Relief

OK, I took the bull by the horns and called the agent - I never call anyone if I can help it, so this was a major deal.  I spoke to someone else, got a message that she was sorry - could I email her with the details and she'd get back to me.   I did, and today got an email from her, apologising and saying she was going on holiday next week - and would read both TRF and Conscience - and get back to me when she got back in the week beginning 5th November - and let me know whether she wanted to take me on.   So now I only have to wait for 9th November before I start panicking and feeling anxious again, and have to do mass submissions.

Today I re-read first 3 chapters of Conscience 1 and "saw that it was good".  I worry that David's character may not be sufficiently engaging - and that the formal Edwardian language I've used may be too cold and distancing - but we'll see.  There's lots of inventive stuff in it - but is there enough?  I always hate it when other people's books are "too thin" and that may be true in places with both books. Or even in TRF "too much dialogue" ?  Never had anyone complain about that before - M commented that bits of it sounded like a radio play (that is a compliment actually) and N was saying she could see it as a film - although I don't think it has a strong enough story...

Meanwhile, Kirstie has read TRF and said it was "very readable" - which I fear contains a "but" somewhere in it.   Anyway, all feedback is useful - and I'm learning to filter out the subjective stuff from the real structural stuff...quite excited to hear what she has to say.  It's lovely getting praise for it, but it's more exciting getting a proper, helpful critique.