QUERY/ A PLACE TO BE

Dear ,
I am seeking representation. My novel, A Place to Be, is a piece of literary fiction (95 271 words) that can be compared to the lyrical yet plot-driven novels by Preeta Samarasan and Arundhati Roy. However, the introspective and psychological bent of my novel makes it more emotionally and psychically gripping.
Kamala Karthigesu has been spending the last two years in a mental asylum in Tanjung Agas, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. She is just about to hang herself when there is a knock on the door. She’s not even allowed to kill herself, it seems.
Her days at the Asylum have mainly been quiet apart from occasional episodes which have come to be regarded by all as “1000 watt” moments. But the past will not let her go. She’s haunted by Pei Lu and Rashid, her childhood friends who betrayed her by falling in love, Tarikh, Rashid’s dead artist uncle whose paintings first inspired her to become an artist, her ex-lover the English painter Vincent Garland and Vairaumati, a character from Paul Gauguin’s paintings whose persona she blames Vincent for imposing on her when they were in love.
It is finally Nurse Fatimah who saves her from suicide. She has been taking care of Kamala at the asylum but their relationship has always been an uneasy one. It is Nurse Fatimah’s confession about her own past that finally gets Kamala to face the ghosts that have been haunting her. But it’s not an easy confrontation. She learns a fact about her past which confirms her mental instability and she is left to wonder about what she will do with her guilt.
Set mainly in contemporary Malaysia and partly in England, the novel looks at the effects of flawed communication between people, the weight of an unexplored past (both private and public- a parallel concern that runs through the novel is the May 13 1969 racial riots in Kuala Lumpur), the power of betrayal and how people create their own victimhood.
My poems have been published in several US and UK publications including “Agenda” Broadsheet and The Wolf magazine. I am a Malaysian by birth, a painter by choice and a writer by necessity.
Please let me know if you would be interested in reading part or all of A Place to Be.
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Query- Little Nightmares

Dear Agent,

I am seeking representation for my 70,000 word YA URBAN FANTASY novel Little Nightmares.

You’d think it would be safe to explore a haunted house when your two best friends are horror stories themselves. Seline Crier finds out differently.

All her life Seline Crier has been ostracized from her family and society because of one little ability. She’s a telekinetic. And when she meets Dmitri, a forty year old vampire trapped in the body of a twelve year old, and Omega, a fledgling werewolf on the eave of his first transformation, she thinks she might be able to pull her family back together again. She just has to brave the horrors of the Wickham House first.

Inside the Wickham House Seline’s life complicates even further as she’s almost scared to death by the House’s two friendly haunts, almost torn apart by Omega, and drawn into a plot to kill Dmitri that will change her life forever. Seline uses her powers to stop the monster threatening her friends, and earns its wrath when she proves unable to kill it. Now Seline must rush to her home before the monster can arrive ahead of her, and take away any chance she ever has of fixing her family and earning their love.
Little Nightmares will appeal to the fans of both paranormal and horror genres. I am a student of history at Concord University and have one prior publication with Concord University’s publication Reflexes.

I would be happy to forward the complete manuscript to you upon your request, and I thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,

Ryan M. Smith