MOTEL RITUALS - A Novel by Jay Wilcox (QUERY LETTER)
I’m excited to offer you MOTEL RITUALS, a psychologically propulsive upmarket novel about a family on the run. At 80,000 words, this novel combines the familial turbulence of Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets with the suspense of Megan Goldin’s The Night Swim. Picture Pan’s Labyrinth transposed over a series of cheap motels. I’m querying you because you like fantasy with strong voices and new takes on old tropes.
Eight-year-old Ruth has never questioned her mother’s stories. A witch is chasing them. At least, that’s what her mother says, as the family flees across the American Southwest. Ruth must train her little brother for battle against the witch, with sticks for swords, magic spells. However, between each motel and rest stop, her mother’s behavior becomes stranger and stranger. They drive past police cars, and her mother tells them to duck out of view. They check every room for listening devices and perform increasingly intricate rituals to make sure the place is “safe.”
The problem is, maybe nowhere is safe. Her mother’s behavior increasingly puts the three of them in physical danger–and her brother is still too young, too trusting, to question any of it. Ruth must find a way to protect him without betraying her mother. Without calling the police. She must keep her family together, even if it means telling him those old scary stories about the witch. Because whether or not the stories are real, their power is.
My short fiction has appeared in the literary journals Bartleby and The End of the World. I've twice won the Malcolm C. Braly award for fiction and teach writing with University of Maryland Global Campus.
Thank you for your time. I hope you’ve been well.
Sincerely,
Jay Wilcox
MFA, Bennington College - ‘16