The query for our novel

I promised earlier a peek into Boxed Set. This is an except from our query letter to agents and publishers. Would you want to read this novel? Leave us a comment and tell us why or why not.

Sports writer Jack Wroblesky thought his life was dandy. Tolerable, at least. Sufficient.

Twenty-plus years as a journalist, awards, his face on local billboards and a city bus, nuclear family plus dog, swimming pool, dream car. He takes it all in stride and for granted until, within a few mind-boggling days, all that he had is suddenly gone or out of reach.

Very far out of reach: Jack’s job is abruptly eliminated, he is without available cash or access to any, his car stripped of its wheels and vandalized. He gets served with divorce papers and kicked out of his own house…swindled by his spiteful, soon-to-be ex-wife and father-in-law…just for losing the job, status and income his Ice Princess wife demanded.

As he follows a homeless man to an outdoor shelter in the Chicago suburbs, Jack can’t imagine his life turning around there. But thanks to some intervention from the unlikeliest of characters, and the affection of Holly Anderson, a charming lab tech at the local plasma center where he sells his blood for cash to survive, Jack’s on his way to finding a much more meaningful, satisfying and successful life.

An almost-forgotten family connection to the late Beat Generation Author Jack Kerouac proves both eerily significant and financially valuable as Jack uses his writing skills and heart to turn around his own dire situation and that of the local homeless. His new job will be nothing he ever could have imagined.

Boxed Set is a contemporary fiction work, written from our own experiences as "down-sized" journalists and loosely based on actual events. The all-too-relatable themes of unemployment, financial hardship and self-doubt are balanced with a healthy dose of humor as well as family, friendship and love in this fast-paced story of redemption with a surprising but realistic and satisfying conclusion.

Stayed tuned for many more writing tips we've gathered and gleaned from published experts, and excepts from Boxed Set.