The Malice of Fairies - Making a start

Well - I have been researching, and reading and getting involved in someone else's project, and generally being dissipated in the last two weeks - no submissions, no "progress" and I have felt thoroughly at a lose end... I realise I am happiest when I'm writing... and so, although I didn't intend to think about writing "The Malice of Fairies" for a while, I was at a thoroughly loose end this afternoon - and as a result, thought I might just try a scene - so now I have 2,500 words - which might be the beginning of the book.

I like them.  I am pleased,  starting GATD was a slow business, and no reason why this shouldn't take a while to get going either...Actually, damn it - I am really excited and happy and feel like proclaiming it to the
world....

I am also pleased that I am not repeating the mistakes of other books (writers):if at first you don't succeed, try again with something similar... I suppose my heroine Deirdre is like Anastasia a bit - not as nasty though - differently neurotic!

Very happy making - and I don't HAVE to do it, since I have the other prospect to console me - but I am not discussing that here until I know for sure.

Change of direction

Since I finished and sent Gospel According to Darren off to agents I've been feeling a bit up and down, the 2 least likely agents have already rejected it - I expect the third will shortly, and then I will just have to do a mass post out in the hope someone will like it.  I feel a bit despairing... no reason really, just that I can't quite get up too much enthusiasm for it.

The Ash Grove is still with the 2 US agents, but in the meantime two or three others have rejected it.  I am quite bored with this.

So, am I dashing ahead with Last Things?  No.  I am doing the odd desultory bit - but I am increasingly aware of two things (1) how dull I am becoming (2) how restricted my palette is... I began a little list of things I would like to be able to write about - and later in the day I had an idea... to write a book about............

FAIRIES!    Arrrrrggggghhhhh.   I suspect that this is being done by every half-witted fantasy writer - but I think I have an idea about it which could work - I mean to make it a book about belief, rationalism - understanding the irrational - and so on - as well as having a great deal of jeopardy...

The great thing is, it gives me the opportunity to research something - to have a structure with rules - the human-fairy relationship has to exist within certain bounds.  It's enjoyable to read it all up - and just spending a couple of hours on Wikipedia jogged my memory and gave me the beginnings of a bibliography!

I would illustrate this article with a picture of a Ganconagh - a womanising male fairy - but all the web images for that were unbelievably icky... still, we'll see if I can manage romance and intellect all rolled into one ball... not too much of the romance though.

Now what?

There is one thing to report - the NY agent who has had my book since May (!!!!) says she's been weeding out all her full MSs by reading the first 30 pages - but had decided that mine is a keeper and she hopes to read it shortly.

Fingers to cruciform!

Meanwhile - everything is very quiet - this has been like a week off - not much social life, not much anything... just some light editing and a bit of writing - a couple of thousand words on the new book - but also a sober look at GATD.   As usual when you think you've edited, you've lapsed in concentration somewhere... but I am rectifying that.   I had a bit of feedback from Tara - she commented on the use of the present tense in the last scene... but I have slipped into it elsewhere - and thought there was too much about the children early on.   Perhaps that indicates that the scene isn't really working... but I wanted to establish how much his children meant to him... on the other hand she is writing rather faster paced books... crime novels - so I think a different pace might be allowed, but I can see, going over it, there are places where it drags and it's over-narrated...with luck I should be able to put this right before I get asked for a full read.  I think I'll send it to a few other agents in a fortnight's time.   I don't feel able to get totally into Last Things until I've heard from an agent... had some feedback.  A part of me thinks I will be re-writing both of the books in a hurry soon.  I sort of hope so...but I'm not sure, logistically how that will work.  I daresay in six months time I may look back at this and laugh!

Alea iacta est....

Well, I beat my own deadline... I expected to finish editing The Gospel According to Darren by 30th September, but actually I finished editing on Monday, late at night - that was 22nd.  It then took most of Tuesday and Wednesday to roll it together into one big document, which involved reading it and touching it up here and there...on 24th (New Moon!) I started scribbling a few notes for the synopsis.  This morning I got up early and wrote a quick synopsis and sent it to 3 agents, one of whom has already replied just to say "this looks interesting".

It is a pleasant situation to be in - when the book is out there and there's nothing you can do and you haven't yet started receiving rejections.   It's the excitement of having agents having a full read and knowing that they may get back to you - eventually...

I am excited and enjoying the sensation - but it's all a bit angsty - I've been here before.  Then again, perhaps I have begun to build myself a "platform" so that there are agents who know of me and are receptive to me... I am beginning to feel that this might be it!

Family Opposition

I find individual members of my family lovable but recently some of them seem to have taken it into their heads that writing is an unworthy activity - a sort of hobby, a pastime.   It is true that for the past 3 or 4 years we have been astonishingly hard up because of the economic climate in the UK - and until recently we were receiving benefits.

I have written before I think about how my first husband urged me to go out to work rather than write, at about the time a publisher had expressed interest in my first non-fiction project.... and how marriage and starting a family happened almost as soon as my first ever work was published.  I have been writing full time since January 2012 - that decision felt briefly "vindicated" when TRF was noticed by an agent - see earlier posts.... after a long wilderness period of writing, trying things out, losing faith and so on, I have two New York agents interested in The Ash Grove - and I am immediately told by my father (87) and a sister (48) that I must go out to work!  I tell them I am broadly faced with a choice between being a carer at £7.00 an hour, or perhaps getting on the tills at Aldi for £8.65 an hour.  I would not be able to choose my hours...I don't think they believe me, I point out all the other things I do for money (odd bits of catering,.hosting students, B&B and even the odd bit of writing) but they don't seem to realise that this does add up.

Ironically these two family members are the ones who are strong on being encouraging - both have repeatedly said "If only you could find something worthy of your talents"... do they really think I should take ANY job... do they understand how disruptive of the work this is?  Arrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh

I think what I find so oppressive is that they should have chosen now - when, objectively I look like I might be going to get somewhere...it creates the impression that they don't believe in me or my abilities - maybe I should write to them and tell them that.

Anyway, it is rather a shame at my advanced age that they should decide I need to be whipped into line.  I know my father thinks I am going to squander all the money he gives me - and his idea that he is going to live to 112 is rather absurd... if he does he will certainly have to use all his funds to go into a home.  Unless I take him in to so that he can spend more time being unhelpful about my writing. 

September

It's the 6th today - I have not done anything on GATD yet... Tara said "oh, just a bit of touching it up" - I think it's going to need a bit more than that.  I will definitely start on Monday.  What I have done is 6 submissions to NY agents and - gaudete! - been asked for a full read by another agent - this is a happy moment, never had 2 agents on the case before, and Naomi R has suggested another, her cousin... Perhaps all I have to do is just a hell of a lot more submissions.  Of course, they may just rapidly find the defects and bounce it back.   Curious the way the two agents who have picked it up did so within a couple of hours of my querying them.  This new agent is a man, at a rather large agency, the name of which for the moment escapes me.  He comes from Iowa and looks a bit like Garrison Keillor (spelling?).

