Dear Page Turner Awards Judges,
I'm honored to submit my work for your consideration. I've written three novels about the Russian Revolution and the ensuing civil war which center around the Romanovs. The first one, THE MOTH ORCHID (historical, about 99,000 words) starts with the assassination of Rasputin and ends with the first period of exile in Tobolsk. The second one, THE ROMANOVS WISH YOU HEALTH IN THE NEW YEAR (historical, about 77,000) words, covers the exile and eventual murder of the Imperial family. The third, HALF CARIBOU MAN (historical, about 99,000 words), follows two survivors of the massacre, including their eventual reunion. Think that the mystery was settled long ago? Not so fast. The Moscow Patriarchate has yet to release the remains of two of the survivors, believed to be Aleksei and Mariia. And so the mystery endures.
My final submission is the inciting incident from an unfinished novel called Rent a Fairy, in which a down on her luck fairy impersonator kills an old man on her way home from a birthday party. But where is the body? The voice and setting of this new project feel like a radical departure from my previous work, so I am excited to learn your impressions at this early stage of the undertaking.
And now a word about me: even though I’m from the Midwest, I’ve always suspected I might be inhabited by a Slavic soul. I majored in Russian as an undergraduate, then taught at St. Sergius, a now defunct private Russian Orthodox school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. While there, I got to know quite a few White Russians. Eventually, my language skills landed me freelance work as an interpreter for the State Department. Now, I teach English in an urban high school in Columbus, Ohio.
As the second runner up in the Faulkner Competition, Stuart O’Nan called my work “…a satisfying and intimate look at a legendary and mysterious moment in history.” I also placed in the top twenty-five in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that “…the author builds with exceptional finesse and considerable talent.” My story, “Cat, Dog, Horse,” appeared in the spring 2008 issue of the Bellevue Literary Review. My website, lindagorelova.com, is under construction and will be available soon.
I hope you like the writing. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Linda Gorelova
