition, Wind Literary Magazine, New Millennium Awards, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Writer's Conference, among others. Other short pieces have been published in print and online.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Per your guidelines, the first 250 words are pasted below.

Best Regards,
J.L.G.


THE BLOOD OF A STONE

Prologue

The red-bellied spider crept out of the crevice in the wall, picking her way carefully over the rough-hewn rock. This was her domain. The trench between the stable wall and the hillside had been filled with trash and debris, providing a ready breeding ground for her insect prey. Spinning out a slender thread, she dropped perilously close to a thatch of tangled black hair.

The hair belonged to a boy who was oblivious to the danger lurking above. Last week or two weeks before that--he didn't know the exact date--he had reached the age when most young men seek a wife. But this man-child was not destined to marry. Didymus was a slave.

Balancing his bare feet on a mound of rotting fruit, Didymus squeezed deeper into his hiding place where he could watch the argument between the Nabataean and Nathaniel unobserved. His master, the Nabataean, wanted Nathaniel to travel to the great city of Petra to purchase a pair of camels. It had been almost a year since Didymus's father had sold him to the camel driver for the price of an ancient donkey and a handful of coins. The other slave, Nathaniel, had become Didymus's only friend and a shield from the Nabataean's abuse. Now the master planned to send Nathaniel away. Fighting back his fear, Didymus strained to hear their discussion.

Nathaniel didn't raise his voice--he would never do that to their master--but he was angry.