I am feeling a little bit bored - but I shouldn't really - there is a lot happening, and I am wondering how I will fit the writing and the increasing pace of political activity together. I think Stand up to Ukip is going to eat up a lot of time - I want to keep it under control.  I have learned to do this over the years, and I am congratulating myself for not having got involved in council matters and that I am managing to keep aloof from other campaigns.  SUTU will have an intense period of activity - but it will come to an end on 5th May next year (well, the intense phase will)..

I am hoping that writing and activisim will complement each other - the sociability and sense of purpose of the one, feeding into the isolation and the slight rootlessness of the other.   There is something very unanchored about this life when I'm not writing.  I could do anything - but I tend to just drift about doing very little.   It doesn't help that I'm not very well at the moment - I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm having blood tests to check my platelets inter alia.  The rootlessness has exacerbated since it is clearly the case that I will not be going back to tutoring in the foreseeable - which is good in a way.  I loved doing it, but it did interfere with my writing, although it gave me some valuable insights into the marginalised....and some language hints.   Anyway, although the money would be nice, earning it on one day a week would be better than the way I was doing it.  So I will have plenty of time to write now - especially once Ned has gone back to UEA and Finn is settling down in school and M is actually doing some work - which involves going away! 

On my break

It is now the middle of August:  I have been resting for 2 weeks approx - after finishing GATD there was my cousin's funeral - and the horror and emotion of everything that happened there.   I relaxed by just seeing friends, getting drunk, cooking food, making jam, and washing sheets for the continuous round of visitors we have had since then.   It has not been a time for kicking back and reading - nor have I written anything on the Last Things project.

I have not touched GATD - but I have had one or two satisfactory experiences of seeing "Darren" around the place - giving his kids instruction and support... wonderfully vindicating.  I didn't just make him up, these blokes exist.

However, the fact is, that I don't want to sit around and read - and I am finding it hard to settle to a book.  I fear I am going to be reading Antonia Fraser's The Loves of Louis XIV because it's nice and easy.

I am also full of ideas for revising TRF (groan) - I think there were a lot of good things in the original versions, and I want to get those back somehow.  I also think maybe (and there is of course an IRL reason for this) that I want to change the ending - he goes back to his wife, and stays with her... and she concludes her meditations on love.... BUT then I suspect that we would worry about whether the story is "too slight" - or does she push him under a train... 

Finito!

Actually, of course it is nothing like finished - but I have completed the first draft of GATD and it is not going to do anything now until September.   I have told myself I will take a break from writing for August...

I do feel very pleased - for all sorts of silly reasons, because I finished it two days before my deadline, because I wrote 6,350 words today, because whole unplanned scenes occurred - and so on.... I am thrllled.  I am also of course terrified, since I wrote this deliberately to do something "commercial" - and I may have missed the tone in some way.... but what else can I do?  I couldn't keep writing the Conscience series - my heart wasn't in them. I couldn't keep re-working the feminist in 70s love affair sagas (there were a couple of other ideas I toyed with along with the Romantic Feminist) and I needed to DO something.

Since I wrote it relatively quickly - in about 4 months - I now have lost any fear of not being able to finish.  I can do it, that's not a problem.  Whether I can do it to internation gibberish standard is another question.  I have tried to avoid comment in this book, tried to allow the reader to make up their mind - and using the universal viewpoint is apparently desperately tricky - and not encouraged because few people are able to handle it...as I will no doubt discover when I go back to the book in September.

One of the things that interrupted me was the "Last Things" project.  I do hope no one's written a book like this before... I think it could be rather good.  I am gathering ideas for it - and will hope to write a little more.  The one piece I wrote is very good and different.

Innermost fears
I think what I am always afraid of, especially when I read the review pages, is that my writing will somehow fall between two stools - that I am insufficiently intellectual to drag home the bleeding carcase of inspiration and transform it into something universal that will pique people's intellects as well as their emotions - and so I will never write anything as good as....[your author of choice here].    On the other hand I fear that I am too over-educated and knowledgeable to really manage to write the sort of book which appeals to off-duty middle English working women who like to put their feet up with a good book and buy them by the dozen on kindle.

Top Tip: It is possible to read Simone de Beauvoir while your hair dries

  I was hoping these women would enjoy The Ash Grove, I thought they might be amused by The Romantic Feminist - but the market said "no" - now I am going to throw GATD at them in the hope that they will love it even more than Harold Fry (pah, and double pah!) despite its swearing and filthy sex (which of course we can now include - ever since 50 Shades).   Of course, there was once a place for people like me: we wrote well-crafted novesl [eventually] and these were taken from the Boots Circulating Library by ladies in gloves and hats and read on steam trains or at other leisure times.  But then I wonder if my slightly over detached emotions make me unable to write really moving emotional scenes.... Anyway, perhaps if I just Google "how to write emotional scenes" I will find the answer!

A new trick

I have learned that if you stop writing in the middle of a scene, when you resume you know where you are going next!   So...this has been working well.  GATD is progressing, I reckon another 20,000 words should finish it - but I fear I will need to do research...

I think it's time to start reading all those blog posts about how to create suspense, or emotional tension - but perhaps there isn't enough feeling of jeopardy - depends how much people have engaged with the characters... hmmmm.

The Tapestry

This was a book for older kids I was writing some years ago - I got to 45,000 words or so, and then I got a bit bored... this morning I thought I would finish it when I've finished GATD because it was rather good... and it is now relatively easy to finish books - psychologically - in a way it wasn't before... so I was rather looking forward to that - because it's basically an adventure story...and I more or less have the plot.

This idea was backed up by my friend Clare saying she had a friend who had come back into her orbit recently - who runs a Children's publishing business... of course she may specialise in picture books, but it seemed very opportune.   So then I can "fail as a [children's] writer" as someone once said to me... actually two people have said that to me in so many words.  I was upset, but I realise now that I hadn't even begun to start as a writer then... people do have weird expectations though.  If you are writing they think you are as good as published....

Progress report

!.  The Ash Grove:  There has been no news from New York
2. The Romantic Feminist: I have submitted it to another London agent, after the last polite ("try other agents") rejection.
3.  The GATD: has now crawled to 53,000 words and I feel I just have to bring a few matters to a head before I steam down hill into a glorious ending....   Then I will have to re-write the beginning - and add a few emotional tricks.... I always feel my novels aren't as "we laughed, we cried" enough.  I want people to be happy that Darren has been redeemed. - Even if it is at a cost to others....

