First Draft of Query Letter for *Within the Box*
Derek is genderqueer, or nonbinary -- or rather that's likely what Derek would call himself in 2023 -- but it's 1982, and 23-year-old Derek is finding it a challenge to explain to people. He views himself as needing help becoming a better communicator. His parents view him as having a drug and alcohol problem.
They reach a compromise: he'll check himself into a very modern upscale facility that promises to help people work on all their issues. It's strictly voluntary. “But we’d want you to give it a real try”, his Dad says. “Don’t stalk out the first time you think there’s some policy or some person that isn’t perfect. You won’t get anything out of it unless you go in intending to get something out of it.”
Dr. Barnes and his staff think Derek is in denial about his situation. He insists he doesn't have a drug or alcohol problem, but he's never been able to keep a job or complete any projects, including two attempts at college and a more recent attempt to complete nurse's training. And he's constantly deflecting, bringing in social issues and political theories. “You can’t go out and fix the world and solve its problems when you haven’t dealt with the mess in your own life”, Barnes tells him. “I think you’re just afraid to confront your own worst enemy, because unfortunately he isn’t out there with expectations and roles, he’s right there where you are.”
But Derek is finding the facility heavy-handed and coercive. They've gotten off to a bad start -- nobody asks his reasons for coming there or what he hopes to get out of the program. He thinks being a heterosexual femme is relevant to why he's had difficulties fitting in socially and doing well. That and the resulting isolation which have left him deprived of the easy interactive social skill-set that most people have. He wants to work on that, but the institutional staff seem bent on working on him in ways he isn't consenting to.
The other patients in the program don't warm to him immediately; he's disrupting the program and they're also being judged by the staff on how appropriately they react when someone behaves disruptively. Derek watches and observes. “Therapy here is all about residents proving that they can be an obedient part of Dr. Barnes’ echo chamber. Anyone who doesn’t echo doesn’t advance to the higher levels”, he says.
Within the Box is a psychological suspense tale. Derek can't be sure they aren't right; maybe he seized on this weird notion about gender because he so badly wanted an answer other than "horrible unlikeable person with a hideous personality and atrocious social skills" for why he's been reviled and hated, and it's really a defense mechanism, like they say. And the reader is invited along to wonder who is right, and whether the institution is benign or awful, whether Derek is arrogant and stubborn or bravely resistant.
Arching over all of this ambivalence is the issue of safety: if, indeed, the institution is unduly coercive, and Derek is openly resistant to them, is he being paranoid about worrying about what they might do in response, or is he on safe grounds because, as Dr. Barnes himself said, “You all know you can leave any time you want"?
Within the Box. 72,000 words, nonfiction, a personal account (memoir) rendered in the style of entertainment fiction.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My third book is deep in tertiary drafts, and I'm seeking more beta readers for feedback. It is provisionally titled Within the Box and is set in a psychiatric/rehab facility and is focused on self-determination and identity. Chronologically, it fits between the events in GenderQueer and those described in Guy in Women's Studies; unlike the other two, it is narrowly focused on events in a one-month timeframe and is more of a suspense thriller, although like the other two is also a nonfiction memoir. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts
They reach a compromise: he'll check himself into a very modern upscale facility that promises to help people work on all their issues. It's strictly voluntary. “But we’d want you to give it a real try”, his Dad says. “Don’t stalk out the first time you think there’s some policy or some person that isn’t perfect. You won’t get anything out of it unless you go in intending to get something out of it.”
Dr. Barnes and his staff think Derek is in denial about his situation. He insists he doesn't have a drug or alcohol problem, but he's never been able to keep a job or complete any projects, including two attempts at college and a more recent attempt to complete nurse's training. And he's constantly deflecting, bringing in social issues and political theories. “You can’t go out and fix the world and solve its problems when you haven’t dealt with the mess in your own life”, Barnes tells him. “I think you’re just afraid to confront your own worst enemy, because unfortunately he isn’t out there with expectations and roles, he’s right there where you are.”
But Derek is finding the facility heavy-handed and coercive. They've gotten off to a bad start -- nobody asks his reasons for coming there or what he hopes to get out of the program. He thinks being a heterosexual femme is relevant to why he's had difficulties fitting in socially and doing well. That and the resulting isolation which have left him deprived of the easy interactive social skill-set that most people have. He wants to work on that, but the institutional staff seem bent on working on him in ways he isn't consenting to.
The other patients in the program don't warm to him immediately; he's disrupting the program and they're also being judged by the staff on how appropriately they react when someone behaves disruptively. Derek watches and observes. “Therapy here is all about residents proving that they can be an obedient part of Dr. Barnes’ echo chamber. Anyone who doesn’t echo doesn’t advance to the higher levels”, he says.
Within the Box is a psychological suspense tale. Derek can't be sure they aren't right; maybe he seized on this weird notion about gender because he so badly wanted an answer other than "horrible unlikeable person with a hideous personality and atrocious social skills" for why he's been reviled and hated, and it's really a defense mechanism, like they say. And the reader is invited along to wonder who is right, and whether the institution is benign or awful, whether Derek is arrogant and stubborn or bravely resistant.
Arching over all of this ambivalence is the issue of safety: if, indeed, the institution is unduly coercive, and Derek is openly resistant to them, is he being paranoid about worrying about what they might do in response, or is he on safe grounds because, as Dr. Barnes himself said, “You all know you can leave any time you want"?
Within the Box. 72,000 words, nonfiction, a personal account (memoir) rendered in the style of entertainment fiction.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My third book is deep in tertiary drafts, and I'm seeking more beta readers for feedback. It is provisionally titled Within the Box and is set in a psychiatric/rehab facility and is focused on self-determination and identity. Chronologically, it fits between the events in GenderQueer and those described in Guy in Women's Studies; unlike the other two, it is narrowly focused on events in a one-month timeframe and is more of a suspense thriller, although like the other two is also a nonfiction memoir. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts