I hate this more than anything. I have just submitted The Romantic Feminist to an agency of such great dignity and standing that I can barely do anything but gasp at my own temerity. However, it's got to go there - and everywhere else I suppose. I flipped slightly because I couldn't decide which of 3 agents to submit it to. I nearly started to over think - so I went with the "inner voice" candidate. Hope this was right. There's always that ghastly feeling that one might have chosen the "wrong" agent in an agency and that if only you had sent it to the other one he/she might have lapped it up. Do they discuss these things collectively - or pass stuff around? Who knows? I am in severe danger of over thinking now, so I think I will go and do something relatively novel - perhaps read a book?
Currently still re-reading Anna Karenina - I suppose her idiotic action in inviting Vronsky to the house is the tragic flaw that leads to their ultimate downfall and disaster - but at present I don't have much sympathy for her. Karenin is a dreadful old stick, but his relatively decent behaviour in the face of humiliation is a redeeming feature which gives her the chance to continue with Vronsky (surely they would have got tired of each other imminently). I wonder if any Russian writers write sequels to Tolstoy's novels? There's a positive industrial sector in JA re-writes and sequels here, I confess I've never read any - although the Emma Tennant one sounded vaguely promising. It must be tempting to write such a sketch - re-cycle an old Georgette Heyer plot, and work on your Regency slang and scribble "Lydia's Daughter" - who comes up crunch against into William IV's ambit - or a later daughter who falls among thieves and is reborn as a minor character in a Charles Dickens novel, or moves to Manchester, marries an industrialist and gives birth to a Mrs Gaskell heroine - there: multi-author spinoffs! Have I invented a whole new genre?
The alternative reading just now is Fraser's Marie Antoinette - a bit late for me, but it's jolly interesting to see Versailles in post Louis Quatorze mode.
Currently still re-reading Anna Karenina - I suppose her idiotic action in inviting Vronsky to the house is the tragic flaw that leads to their ultimate downfall and disaster - but at present I don't have much sympathy for her. Karenin is a dreadful old stick, but his relatively decent behaviour in the face of humiliation is a redeeming feature which gives her the chance to continue with Vronsky (surely they would have got tired of each other imminently). I wonder if any Russian writers write sequels to Tolstoy's novels? There's a positive industrial sector in JA re-writes and sequels here, I confess I've never read any - although the Emma Tennant one sounded vaguely promising. It must be tempting to write such a sketch - re-cycle an old Georgette Heyer plot, and work on your Regency slang and scribble "Lydia's Daughter" - who comes up crunch against into William IV's ambit - or a later daughter who falls among thieves and is reborn as a minor character in a Charles Dickens novel, or moves to Manchester, marries an industrialist and gives birth to a Mrs Gaskell heroine - there: multi-author spinoffs! Have I invented a whole new genre?
The alternative reading just now is Fraser's Marie Antoinette - a bit late for me, but it's jolly interesting to see Versailles in post Louis Quatorze mode.
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