The Gospel According to....

Well, I thought putting "Darren" in there made a strking contrast - but a more established writer called Courttia Newland has come out with an "according to Cane" - which is a bit weird - not Cain? or Kane?   But what can you expect from a man named Courttia (who I heard on the radio - he sounds very interesting).  When I heard about the book I was terrified that he might have used the same idea... but mercifully the Gospels don't seem to play a part in this.

If GATD is published I can see a number of objections to the title from editors and agents along the way.  I love the title - and it describes the thing perfectly... but perhaps by that time the other book will be less prominent (I'm assuming he's going to be a midlist author for a while anyway).   So I can resume my efforts.

GATD today

I gave myself a deadline of the end of June originally for this book - but I realised that was hopeless a while ago.  However, since I am now at 42,000 words despite only having had a few hours to work on it this week, I am beginning to see that it could almost be finished in time... if I worked like stink next week... and the bit of the week after.   Which is a very WOW feeling.    I will then have a great deal of difficulty doing much about it - since no one will read it and so on, so I will just have to send it out to a few agents, explaining that it is a first draft and see who bites.  Or should I put it away and leave it for 3 months like they tell you to do? It would be better to get feedback sooner rather than later.    The beginning of the book i.e the first 10 pages needs a lot more attention - start with action...

I also know that sending a first draft to agents is risky and arrogant... what will happen if they all say NO again?  This is assuming that the US agent doesn't take me on.  

GATD Week - ? 7 ? 8

I dunno, I must have been at it longer than that.  Anyway, I am now onto the 5th section of the novel - entitled Redemption.... which is where things begin to come right (I think) but not before there has been a bit of jeopardy for some of the characters.  I've got about 40,000 words under the belt, and this week have managed about 6,000 - which is great, considering.  In the last two days it's really been flowing - those great days when you just sit down and write and when you read it back it seems absolutely fine.   It is so much more agreeable than having to struggle with one sentence after another.  Sadly, a lot of this book has been written by the one sentence at a time method - hard work.  I guess that an enforced break from the novel has meant I've been rehearsing these scenes to some extent - but even so, a lot of the ideas have been completely new - I had no idea that the father of Shayla's baby was a married, middle aged Greek Cypriot bar owner.  When this happens I become a little scared, and worry that somewhere in Margate there is such a man, also called Nikkos, and that he will sue me when the book is published.  Let's hope not.

I will do a couple of hours tomorrow - and then start prepping for Saturday night's festivities.

The Agent Update
There is no news on the agent front  Tara tells me this is a good sign.  She is tweeting about doing a duathlon.  She does not tweet very much - I feel that's a good thing.  Possibly a very good thing!  It means she is spending more time with her clients (and prospective clients)..  So I wait in hope.

GATD update

I am still slogging on - agent or no agent, I will need more product in due course.... funny to think that this is a project I hadn't even considered in January.  The whole thing is about 1/3 through at 33,000 words - and stlll going - today was less of a struggle, I force myself to write - and then I do.  Good ideas come along and more or less fit with the outline I've done.  I'm not sticking to it religiously - for example I've changed my mind about how to deal with the supervised child contact a couple of times - it's not that important.

I feel quite happy about it, but I yearn for more time to do it. The next week or so is going to be frantic.   Never mind - I had given myself a purely arbitary deadline... I hope to finish it before we go away in August. A lot of things are likely to happen before that though - which will be time-consuming.

I wanted to find a Darren like picture and put it here - but the only Darrens I could find were either ludicrously good looking, incredibly geeky or rather middle-aged - the nearest I could find was a bit of low-life who is temperamentally closer to Steve probably - because he's a murderer... but I'm putting him here anyway.

He's dark and skinny and a bit rough looking - he would probably look better in other circumstances - he has the essential elements of Darren, but he does look rather mean, and my Darren doesn't and isn't.  

An agent on the horizon

For the last few weeks I have been wrestling with GATD and not finding the experience consoling.  I am so desperate to meet my self-imposed deadline of the end of June that I have not thought about much else.  As a results of my very slow progress (lots of editing, not much forward movement) I have only got to 25,000 words.

Temptation!

In this period, the resurgence of right-wing, racist/xenophobic politics has made me feel more politically engaged, additionally the resignation of a number of Labour councillors, creating vacancies and seats to be fought next year, has made me think "Surely I could do better than that!".   A lack of progress, feedback, response and a general sense that my books are still "not good enough" had been lapping around me, making me decidedly despondent.  However, I seemed to be absolutely excelling myself in political arguments.  Clearly there was an alternative career to be considered.

It would be quite immoral to go into local politics for the money - on the other hand, the attendance allowance would be a lot better than nothing - which was what I was earning recently.  And they would certainly get their pound of flesh out of me.  So, I have joined the Labour Party - with the intention of turning up at the next open meeting - to see what I can see.

The Isle of Fannet: my manor and the glans of Kent!

I also know that my fantasy careers are often grim and unpleasant - after all, I might not get elected/selected, and the horror of having to argue with stupid people, and getting to grips with all aspects of local authority business would be at best slightly dull and probably mind-freezingly tedious.  Nevertheless, in something of despair about the writing, I decided that if I didn't "get an agent" or better, the prospect of publication by the end of December I would definitely put myself forward as a local councillor.

Query agents

Last night, as it was the New Moon and according to my Steiner practice of sowing at New Moon, I sent off 2 submissions to US agents.  I wondered about the second one, I found a rather ugly woman who looked likeable - but she was very insistent she didn't want any "Christian" content - now The Ash Grove is not a religious novel - but it definitely does have "Christian content" in the broadest sense of the word - since the hero is a clergyman.  And he does pray occasionally.  And take services.  So, although I liked the cut of her jib I thought I was wasting my time, so I moved on to the next one on the list (these are Tweets from Literary Rejections with details of agents who are looking for writers).   I found a woman at a large NY agency I'd looked at before, although I hadn't looked at her before, but I noticed she was keen on historical novels.  So I sent it to her too.  Last night I received an automatic reply from the first agent, and this morning I saw an email from Foreword, so I assumed that it was their automatic reply - I opened it, to check, and saw a two line email which was conversational and intelligent commenting on something I'd said in my letter and saying "I like your writing so send me the whole thing as a word document."

GOBSMACKED

Actually, it was more like this

Now, my inner critic tells me that The Ash Grove's  pace and quiet unfolding will make her lose interest by chapter 3 - but...what this has done is restored my faith in myself - briefly.  It also means that I don't have to become a Labour Councillor - and that I can carry on writing for a bit longer.  When I last had an agent interested it kept me going for ages, and certainly gave me the essential dose of self-belief that kept me going.  I am really interested to hear what she will say - because no one has read TAG apart from me and Mark - despite a number of kind friends taking it away with them.

