We're just going to have to agree to disagree about the writing.

What "set of rules"? Who's "standing guard"?

I'm not sure where you're coming from with your statement that the writing is "high-schoolish" and "neither tight nor clean."

I've seen the writing of high school students–quite a lot of it, in fact–and I'd be struggling to find any resemblance here. If one of my students had ever created a production at this level, I'd have been doing cheers in the faculty lounge.

As for tight and clean: the minimalist approach is not everything. I found this to be beautifully written, even if not plot-driven, and I'm growing more and more concerned at the number of writers who appear to be obsessed with standing guard over an invented set of rules, rather than creatively using general principles of good writing to reach the intended audience.

I'm not an agent, but if I were, I'd request to see this.

I apologize if that's distracted from my point: a query letter is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Its purpose is to get an agent interested, and clearly an author with some pre-existing acclaim and experience is going to be noteworthy.

This week has demonstrated, I think, that the problem with the slush pile isn't that they're full of appalling rubbish, it's that they're full of rather safe, rather bland, seen-it-before stuff. By my count, there were two 'would have requested mores', and they were both for books that seemed unusual and personal. It's very obvious, I think, why they were picked and why the others weren't.

With all the sensational headlines of authors stealing paragraphs and chapters from the works of others in the past few years or misrepresenting their fictional work as biographies (A Million Little Pieces, Jason Blair, et al), any author who has done his/her research would want to make sure he/she is not accused of accidentally borrowing from the works of others without proper and due citation and credit.

As a composition and research teacher, the first rule I emphasize is "Cite your sources, even if you're unsure if it should be cited."

That's also the last rule they learn.

I also tell students that if your response to a person's comment isn't worth having your name attached to it, keep your responses to yourself.

Yes, actually, I do pay attention to prizes, grants and publications–especially those that I recognize. This is not the most dazzling query that I've read, but there's enough here to pique my interest. Moreover, I read very quickly, so in this case, I'd rather give a writer the benefit of the doubt than not. In addition, I'm not convinced that brevity is always the soul of wit. If your letter can keep me reading over two single spaced pages, that's fine by me.

Well, duh.

You're trying to persuade an agent you can write in an interesting, involving and professional way. If you write a dull query letter that ends 'this is my second novel, the first won the Pulitzer', that's going to influence the decision.

On the series, Digger ran a mortuary and was always showing up to trade quips with O'Riley. Expressions such as "We're the last ones to let you down" were quite common coming from Digger during the barb-trade with O'Riley.

Digger always introduced himself as "Your friendly undertaker."

O'Riley would say something like, "My wife's nagging will put in my grave," to which Digger would reply, "How dare she! That's my job!"

I would definitely do a bit of research and investigation into the Digger O'Dell of "The Life of Riley" radio (and television) show and the Digger O'Dell of this submission.

Perhaps just a coincidence.