The query letter
Dear ________:
It’s September 2, 1981. Fourteen-year-old Dana boards the Orient Express train at Bucharest’s North Station, her first trip alone outside of Romania, hoping to reach West Germany, beyond the Iron Curtain. If she succeeds in eluding the communist authorities, she should meet up with her mother and younger sister, who had left two weeks earlier, in Hannover. She waves good-bye to the father she adores for what she thought would be a 30-day trip.
A series of unpredictable events that from a human perspective shouldn’t have happened brought her to this moment, and still many more astonishing incidents are to unfold. Never in her wildest imagination did Dana suppose that her mother was about to suddenly change the course of their lives.
No Kiss Good-Bye is a nonfiction narrative of my personal experience growing up in Romania under the oppressive and tyrannical regime of communist President Ceauşescu, through mind-boggling circumstances leading to my surreptitiously leaving Romania, and the seemingly insoluble obstacles over several months, stonewalled by one powerful American consul in Vienna, Austria.
While there are many stories of refugees escaping communist governments to live in the free world, some who held high positions within the regime, my unexpected quest half-way around the world at 14 is certain to fascinate any lover of intrigue and adventure.
Although this is my first novel, I anticipate it will not be the last. As an attorney, I have written extensively. I find that writing in general is personally fulfilling. I have one previously published article in a local newspaper a few years back.
I hope you enjoy reading the excerpt from the completed 85,789-word manuscript that I would gladly forward at your request. You can reach me by phone at [number] or by e-mail at [e-mail address]. I appreciate your time and consideration!
Very truly yours,
[Name withheld]