GATD
Due to this delicious event I have freed myself from GATD angst, and given myself a day off, in the course of which I have done one good, useful thing, and then devoted myself to pleasure.   M and I went out to lunch at Peens, and I had 2 large glasses of wine, did some shopping, went to the Albion had a cool drink on the terrace, left my shopping there, then had an ice cream at Morellis (chocolate cookies and raspberries) - and couldn't finish it - it was too much!   Then I did some shopping and came home, and I am ludicrously happy still, even though I am convinced Jen K will turn me down.  But a US agent - if she took me on and found a publisher...the sales potential is much bigger in the US... just hope they wouldn't want the sequels too soon.  Anyway, I will try and do some GATD work - it might be months before she gets back to me!

Claims Direct scam

This afternoon I was called by the usual sub-continental, saying he was calling from Claims Direct.  He was not brushed off easily and started telling me that there was money owing to us from our bank, which had overcharged us for services.   I began to believe him, since I think half our debt to them is a result of charges and the interest charged on their charges and so on - even without the PPI - which we never had because it's futile for the self-employed.

I told him I was uneasy, he was very persuasive - and said they were being supplied with information by local law firms.  Because they used the name Claims Direct I began to think that this was a reputable company which had outsourced its call centre to Bangalore... he began to ask me for details (M's first name) and asked me to confirm our address.  Then I realised he was working towards the "give us your bank details so we can send you the money" question.  He said "Wait, you can speak to my supervisor."
His supervisor "Kevin" had even worse English and an even thicker accent... I told him I would call Claims Direct in the UK and rang off.

While I was looking for the number "Kevin" rang back - "Why you put phone down Madam? We not finished..."  I said "I just want to verify what you are telling me."

When I googled Claims Direct I didn't see anything about a scam there - which is why I am posting this.   I called Claims Direct - they have a "no cold calls" policy - so it wasn't them, and this is a new scam.  I couldn't get their number by dialling 1471.  

Sad, I could have done with a couple of thousand.

GATD Week 5

Well, after various struggles, I have begun to tame the beast.  I had hoped that in the two days M was away I would manage to really crack on with writing new sections.  However, I did something much more frustrating, and infinitely more important.

It is extraordinary how the stuff one dreads dealing with really is revelatory.   I had rather mucked about with the prison section, because I didn't want to write about it in detail, so I'd turned it into flashbacks.... as a result the whole bloody mass of ch's 4-6 was a bloody mess.   So I have been re-working, cutting and pasting, supplying connective tissue, ironing out the inconsistencies, and so on and so forth.  In the process I've added a couple of thousand words and now have 22,000 words of novel - which is not bad at all.

I read through the outline again - and found some bits I wanted to add - I laboured for several hours, but did not get to the end of the story so far - so more of the same tomorrow.  I am planning on not going on line, it makes life a lot easier!

Full Moon Rejections!

It's happened again - it's full moon and I have received two rejections.  Both for the Ash Grove, both from US agents, and both polite - saying it won't fit with their current list - and best wishes for the project in future - or words to that effect.  

I rather like US agents - because usually they are quick to reject, they know what they don't want.  But what I found interesting was that of the two rejections, the one who rejected on the basis of the query letter alone, who had not seen any of my text, was less fulsome than the one who had seen the first 5 pages and knew I was capable of writing more than a query letter.   I suppose I should be glad that any agents in the US want text at all, and perhaps I should prioritise those, or write a more effusive, self-praising letter when only a query is required.

I wonder whether these US approaches are a bit of a waste of time, but then again, there have only been about half a dozen rejections so far vs. 9 or 10 in the UK.  This policy of sending submissions at New Moon is interesting - perhaps I should start sending them at Full Moon instead.  I wonder if I will get any more rejections tomorrow?   Probably.

GATD Week 4 Narrator?

Today I have been working on the first 4 chs. of GATD - ironing out the inconsistencies, working up one or two more scenes and trying to make the tone a bit more consistent.

I have done very little, firstly because of being ill, secondly going back to work.  I find writing harder when I'm working, I miss the early morning woozy, stream on consciousness that one can just set down.  And I miss the sense of freedom to write all day if I want to.  Also, Finn's GCSEs are occupying my mind.  Nevertheless I am learning to say "I have 90 minutes, let's see what I can do."

The problem I am addressing is the "narrator" - there is a bit of narrator going on - I like this, an editor at John Murray said it was a good device and allowed for more humour.  It does!  but there is potential to get it tangled with the characters' POVs... however, I was suggested out of a narrator in TRF by the lost agent - it may be better for that, but it definitely lost some of its humour.  Comments that are obviously wry in the mouth of the narrator can be less effective in a character's mouth - or even seem plain wrong.  A great deal of the Jane Austen/Barbara Pym type of humour does come from the narrator... bring her back now!

If I can get it right, I can probably tough it out, when I'm asked for a re-write.  But this is a long way off.  At the moment, the idea that I might finish by the end of June looks ludicrous - I'm still on about 15,000 words... 2 more school weeks, then about 5 non-school (I hope) weeks.  That said, I am pretty happy with chs 1-4 now.

Competitions

I am doing this now - entering competitions - I don't like it, and I was gutted when my beloved book was not even long-listed for the Bath Competition.   I tell myself that there is nothing different about a competition, as with submitting to an agent, it is just a matter of the reader's taste.

Today I submitted a 5,000 word entry to Nibfest - first prize: lunch with an agent I've just submitted TRF to.  Well, let's see. I submitted Islanders - I have about 12,000 words of this - because I felt it had the zippiness that they seem to want - the characters are, some of them, young.  I know that YA dystopia is an over-subscribed market - but it isn't going to be a YA novel - I don't think anyway.  We'll see.  I didn't want to submit GATD because I don't think the first 5,000 words, although engaging in some ways, don't quite get going in the same way.  I may be wrong, but if I'm right they will need an awful lot more work done on them  before they go anywhere.

In the garret

I've been struggling away in the garret for years now...this blog provides me with a useful record of submissions (slightly blighted by my annoying coyness about exactly whom I have submitted to), and my various states of mind about various works.  Perhaps, to continue my archaeological fantasy, some future generation might find it a useful historical document... if we still have the technology to read this sort of thing.



