On Writing a Blurb - Metamorphosis

What a difference a year makes. Oh wait. Eighteen months. When I reread my first stab at blurb-writing from a post I published in August 2015, I wanted to gag. Or hold my nose. 'Cause compared to the current one, it stinks. Or is that just me?

I thought it would be fun to go back and grab several iterations, so you can see the progression. If you're interested in how the blurb for BLESSED ARE THE PEACE MAKERS: COMING HOME morphed over time, start at the beginning and read all the way through. If not, read the first and skip down to the last.

Here's the first one, circa August 4, 2015

AMERICA 2042CE: A down-and-out disaster specialist finds she’s the last of a long line of magical Druid priestesses carrying the bloodline of William the Conqueror. To make matters worse, she is expected to fill the shoes of her new father, the erstwhile Grand Druid whose coma is likely the result of foul play. Taught to run from adversity by a mother who carried the secret of her powers and heritage to an alcoholic grave, and faced with a foe known only as “The Darkness”, she must race the clock, cramming twenty-six years’ of training into the short time left.

On the opposite coast her nemesis, a sorceress-turned-holy-woman, is targeted and tagged by the invisible foe: a race of Reptilian aliens residing in Earth’s interior. Placed there millennia ago and kept secret and apart from the Humans by a forgetfulness curse enforced by dragon guards, the Reptilians are determined to take control of the planet. Led by a nasty Draco general, they will use the evangelist and others like her to pit the humans against one another, leaving Earth ripe for the picking.

Okay. I didn’t gag that time. But here’s the blurb I used for French Press Bookworks’s query workshop on October 2016.

I love when fantasy collides with real life. In Blessed Are the Peace Makers, Awen, last of the Druid Priestesses, diverts Earth’s destruction in 1042AD by saving a young William the Conqueror from death. Now, it is 2042 and their descendent, a down-and-out disaster specialist, on the run from an obsessed sorceress-slash-holy-woman, is Earth’s only hope. A race of Reptilian aliens, secretly living in Earth’s mantle, plots to use the holy woman and others like her to brainwash the Humans into destroying one another, leaving AboveEarth ripe for the picking. Aided by magical animal Elders, including dragons responsible for keeping the races secret and apart, the heroine faces insurmountable odds to avert the coming Darkness.

Shorter, sweeter, but still no cigar. As both Dionne Abouelela and James Stryker asked, what are the main character's names? After workshopping with them, together briefly, and James, extensively, I ended up with this.

In the near future, fantasy collides with real life when Emily Hester, an untrained druid, must rise from the ashes of a troubled past to head the powerful Awen order, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. A looming threat known only as “the Darkness” – reptilian aliens living secretly in Earth’s mantle – plot to take AboveEarth by manipulating humans into destroying one another. Pursued by a smitten sorceress, Shalane Carpenter, and aided by magical animal elders, a sexy druid priest and his teen nephew, Emily must reluctantly learn the magic necessary for the druids to have a chance at saving Earth.

MUCH better. But still vague about motivation and voice. Here’s another iteration, rewritten based on an article by Laura Zats. I sent this in a query letter to agent Sara Megibow of KT Literary, then ten days later, to Laura Zats of Red Sofa Literary, and Rebecca Strauss of DeFiore and Company.

One thing her deceased mother taught Emily Mayhall was the fine art of running away. Reeling from the loss of her fiancé, her nerve, and her job as a disaster specialist, Emily is stalked by Shalane Carpenter, a shaman-sorceress whose wiles turn men, and most women, to mush, and bought her national acclaim as an evangelist. Immune to Shalane’s advances, Emily assumes a new identity, one she finds in a ledger in her mother’s strange box of druid artifacts. When a registered letter arrives addressed to Emily Mayhall Hester, she throws it on the counter, unopened. That night, the frantic dreams begin – she is Awen, druid priestess, and she must save the young Duke of Normandy’s life, or else. When the letter turns out to be from an attorney in Atlanta, GA, who represents a birth-father Emily didn’t know existed, she reluctantly accepts a free ticket to Atlanta, not knowing that the troubles she’s leaving behind, are nothing compared to what she’ll face when she gets there.

Set in the near future, fantasy collides with real life for a slew of supporting characters including a sexy druid priest and his teen nephew, “invisible” dragons, and magical animals, while a foe known only as the Darkness – reptilian aliens living in Earth’s mantle, plot to destroy humankind.

Longer. More words. But each packs a punch. I get a better sense of who the main characters are, and the predicament in which they find themselves. I want to know more. I want to read more.

Which, after all, is the whole point of a blurb.

To date, the last (along with the first three pages of the manuscript) prompted a request for additional pages from Sara (be still my heart!). Her partial-request reading time is two to four weeks - it’s been a little over one. The query-reading times for the others are longer, so we'll see.

Which is your favorite? Do you prefer a different blurb?

Here’s to a happy and hallowed day for all.

That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell, writing as O.J. Barré

O.J. Barré is author of the upcoming Blessed Are the Peace Makers trilogy. Book One, Coming Home, is in final edits. The first draft of Book Two, Coming To, is nearing completion and Book Three, Coming Full Circle, is swirling in the mists of creation.