The query letter that got me an agent

Dear agent,
Great that you are looking for feel-good, escapist teen romance - I have something that might be a fit. 

Saffy Jenkins sure didn't expect to spend her junior year summer cottagecore-style, churning butter in a high-necked blouse and bustle skirt. But when she needs to help pay her family's rent, she takes the only decent job left in Victoria, B.C, playing a farm wife at run-down Edwardian-era reenactment park Historical Daze. One problem, though — she's working alongside her secret crush, hot eco-warrior Green. They used to be friends, but now it's awkward, especially because Saffy hasn't told him she has lipedema, a genetic disability gradually changing her body shape. 

However, when she's not struggling with her wood stove, life at Historical Daze becomes —whisper it— actually fun. Especially when Saffy and her friends push past the narrow domestic roles assigned by the park's owner and start staging suffragette marches, bringing the feminist activism of 1905 back to life. Meanwhile, sparks fly when the cool new blacksmith, Troy, gives Saffy secret smithing lessons. And is he the one writing funny love letters in the park's 1905-style newspaper from someone pretending to be the farmhouse stove? 

But Saffy's summer all goes up in flames when she and Troy accidentally set the park on fire during an after-hours blacksmithing session, discovering the park's lax safety standards at exactly the wrong time. Now she must choose between Troy's obvious affection and Green's serious smoulder as she scrambles to save Historical Daze from closing down.

MY COTTAGECORE SUMMER  is a bittersweet YA contemporary rom-com complete at 71,500 words. It should appeal to fans of Jennifer Dugan's Hot Dog Girl, Julie Murphy's Clover City trilogy and Laila Sales's Past Perfect. The full manuscript is under consideration by multiple agents, and I'm hoping to find a home for it soon. I'm querying you in part because I'd love to have a fellow Canadian in my corner. 

I was on my way to a writing career after completing an MA in Journalism. Instead, my coding side hustle led to a lengthy romance with the tech industry. It's my mission to introduce a mainstream heroine with lipedema, which affects up to 11% of women (me included) yet isn't widely known –often leading to body issues in undiagnosed teens.

Content warning for full manuscript: body-shaming, alcoholism, racist language

Many thanks for considering my work,
Liz Kessick

www.lizkessick.com