But what do I do it for?  The other blog, Quotidiana, gets readers, not many, but a few regulars with occasional spikes when I write about someone famous.  I'm happy with that.  But this blog is meant to be my calling card, my self-publicising blog - my wonderful writer's blog that everyone wants to read.   Really?  I've never had any illusions that this would become an earth-shattering blog that is cherished, a blogosphere must-read.  It's too solipsistic - even people who know me, don't really want to read even more about me, and really, it is extremely dull in places.   While I often enjoy looking back over the Quotidiana blog (ooh, what a misnomer, haven't done an entry for 9 days) and seeing what I was thinking about, I don't think I've ever browsed the archive on this one, unless I actually want to find out something.

It may be that this sort of unread blog is the equivalent of the solitary writer in her garret, just scribbling away, unregarded.  If I were a Grub Street writer I would be Tweeting as I soared like a skylark...I would be like all those slightly dubious hacks sent up in Victorian novel.   I've always liked the mother in Trollope's The Way We Live Now Lady Carbury is always writing sensational novels and trying to adapt to the market and squeeze money out of her publishers... but I'm not even at that stage, and may never be.  As for the image above, it's not what I'd call a garret, but most of the images were of well-appointed writers' studies - not a shred of garret about them, so I've decided that's Lady Carbury.

As long as I have new, decent ideas, I am not unhappy about not being published, but at the same time there is definitely a "How long, oh Lord! How long?" element - one has no idea, the email or phone call could come tomorrow.  But an agent is no guarantee, although I am comforted by the idea that it is harder to find an agent than a publisher.  However, a couple of weeks ago I met a very nice poet called Michael - I didn't get his surname, but he was very interesting and I liked him and his wife a lot - he lives off journalism, and he said he'd had an agent, and the agent hadn't managed to sell either of his books.   How must that feel?  To see other people getting taken on and just not quite getting there.  I think he said a couple of publishers were interested and then changed their minds.  That must have been even worse.  I wonder how many people that happens to to?   I never asked whether he would consider a selfie - but I would guess not.

I understand that there is no guarantee that finding an agent will lead to a publisher will lead to sales, will lead to income.  This is not a "as night follows day" scenario.  A new set of problems will arise.  I think the annoyance I feel is about other people's attitudes: they think it is that scenario.  If you've been writing for 5 years solidly, WTF are you not yet published?  The idea that it might be a learning process, an apprenticeship, whatever, does not seem to occur.  One either writes or one does not - there comes a point when you could not give it up even if you wanted to. I am not sure if I've reached that point yet, but the fact that I have two fairly decent novels on the laptop suggests that I'm reaching tipping point - I will go on trying to get them published...and write more, if I can't get them out there.  

The Romantic Feminist - episode 97

A fantastic cover design by Tara Moore. Occasionally I have queried the wisdom about having a cover design for an unpublished book - but after 5 years (since I started it) I think I might indulge myself.  I like the heart charm bracelet - but I don't see Lucy wearing it. However it gets the point across perfectly.  Tara designed it for my putative website - which I really must get together and do!  Perhaps I could also include those useful crits I've had like "dangerously well written".

The current progress report now follows:  while The Ash Grove is on a tour of US slush piles, TRF is wandering the highways and byways of UK agents (well, two).  I've got into a bit of a routine now - arround about the time of the New Moon (I'm using the Steiner system here!) I send a few submissions - they usually return at the Full moon if the agents are quick, or the following Full Moon if they are a bit slower.

As I adjust the TRF text once more (I wanted to say more about how romantic literature and indeed literature in general was not always a helpful guide to life!) I am slightly angry - because really, this is a well-written, perceptive book with much to say about life and love... I don't want to keep adjusting it, but I can't help tinkering with it whenever I read over the first 10,000 words/50pp.  I am still convinced that it will be published, but I had a horrible thought - maybe not in my lifetime?

Then I indulged in an archaeological fantasy - in the post-apocalyptic world, humans who speak a debased form of English come across it - it is virtually the only book they have access to. Painstakingly copied it becomes the Bible, the Pilgrim's Progress of their era....  God, as self-aggrandising author fantasies go, this is a doozy.

GATD week 3

340 measly words, but a very good session of research with DL - a probation officer who confirmed that the plot was feasible in terms of the conditions of probation - he wouldn't be tagged, or released home - so another green light.   I had been a bit cast down by E's estimate of Darren's likely restrictions, but DL was able to explain it in detail and what the implications of different sentences etc. were.

So - tomorrow - I hope - I will have a nice quiet day of writing - since M is going to Winchester to a conference - and our intriguing Swiss visitor will presumably be tracking down his grandfather.... but that is a whole nother story!

And the next book....

Well, for a while it was going to be Islanders, but then GATD got going - so although I still want to write Islanders it may be I will revert to the Musgrave idea.  I think it has a lot of potential - and I could even apply the "block buster" lessons to it.  Lots of jeopardy - moral conflict (Musgrave is a priest!) and so on.

I still have a very strong feeling that TRF will be published... but I need to put it about a bit more. 

GATD week 2

This post is not really about writing... it's about all the things I have to do which prevent me writing.  Arguably I could have written in some of the interstices between these bits.  I still find it hard to write unless I think I can have a good run at it.  If I only have 90 minutes before something has to happen I tend not to write... because I don't want to have to stop.  But this isn't a good approach.  At the very least I could use that time for a submission.   However, this is what I did last week, instead of writing.

We went to my father's on Sunday afternoon - and had a nice day out on Monday - sunny day, a walk around Eton and then to the Palmers Arms in Dorney, followed by a visit to the Garden centre, where I bought nothing (the garden is too full).
On Tuesday I did some shopping, and various bits and pieces and then we came home.  We all went out in the evening to celebrate Mother's Day, Easter hols and being together for once.  On Wednesday I attempted to deal with various things, but merely fiddled with stuff.   I also did an editorial review (critique) of my cousin R's YA novel which has some structural problems.  On Thursday I shopped for the weekend, for the Looping the Loop festival and began to prepare the house for BnB visitors.  On Friday we had 3 visitors, and I cooked and prepared for the great meal on Saturday (60 people allegedly - but it never is!)... when the visitors left on Saturday morning there was a brief opportunity to change the sheets for the next lot before I went out to cook.

There was cooking, a bit of relaxing chatting and drinking, then clearing up and going home.   On Easter Sunday we talked to the new visitors - a really nice Spanish couple.  I was pretty knackered and rested - until about 6 when suddenly it was time to cook supper - which was non-negotiable as Alex was coming.  He came about 8 - we sat in the garden, then had a very delicious supper and fortunately he went relatively early - c. 10.15 - as I was, again, knackered.


Today was mostly devoted to gardening, tomorrow will be devoted to domestic fiscal matters - on Wednesday there's school, then coffee with chum, then cooking for research supper with Probabtion Officer.  It's possible that on Thursday - after school - I may be able to write a bit.  Or do submissions.  Friday we have another visitor for the weekend - so lots of cleaning - he's Swiss!


