Dear XXXXX,

The year is 1448.  On the plains of Kossova, the Ottoman army crushes the last of the great Christian crusades, and now the imperial city of Constantinople is all that stands between the Turks and the rest of Europe.  The young sultan Mehmed burns to prove his greatness by conquering the city, while the Genoese warrior Longo, seeking vengeance against the Turks who murdered his parents, stands in his way.  But the fate of Constantinople will not be decided by arms alone.  Treachery is brewing within the Sultan’s harem, where Mehmed’s beautiful but neglected wife Sitt Hatun has joined the grand vizier Halil in a plot to kill the Sultan.  And within Orthodox Constantinople, there are those who would betray their city to the Turks before they accept Catholic aid.  While Longo leads the vastly outnumbered Christians against Mehmed’s enormous army, it will be up to the headstrong Byzantine princess Sofia to save Constantinople from the forces that threaten to destroy it from within.

My 235,000 word novel Siege is an epic historical adventure about the fall of this great city to the Turks in 1453.  As a writer and an historian with an interest in the clash of cultures, this is a story that I felt compelled to tell.  I received a BA in history from Harvard in 2000 and an MA in history from the University of Chicago in 2004.  I am currently living in Paris, researching for my doctorate, which I will receive in 2010.  I have already begun work on the second novel in a series that starts with Siege and which will reveal the intrigue, heroism, and romance behind the epic clashes that marked the birth of the modern era: Turks versus Christians at Constantinople; Christians versus Moors in Spain; and Spaniards versus Aztecs in the New World.

I chose to submit this novel for your consideration after reading XXXX and XXXX, two books that I thoroughly enjoyed and which, like Siege, explore the individual lives and passions behind the medieval clash between Christianity and Islam.

My manuscript is ready to be sent at your request.  Thank you for your time and consideration.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Jack Hight