Well, you guys have been asking about this, so here’s the news on my book. Tentatively entitled “Rain,” it explores the world of a slave whom we first glimpse as it lies dying in the desert, six weeks before the Biblical Flood.

The slave has no name, no will—not even a gender. It only has one thing in the world: its rescuer. He nurses the slave back to health among his own people, in the shadow of the gigantic, mysterious Ark, which all the world fears.

With the slave’s recovery comes the comprehension that it is not a slave at all but a woman. She learns of the Ark, which is so large that she at first confuses it for a city wall. She learns of the catastrophe that is coming upon her world. She also discovers to her consternation that she is falling in love with her rescuer—Japheth, the handsome, kind, baffling son of Noah. What she doesn’t learn is that she is still pursued by her former master, whose life depends on killing her.

That’s from my query letter. The query letter is a unique invention designed by literary agents to make life hard for aspiring authors. It’s a source of fear and trembling for new authors, since A) every agent you investigate complains that he/she receives 300-500 queries a week—more than all the resumes received by Microsoft in a month; and B) nearly all agents want published authors, but you can’t get published without an agent. (Can you say “Catch-22”?) But I’ll keep trying, and meanwhile, I’ll keep polishing my manuscript. I’ve got one rejection already; say, 24 to go.

The picture above is is me working on the first draft of this novel at my in-laws’ house, where I started writing it on vacation last summer.

Wish me luck.