I have written about 400 words of GATD during this maelstrom - and conducted an interview with E, who was recently in prison - which is really helpful background research for the book.  This week it will be the PO... and then I trust I can progress fairly confidently.  I may need to speak to a social worker.... it occurs to me I could speak to Helen A - must sort something out.  Anyway - there is progress, but not on the page.  

GATD Week One

This week I tied up all the sketches I had written, hunted down all the ideas I'd had and ended up with about 14,000 words.   This is a really good start.  I don't know whether I can achieve as much next week (being here, at my father's, and then having to have Easter and the whole day of catering for Looping the Loop plus the whole new wave of anxiety about money etc.   I realise I am often writing as a displacement activity.

The good thing is that I now have all the material - it's already a coherent first 4-5 chapters and I have a few moments of lightish relief... I don't have to present every dramatic scene directly, some of them can be dealt with as flashback or in retrospect - so that's good too.  I hope I can manage another decent tranche this week - there's every chance it will be quite short... but that may not matter.

The outline for a blockbuster?

A number of things have kept me from making serious headway with GATD... research resources are about to be assailed, but one of the things that stopped me from writing was the sense that while I knew what the beginning  and end would be - and some of the things in the middle too I didn't quite know how I was going to receive redemption/comeuppance etc.  And there was an unexpected fear:  I usually rely on the process, the intuition, the "muse" or whatever to come up with the goods as I write, and usually it does.   That said, I did have a rough outline for The Ash Grove - and I wasn't too worried, and this was rewarded, characters appeared, played their roles, pulled the levers, changed the tracks of the other characters, and went their merry ways.  I had thought of doing the same for GATD but Tara kindly lent me an old book of hers, called Writing a Blockbuster - by a guy called Aaron Zuckerman (I think).

"How to" books
I usually shrink from these, I bought a few in the early days, and was fairly sure that I had learned all the lessons technically that I needed to know.  I think it was helpful - I read a lot, I was absorbing stuff unconsciously.  I have never thought consciously of writing a blockbuster - although like every (?) writer I've fantasised about making a lot of money.  So when Tara passed me the book and said "I thought you might like to see that",  I was (a) mildly sniffy  (b) paranoid - was she trying to tell me that TAG wasn't good enough and needed significant work (that could be true of course)?   She assured me it wasn't, and last week I suddenly had an urgent need to read it.

It is a most peculiar book - Zuckerman was Ken Follett's agent/editor... and large chunks of the book consist of a series of plot out lines by KF for his book The Man from St Petersburg (no, I haven't read it either - and no longer need to!) plus analysis of other epics such as Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, The Thorn Birds and a book by his wife, somebody Goudge - which sounds quite interesting but not in the same blockbusting category.  Anyway, he makes some valid points about structure, big scenes and light relief etc.  It all makes a lot more sense than trying to use a Syd French 3-act structure in a novel... and I think I might learn something from it, for GATD.

However, I am unlikely to put anything from it in the other two - I can't see either of them ever aspiring to blockbuster status - and the honest truth is that I'd rather write a really good literary novel than a blockbuster.  BUT there is the fact that you could reach more people with a "message" if you could wrap it into a blockbuster.  So one has to say, should I do something of that nature for GATD... I could certainly pimp it up if I felt minded to.  Of course GATD isn't written yet, but today I gave myself a 2 hour writing window and worked on the outline and came out - mirabile dictu - with a plot, a strong storyline about small people doing good - although in a rather ambiguous way at times, and it all ties up fairly neatly in the end...I think it has legs - and tomorrow I am going to make it walk.   I actually wrote the first few thousand words some time ago, and they will not need to change much, but at least I know where everyone is off to now!

Get going!

Right, we have had 3 months of 2014, and a good deal has happened one way or another, but I could not be said to have written very much.   I have been incubating GATD, and learning a certain amount, but now I think the planets are aligned.   On Tuesday I ran into PC Keith in the street - one of the people I wanted to talk to for research - and today Sheree sent me details of her probation officer friend, who is willing to chat to me.   So it's all set for a bit of decent research and talking the idea through...

I have commitments - the setting up of a webzine with the gang, and the Easter hols and the return of Ned, the necessity of dealing with my father and so on.   But I also have to start writing again soon, not just submission letters!   I have written about 5,000 words of GATD and am clear where it's going - the first half of it, but I'm not sure how it will develop - and I think talking to Keith and Donna and anyone else I can persuade will probably start some ideas out of their holes.  I am also going to do some wide on-line reading about people trafficking.

Is this the best rejection ever?

I have been submitting The Ash Grove - and had some hopes of a couple of the UK agents who had it... but today I received this rejection.

This is great and very well-written.  Sadly it’s not for me – this is a period I feel I’ve read about too much in novels – but if by any unlikely chance you don’t find anyone to champion you with the enthusiasm you clearly deserve, do think of me for your next book

Best wishes

Seldom has a pill been so well-sugared.

It confirms the thought that I am "nearly there" but it's worrying that even a "great and very well-written" novel cannot pass muster.  What a bummer!    It makes me wonder whether her opinion reinforces the idea that UK agents are a bit jaded with submissions about WW1 - even though The Ash Grove isn't a mud and blood book.  I never intended to write a book "about" WW1 - it just happens that these events occur in those years.  Perhaps it should be taken as a further hint that I should submit to North American agents who are perhaps a bit less jaded.

Plan B will now come into operation.  It started with me sending her my "last" book - first - last, what does it matter?  It will continue with a massive unrelenting onslaught on North American agents (i.e. at least 3 more submissions in the next month).   No - I must become ruthless and write the sort of businesslike, impersonal letter US agents expect - and receive a plethora of businesslike, impersonal rejections in return no doubt!  Heigh-ho!

Progress report

Well, yes, there haven't been many entries recently, mostly for personal reasons, but also because I've had a bit of a crisis of faith.

I had planned to start on the next episode of the Conscience saga, but a rather unhelpful comment from an agent, about being unable to sell anything connected with WW1 somewhat took the wind out of my sails, and I was forced to drift to a halt.  I was completely lost - what to do?  I was geared up to research the next book - only lacking the petrol money to take me to the right places.  Should I do it anyway?  I pondered, and, coupled with the depression that a really bad flu/virus/chest infection brings I rather began to despair.

Somewhere around this time two thoughts occurred: firstly I suddenly had two novel plots, one modern, one historical - neither connected with the toxic WW1.   I suggested them to the rejecting agent, and she told me which she thought was more commercial.   This idea is gradually taking shape - it is inspired by Judith Murray's suggestion that I read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - which I predictably loathed.   However, I thought if my "good" novels were not getting far in the market, then I should try and write something unutterably middle-brow.  And possibly heart-warming.   I have the idea, but am just warming it up a bit, and hoping that a plot is maturing somewhere.

