SafetyDance
10-27-2010, 02:00 AM
I'm going to be querying my novel soon and I need a bit of help identifying the genre.
Some points that may help:
- female protagonist, first person perspective
- contemporary setting (law firm)
- heavy on the dialogue
- heavy on metaphor/figurative language, especially in the later chapters
- various sex scenes (graphic, though not porn style)
- themes of identity, exploration of monogamy/polygamy, exploration of workplace politics and what it is to sell yourself
Example bit of text, just for a flavour of the voice:
Once, I felt like a house of cards.
I was waiting for someone to blow me awa;: I don't know if that meant to impress or deconstruct me, but I never imagined I'd get both at the same time.
It was the carnivorous green eyes that caught me, the casual but intense manner that pinned me down, and the edge of his serrated knife that cut me open and took me apart. Now, he wants to build something with those neat, square hands. With words that neither of us want to say.
And what of the remains left spluttering from the demolition; the pieces of myself I gave to Matt, the perfect life in coupledom that I threw to the wolves? He still nurtures them, mourns the corpse. He clings to the life like a ghost made for haunting. I built that, though I never meant to.
I think that if anyone is going to put me back together, it ought to be me. I won't be made in a God's image. I won't be grown from someone's rib. In order to invent, one needs a purpose; I don't know how to define that and I don't know what mine is.
What I do know is that in one job's time, I'll no longer be the whore. There will be no more pretence and no more bank notes to function as excuses.
Time to put our cards on the table, then. Time to decide if we play for keeps.
I was going for contemporary women's fiction, given the romance/work politics themes which are central to the plot. But then when I try to think of authors in the same genre that I can mention in order to demonstrate that there's a market...well, I struggle. Any ideas?
Thanls in advance.
Some points that may help:
- female protagonist, first person perspective
- contemporary setting (law firm)
- heavy on the dialogue
- heavy on metaphor/figurative language, especially in the later chapters
- various sex scenes (graphic, though not porn style)
- themes of identity, exploration of monogamy/polygamy, exploration of workplace politics and what it is to sell yourself
Example bit of text, just for a flavour of the voice:
Once, I felt like a house of cards.
I was waiting for someone to blow me awa;: I don't know if that meant to impress or deconstruct me, but I never imagined I'd get both at the same time.
It was the carnivorous green eyes that caught me, the casual but intense manner that pinned me down, and the edge of his serrated knife that cut me open and took me apart. Now, he wants to build something with those neat, square hands. With words that neither of us want to say.
And what of the remains left spluttering from the demolition; the pieces of myself I gave to Matt, the perfect life in coupledom that I threw to the wolves? He still nurtures them, mourns the corpse. He clings to the life like a ghost made for haunting. I built that, though I never meant to.
I think that if anyone is going to put me back together, it ought to be me. I won't be made in a God's image. I won't be grown from someone's rib. In order to invent, one needs a purpose; I don't know how to define that and I don't know what mine is.
What I do know is that in one job's time, I'll no longer be the whore. There will be no more pretence and no more bank notes to function as excuses.
Time to put our cards on the table, then. Time to decide if we play for keeps.
I was going for contemporary women's fiction, given the romance/work politics themes which are central to the plot. But then when I try to think of authors in the same genre that I can mention in order to demonstrate that there's a market...well, I struggle. Any ideas?
Thanls in advance.