QK Round 1: If the Shrew Fits vs. Irish in America
Title: Finding Kate
Entry Nickname: If The Shrew Fits
Word Count: 86,000
Genre: Adult Historical
Query:For years, Kathryn's sharp words and belligerent deeds have been her defenses in her war against an unjust world. Oh yes, this shrew has her reasons. Not even the large dowry offered by her wealthy father can tempt any man to court her and risk a tongue-lashing or a scratched face... until the day Sir William arrives in town. From the moment he blocks her escape from tedious lessons, their every exchange is a battle of wits, every word loaded with double meaning. He won't even use her own name, calling her Kate from the very first. He insists that he is the only man, the only husband, for her.
In that summer of 1485, everyone knows that a fellow named Henry Tudor awaits his opportunity to overthrow King Richard III. After a generation and more of civil wars, people have learned to keep their political leanings to themselves, and those who wish to rise in the world have become adept at saying one thing and meaning something else. So how can Sir William, just returned from the court of King Richard III, be trusted?
Sir William's courtship feels like farce—like some comic Romeo, he stages a midnight visit to her window that sets every dog in town howling—but when they are apart, she listens for his knock at the door, his voice in the hall below. She marries him, if only to escape her family's mistreatment, but she remains convinced he is only after her father’s gold.
Her new situation is hardly better, however, as Sir William's behavior is increasingly maddening. On unfamiliar ground for the first time in her life, Kathryn is unsure what to believe: is he cruel? Is he “taming” her spirit, trying to make her an obedient wife? Or is there something else at play? Their war of wills rages; advances are made and lost. But unless she can let go of Kathryn and be Kate, she will remain a victim of her past, nursing her battle scars, unable to give or accept love. First 250 WordsThe first glimpse Kathryn ever saw of Sir William was his horse.
She had already pulled in her breath against the thick blanket of odor that always hovered near the manure piles behind of the Brewers’ inn. After years of trudging the same cobbled street from her home to the town square and back again, she did it without thinking. Her eyes were cast down, watching her shadow where it stretched out thin before her, tripping on the heels of her father and younger sister. The two of them walked arm in arm, their golden heads close together, whispering—about what, she could not tell, which suited her well enough. Five long paces holding her breath was all that was necessary, and then she would be past the inn and in the village square, and from there the church was only a few strides across the lush green…
A smear of dull color on the corner of her vision made her turn her head. Two men were leading an enormous blood red horse out of the gaping stable door and into the pounded dirt of the yard behind the inn. Kathryn halted and her breath rushed out of her in astonishment. The beast was the approximate size and color of St. George’s dragon, or so it seemed to her, and it moved with the same sinuous, menacing grace. When it snorted, she jumped, half expecting gouts of flame to burst forth.
VERSUS
Title: Donovan
Entry Nickname: Irish in America
Word Count: 100,000
Genre: Adult Historical Romance
Query:
When Jesse Travers' father and brother die, they leave her with two things: a crumbling ranch and a deep well of distrust.
Shunned by the village for her outlaw brother's deeds, Jesse is not sorry to hear he's been killed while robbing a bank. Strangely enough it is Adam Donovan, the man who shot her brother, who brings her the news. Even more strange is the Irish immigrant's willingness to help her bring her ranch back to prosperity.
The Arizona Territory would not be kind to a woman alone, and Jesse's experiences with her neighbors have left her jaded. But her love for her canyon home overcomes her trepidation, and she accepts Donovan's help. He is gentle and empathetic, a far cry from her brother, whose relentless abuse drove her to the brink of despair, or her father, who would never believe the things Jesse told him about her brother.
As they work together, Jesse begins to trust Donovan, and feels the first stirrings of love–an experience she's never known before. Then, as if to tell her she is unworthy of happiness, her past rises up with a vengeance, and she faces a terrible choice: retreat to a life of solitude and shame, or or trust a man she hardly knows with the secrets of her tragic past.
First 250:
Jesse Travers stood in the cabin door, trying to stem the tide of rising temper. The old man who sat wrapped in a blanket by the fire had been more querulous than usual. He can’t help it, she told herself, any more than he can help being old. Or crippled. But God help us if this day doesn’t end soon.
The clearing where the cabin stood was too quiet. No breeze stirred the aspen leaves. No birds trilled, no squirrels scampered. Even the brook ran silently today.
The only restful thing was the occasional glimpse of buckskin in the sycamores. The old man had told her that always animals knew where there was danger and would run away. So maybe it’s nothing–maybe it’s just too hot for April. Maybe that’s what makes me feel so sick.
Then into the utter silence came the faint clip-clop of a horse’s hooves.
No one should be coming. No one ever came. She tasted the sharp metal of fear. As the hoofbeats came closer, she took up an old Sharps rifle and moved out onto the sagging porch, into the shadows of its roof.
Round the edge of the cottonwood grove, the horse came into sight. Its rider had dark hair, dark clothes, a dark gun sitting low on his left hip. There isn’t anyone in the Territory who doesn’t know who he is. And where he comes from. Squaring her shoulders and raising the rifle, she took a single step into the light.