Competitions
In the meantime I have submitted TAG and TRF to two novel writing competitions, the Dundee International and the new Bath Literary Prize.  The latter only asked for 5,000 words, but I am obviously hoping they will come back for more and to that end I have been re-editing it - and have reduced it by about 6-7,000 words.... which is delightful.  I am astonished that there is so much superfluous bumf - in some cases I have been "showing AND telling" - I hope I'm not writing for the hard of thought.   They will organise a long list - I am praying to be on that at least - something to put in submission letters.

Success
What will I do when I actually get an agent, an editor, a publisher.... will I have to start a new blog full of success and vaunting?  

The Plan
If I get interest in TAG I will move onto Conscience, but in the meantime I am working on GATD and the plan is to write it in 3 months or so.  Mind you, the sight of the great flood yesterday made me think I should revive Islanders

A teenage feminist in the 1970's - for International Women's Day 2014

Lucy and Leo were perfect children of their time: their interest in the environment and her interest in feminism, coincided with the Pill (The cure for the population explosion!  The liberator of women!)  All around the media were proclaiming a great cultural change.  It was on the covers of Time and Newsweek, in colour supplement photographs, whole episodes of Panorama, Man Alive and Horizon.  They had no historic perspective for this: this was their now.  1968, hippies, the Vietnam war, the “Sexual Revolution” had been followed by environmental awareness, the oil crisis, the troubled economy.   The words oil, Nixon and pollution cropped up in every conversation.  Sometimes people mentioned (derisively of course) Women’s Lib. 

Lucy never became a feminist: she was one, probably since birth, but was piqued into consciousness by the unequal treatment of herself and her brother Peter.  It was so obvious.  The feminist emphasis on male oppression was naturally associated in her experience with her father’s traditional views on women and how they should be controlled.  When Lucy used a Christmas book token to buy The Female Eunuch in January 1972 Mike immediately demanded that she should not read it and should hand it over to him “until you are 16.”  She read it anyway: she was fascinated by the arguments about love and altruism – she looked around for a male oppressor, but her chief sources of oppression were women: her mother, her headmistress, her fanatical PE teacher, her dismissive art teacher.  When Leo came along he did not seem to interfere with her freedom (or was she just being complicit in her own oppression there?).  

 Some adolescent girls dream about marriage, but it didn’t seem to fit with the peace, love and freedom doctrine Lucy had acquired as a hippy fellow traveller: she had the loon pants, the scoopneck t-shirts, the ethnic jewellery, but these outer decorative touches meant nothing without the mental furniture, and Lucy had bought the whole shopful.  These ideas weren’t bolt-on goodies, fashionable bells and whistles borrowed from others’ mental processes. They were the product of an interior alchemy which produced surprising intellectual results. Lucy had taken the gospel-based understanding of her Catholic upbringing, combined it with the actions of Che Guevara and the Women’s Liberation Movement and her own personal need for freedom to create a philosophy that embraced Jesus’s promise of life in abundance and transmuted it into peace, love and freedom for everyone and everything, but particularly herself.  

Marriage seemed to conflict with her desire for freedom and self-fulfillment.  Joni Mitchell warbling We don’t need no piece of paper from the City Hall, keeping us tied and true sounded cool and hip and non-possessive. She knew there were other ways of living – some of the girls in her class had been passing around Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa.  This was a step up from the National Geographical as a way of discovering more about human sexuality.  The book was admired for its exhilarating descriptions of different ways in which adolescents were allowed to discover sexual pleasure.  Lucy wondered about these different modes of sexual relationship: more experimental, non-exclusive, with monogamy a brief pause in a kaleidoscope of other possibilities.  Hippy tribalism and communal living were the closest the West came to Samoa; intellectually these were fascinating, and clearly feminist. Not that she wanted sociable sexuality herself, she just wanted Leo, to be his.  Her romantic yearnings made her more a surrendered wife than a sexual outlaw at that stage.

Leo is less impressed with feminist arguments than Lucy, and Lucy begrudges giving up valuable kissing time to tell him more about it, but one evening as they lie on cushions on the floor, she does her best.

“Don’t you see Leo – women’s liberation is actually everyone’s liberation.  Plenty of men are oppressed by their sex roles, just as much as women are!”

“I don’t feel oppressed by them,” he says, “I’m happy with it.”

“But – some men, I mean, might find it hard to be strong and tough and manly and go out and kill animals.  I would if I were a man.”

“But you’re not a man!”

“Oh, honestly – use your imagination – not all men want to be told they have to be fierce and competitive and aggressive – some of them might want to be caring, co-operative sort of people instead, they must feel uncomfortable being forced into a masculine stereotype.”

She’s looking at him earnestly, he doesn’t really have an answer for her, but he knows a way to end the argument, so he just says

“I suppose so, if you’re that type,” and then his hand wraps her breast, teasing her nipple, until she loses interest in discussion.

Dilemma

Since I heard that the market for WW1 novels was dead, I have felt rather deflated.  The idea of finishing The Ash Grove at this point and getting it published to take advantage of the WW1 hoo-ha has been a long-standing one, which I first conceived about 8 years ago.  Sometimes clearly, one can be too far sighted.  Perhaps if I hadn't been distracted by the Love Object and written The Romantic Feminist first, then things would have been different.  I might have finished it by 2012 and snugly moved into the correct position.

However, I have clearly had to do a great deal of learning on the job and as a result The Ash Grove is probably better than it would have been otherwise.   So.   What to do?  I still have the wretched book in 5 or 6 slushpiles at present - I plan to try about 6 more in the UK and at the same time attack the US market, and send half a dozen query letters to US agents in the next few days.  I can probably risk a rather harder sell on them... trumpet blowing being better appreciated apparently.

The dilemma is of course, whether to carry on sending TAG out - or whether to revert to TRF - and whether to write Conc. or whether to dive into TGAD (the name of the new project)....I tried turning a little bit of it into a script and presented it at Tara's script writing group - of which I am an apathetic member - I usually go along to supply critique, rather than submit work, but as one of the group last time said "Why do we never see any of your work?" I thought I'd better turn up with something...anyway, it was politely received, no real criticism - which was disappointing, I was hoping people would spot all sorts of deficiencies - but apart from someone suggesting "wicked" would be used rather than "smart" there was no real critique.

M has just told me that TAG is "an absolutely marvellous book" - which I immediately translated as "anything to stop you whingeing".  It does need some editing - so that is what I should be doing in my idle moments.  I'm sure it could happily lose 5,000 words or so.

