Leadership and anger

Something else Maggie and I have in common: anger. The difference being in expression, of course -- she channels it into planning how to get back what was taken away and I channel it into creating angry characters capable of channeling... yeah, it's kinda redundant.

Over-analyzing leadership has led me to a few conclusions about qualities of leaders:

• they project an air of confidence
• they have reasonable-sounding plans and enough facts to back them up
• when they ask for their followers' help, the requests are reasonable though some envelope-pushing is acceptable
• the exhibit some degree of charm, which consists of: sincere interest in people, smiling, couching things in terms of the target's interests and desires, and a nice physical appearance helps too
• the must have an excellent sense of timing, specifically in knowing when to push and when not to

Now make it look spontaneous. That's always the trick, right? Fortunately, I'm God in this universe and I can revise as needed to make it all work. Which may explain why I'm not necessarily any good at it in real life. Reading How to Win Friends and Influence People has helped -- I'll have to write a little book report on that when I finish.

Since I tend to over-analyze things, I set about over-analyzing why Maggie is doing what she's doing. Started drawing up a list of logical prods... but no, the anger is enough. She says. I'm willing to take her word on it for now.

I worked up a query-sized pitch to show to potential beta readers. I'm finding that writing these early on in the revision process really helps me focus the story!

QUERY:

Five years ago, authorities nipped the McBrides’ independence movement in the bud. Ended it with a body count and three-ring court circuses, then packed the prisoners off for realignment “treatments” to fix those obviously faulty thinking patterns.

Maggie McBride, just a teenager at the time, slipped the trap with a handful of others. Spent the years wandering Jupiter’s moons, laying low and nursing her anger. Now she’s assembling a team — the few who survived the rebellion, a couple sympathizers, a chuck who just needs the money — with the skills to break into the remote asteroid Correctional Facility where her last cousin is being “treated”. To secure the funding she signed a contract with an old pirate, selling her future into slavery if she fails.

But she’s going to get her cousin back.

Course Corrections, currently 75-80K, is a hard science fiction/adventure? thriller? what does Ocean's Eleven get categorized as?