Challenge No.16 - It's My Story and I'll Pitch if I Want To.
Imagine that you are a character from a classic tale pitching your memoir to a literary agent. You know that it will become the next bestseller. Write your query letter, story synopsis, or elevator pitch to the agent.
Author's Note
Jean is pronounced Jhuh as in Huh
Bideau is pronounced as Bee-Dough
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Dear Thea:
I'm writing to you because of your article in Magazine le Fantastic lamenting the lack of Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic (BAME) characters in stories for children. The PEANUT TALES may be of interest to you. Set in the Caribbean, the series transcends cultures as the stories follow the adventures of the main eight-year-old character. Though it is a series that features a girl, the stories have shown themselves to appeal to both boys and girls.
Peanut attends the Jean Baptiste Bideau* Combined school with her five friends, she is also one of five children. She has an insatiable appetite for knowledge. In other words, she is nosey. Together with her family and friends the themes in the stories deal with bullying, environment, SDGs, politics, a range of medical issues, domestic violence, faith, myths, animals and much more.
There are two categories of books. One set is of full-colour storybooks while the other set is designed with line art as colouring books though they too carry a narrative. Every book is designed with activities for the young reader. Presently the catalogue of stories is approaching three hundred tales.
Many of the stories have taken part in CARIFESTA the premier Arts Festival of the Caribbean. The series was also represented at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. I write in a range of genres: fiction and nonfiction as well as for children and adults. The popularity of Peanut led to the creation of a mature adult spinoff series, the Sabine Stories, that followed her into adulthood. In 2021, I was part of the first cohort to be inducted into the Saint Lucia 100 Women Hall of Honour for my work in literature.
I am a graduate of the UWI Open Campus short course on creative writing; as well as a registered artiste with the Government of Saint Lucia, a member of the Saint Lucia Writers Forum and 758Books. I have always enjoyed writing and have done so since I was six years old. One of my most major accomplishments was the writing of a significant portion of the National Disaster Plans for not only my island home of Saint Lucia but also assisting the sister islands of Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, and Saint Vincent.
The appeal of the PEANUT TALES has led to partnerships with the University of The West Indies, the Alzheimer's Association and the Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund to name a few. The annual PEANUT PLEDGE is a mechanism where books are funded by private individuals for the printing of one story to be distributed to children, free of charge to the family.
If the PEANUT TALES appeals to you, I'd be thrilled to send you this year's PEANUT PLEDGE title.
Thank you for your time.
Regards
Dawn
Artiste Registration Number 758-LC04-101
© 16 March 2022
* Real historic Saint Lucian - fake school.
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The Peanut Tales are available at https://www.amazon.com/author/dawnnbooks
Longer flash fiction stories are hosted at https://www.patreon.com/dawnnbooks
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