Entry Nickname: If The Shrew Fits
Word Count: 86,000
Genre: Adult Historical
Query:For years, Kathryn's sharp words and belligerent deeds have been her defenses in her war against an unjust world. Oh yes, this shrew has her reasons. Not even the large dowry offered by her wealthy father can tempt any man to court her and risk a tongue-lashing or a scratched face... until the day Sir William arrives in town. From the moment he blocks her escape from tedious lessons, their every exchange is a battle of wits, every word loaded with double meaning. He won't even use her own name, calling her Kate from the very first. He insists that he is the only man, the only husband, for her.
In that summer of 1485, everyone knows that a fellow named Henry Tudor awaits his opportunity to overthrow King Richard III. After a generation and more of civil wars, people have learned to keep their political leanings to themselves, and those who wish to rise in the world have become adept at saying one thing and meaning something else. So how can Sir William, just returned from the court of King Richard III, be trusted?
Sir William's courtship feels like farce—like some comic Romeo, he stages a midnight visit to her window that sets every dog in town howling—but when they are apart, she listens for his knock at the door, his voice in the hall below. She marries him, if only to escape her family's mistreatment, but she remains convinced he is only after her father’s gold.
Her new situation is hardly better, however, as Sir William's behavior is increasingly maddening. On unfamiliar ground for the first time in her life, Kathryn is unsure what to believe: is he cruel? Is he “taming” her spirit, trying to make her an obedient wife? Or is there something else at play? Their war of wills rages; advances are made and lost. But unless she can let go of Kathryn and be Kate, she will remain a victim of her past, nursing her battle scars, unable to give or accept love. First 250 WordsThe first glimpse Kathryn ever saw of Sir William was his horse.
She had already pulled in her breath against the thick blanket of odor that always hovered near the manure piles behind of the Brewers’ inn. After years of trudging the same cobbled street from her home to the town square and back again, she did it without thinking. Her eyes were cast down, watching her shadow where it stretched out thin before her, tripping on the heels of her father and younger sister. The two of them walked arm in arm, their golden heads close together, whispering—about what, she could not tell, which suited her well enough. Five long paces holding her breath was all that was necessary, and then she would be past the inn and in the village square, and from there the church was only a few strides across the lush green…
A smear of dull color on the corner of her vision made her turn her head. Two men were leading an enormous blood red horse out of the gaping stable door and into the pounded dirt of the yard behind the inn. Kathryn halted and her breath rushed out of her in astonishment. The beast was the approximate size and color of St. George’s dragon, or so it seemed to her, and it moved with the same sinuous, menacing grace. When it snorted, she jumped, half expecting gouts of flame to burst forth.
VERSUS
Title: Donovan
Entry Nickname: Irish in America
Word Count: 100,000
Genre: Adult Historical Romance
Query:
When Jesse Travers' father and brother die, they leave her with two things: a crumbling ranch and a deep well of distrust.
Shunned by the village for her outlaw brother's deeds, Jesse is not sorry to hear he's been killed while robbing a bank. Strangely enough it is Adam Donovan, the man who shot her brother, who brings her the news. Even more strange is the Irish immigrant's willingness to help her bring her ranch back to prosperity.
The Arizona Territory would not be kind to a woman alone, and Jesse's experiences with her neighbors have left her jaded. But her love for her canyon home overcomes her trepidation, and she accepts Donovan's help. He is gentle and empathetic, a far cry from her brother, whose relentless abuse drove her to the brink of despair, or her father, who would never believe the things Jesse told him about her brother.
As they work together, Jesse begins to trust Donovan, and feels the first stirrings of love–an experience she's never known before. Then, as if to tell her she is unworthy of happiness, her past rises up with a vengeance, and she faces a terrible choice: retreat to a life of solitude and shame, or or trust a man she hardly knows with the secrets of her tragic past.
First 250:
Jesse Travers stood in the cabin door, trying to stem the tide of rising temper. The old man who sat wrapped in a blanket by the fire had been more querulous than usual. He can’t help it, she told herself, any more than he can help being old. Or crippled. But God help us if this day doesn’t end soon.
The clearing where the cabin stood was too quiet. No breeze stirred the aspen leaves. No birds trilled, no squirrels scampered. Even the brook ran silently today.
The only restful thing was the occasional glimpse of buckskin in the sycamores. The old man had told her that always animals knew where there was danger and would run away. So maybe it’s nothing–maybe it’s just too hot for April. Maybe that’s what makes me feel so sick.
Then into the utter silence came the faint clip-clop of a horse’s hooves.
No one should be coming. No one ever came. She tasted the sharp metal of fear. As the hoofbeats came closer, she took up an old Sharps rifle and moved out onto the sagging porch, into the shadows of its roof.
Round the edge of the cottonwood grove, the horse came into sight. Its rider had dark hair, dark clothes, a dark gun sitting low on his left hip. There isn’t anyone in the Territory who doesn’t know who he is. And where he comes from. Squaring her shoulders and raising the rifle, she took a single step into the light.
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