Casey Stegman is a busy man. In between tirelessly promoting authors on social media and publishing short stories, he managed to write a novel and start a new interview series for Mystery Tribute about writers and their debuts.
Stegman recently acquired an agent for his entertainingly titled historical mystery, Murder Your Darlings. The book follows two screenwriters during Hollywood’s golden age as they set out to adapt a novel about a killing – only to discover that it’s not a work of fiction.
With that fun, original concept, I’m looking forward to diving in once the book finds a home. In the meantime, Stegman was kind enough to share the query that landed him an agent. He also wanted to point readers towards Libby Cudmore’s excellent query letter for The Big Rewind. Cudmore’s letter was originally published as part of a wonderful Writer’s Digest series on successful queries.
Here’s Casey’s pitch:
Dear Dr. Stender,
Most plot holes simply reveal an unresolved issue in a story. But in my historical mystery, Murder Your Darlings, a plot hole in a bestselling novel reveals a whole lot more, including a very real unsolved murder.
Hollywood, 1948. When aspiring screenwriter Sidney Becket gets her first scripting assignment for a major studio, she’s stunned to learn it’s an adaptation of an acclaimed new mystery novel. And to top it all off, she’s being teamed with one of America’s greatest living authors, Henry Grierson—who’s been slumming it in Tinseltown for almost two decades. Things quickly turn complicated for this mismatched duo when they find that one of the murders in their source material is never actually solved. As their deadline looms, the two try to track down the elusive author behind the book to get some answers. They soon discover that this supposed work of fiction is anything but. And their plot hole leads to a killer who will stop at nothing to keep them from digging any deeper.
Murder Your Darlings takes the meta-narrative mystery structure of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot and combines it with the Golden Age of Hollywood setting from Anthony Marra's Mercury Pictures Presents. The characters and their rapid-fire dialogue will appeal to those who enjoy films by the Coen Brothers and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Clocking in at 82,000 words, Murder Your Darlings is my first novel. It’s inspired by my deep love for the 1946 film version of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and my fascination with its infamous plot hole—the murder of chauffeur Owen Taylor. Previously, my short stories have been published by Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Dark Yonder, and Punk Noir Magazine. Currently, I have stories set for publication in Tough and MOTEL (a forthcoming anthology from Cowboy Jamboree Press).
I’d be happy to send you a full or partial manuscript, should you be interested. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Casey Stegman