So, I do have a plan of sorts.  I don't feel really happy or secure about it, but it seems better than doing nothing.

Growth of the new Idea

Since I last wrote I have had TAG rejected by an agent, pas grand chose, but the reason "we are finding publishers do not want WW1 novels, however beautifully written" was rather devastating.   It does not mean I will give up submitting - I plan to do several submissions tomorrow. However, it does leave rather a large question mark over the validity of writing another novel in the sequence just now.

I understand that publishers have long lead-in times and might have got their lists in line already.   However, this may be an opportunity to refine my submissions strategy... stressing that it is set in 1916 etc.  so perhaps getting them to focus on the whole centenary - presumably the commemorations will be lasting 4 years, not just this year.

 This week has been "blighted" by teaching - which has been remarkably exhausting.  I am hoping I will be more in the swing of it by next week and will start to fit writing into the schedule.

The new idea was run by the rejecting agent (she was given a choice of 2 ideas and asked which she thought might be most commercial)... I ran the plot past a 3 friends, 2 writers and a reader and it's getting a broad thumbs up, so, providing I can do a bit of research and really get on with it, I think it may be a goer.  Do I dare write about dim chavish blokes?  Why not?  I've met a few... and perhaps sharpening up and becoming a bit more responsible is part of his story... I'm actually quite excited about it - even if the plot hasn't quite worked.

A comercial idea

I've been praying for a commercial idea - a Harold Fry type thing - a novel of redemption and humour... but better.  Now I think I've had one - but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to carry it off... however, I've started writing it, having sworn that I was going to stick to writing Conscience this year.  The fact is though, if I can't find a market/agent for The Ash Grove I will wonder why the hell I'm writing Conscience and whether it's worth it.   One the other hand, GATD may be a bummer too - and I'll waste months writing something that I don't entirely believe in.

Last week I did nothing on Conscience - this week I am going to be mostly teaching.  We shall see how it all fits together.

Engagement

Occasionally an agent seems very much to want what you can offer, so your covering letter is a bit more personal, a little more enthusiastic than usual.  Of course this is totally wrong - people only want a professional letter.  So this afternoon I sent off a submission (3rd this week!) to a new agency - with two fairly young agents and a not very published client list.  My instinct was to leave them as a last resort - but somehow I thought one of them might have time for my ideas.  So I sent this letter which contained more warmth than was strictly professional.   And then I wondered why it all felt so odd.   It occurred to me that while I am feeling all warm and engaging - they won't even have looked at their inboxes - and they won't get to it for a couple of weeks, and by the time they respond, I will probably have forgotten that I even wrote to them.

New Agents
Carole Blake - the doyenne - writing about 15 years ago, says that "people were being made redundant by publishing houses and setting up as agents the following week".  Well why not?  A year or so ago I was only aware of the agents one can find in the directory - and the on line directory - and many of them seemed to be hopeless for my purposes. Now, having begun to follow things on the internet more attentively I have found a whole new wellspring of agents - new ones are setting up all the time - and they all seem a great deal more receptive to the sort of thing I'm writing.

Is this a good thing? It could be that more people are writing YA and Commercial fiction - too much they say - but maybe more of it is getting published because there are so many agents for it... or that there are so many agents because there are so many writers out here in the howling darkness - trying to force the doors open.  I just hope when I get an agent it will be a good one... 

Sex, lies and book publishing

This is the title of an amusing book by Rupert Heath - about the trade.  It is fairly up to date and rather more useful perhaps than Carole Blake's book From Pitch to Publication.   I encountered it while "researching" agents, i.e. I had been given the names of two agents by Tara Moore who got them from Polly Courteney - who are allegedly molto in gamba and I sent The Ash Grove to one - and will probably write a letter to the other, since the agency doesn't actually accept unsolicited MSs apparently.   But we'll see.  More submissions next week, I think 2 isn't bad for the first working week of the year.

SL&BP advises you to do multiple submissions, but not to tell the agents you're doing them, whereas other agents have said they like to know if they are part of a multiple submission, and some agents (Standen) don't want to be part of a multiple submission.  Conville & Walsh tell you to do them.   Oh dear, it's all so confusing.

http://www.kitwhitfield.com/publisherdating.html has an amusing account of what not to say in covering letters... I think I've avoided most of them over the years.   But I rather hope lousy writers will continue to write lousy covering letters, so that those of us who can write a decent letter might get to the top of the pile sooner.

One of the lies I spotted in the book was this:  at an early stage he states that agents/editors always believe that talent will out and eventually all the good books in the world will get published.   However, he says there are lots of good unpublished works out there.  Later in the book he encourages writers to persist in the face of rejections.  Of course, we are always being encouraged to persist... but what of the lament I heard on R4 a week or so ago  "Just received another rejection from an agent - after 30 years, should I bother carrying on?"   Of course one doesn't know what that means really - in fact I got my first rejection letters well over 30 years ago.  And they paralysed me for a long while... then again, I am more or less inured to that now.  I don't like rejection letters of course, but I can cope with them.  I realise they aren't "personal" and represent all sorts of factors that are nothing to do with my book or my writing (although in part that's the issue).  However, I don't know whether that lament came from someone with a whole lot of novels under his/her belt - all of which were being constantly rejected - or someone who had not been writing full-time etc.

Persistence may be the biggest lie of all - if you are not writing what the market wants.  Literary fiction is safer in a sense - the writing might transcend the market.  But if one persists in writing simply to please oneself - I know I have a hack tendency - I definitely wrote TRF originally to please myself, I re-wrote it to please Judith Murray - and the market - but she still didn't like it enough - so.  Oh dear.  I will argue myself out of writing if I persist in this argument.  Actually I won't, because it's virtually the only thing I can do.

First result of the year...approaches to agents

A nice rejection is always to be preferred to a generic one - a personal touch or comment helps.  "I read it twice, before Christmas and again just now" is comforting... talk about the market makes one feel that in happier times one might have got through...  So TRF is now only with 2 agents - Wm Morris - which doesn't count, because they are just a giant slushpile who never acknowledge or reply... and Aitken Alexander - which I don't think counts either, since I think it has been eaten by a troll there. I sent it in July, then enquired in December - the reply to my enquiry was "send it to me and I'll get it back to you by the end of the week.... I duly did so - and never heard another thing... then "reception" got in touch advising me to re-submit it... I replied but "the troll" has run off with it - so what do you advise?" -  Nada.

Anyway, since this agent seemed agreeable, I thanked her and sent her TAG instead...

Looking back over this blog and its various agenty travails I wonder if this is just Me being inefficient and ineffectual - or are all English writers like this?  When I occasionally read US writers' blogs I am amazed by the bright-eyed efficiency they seem to apply to the task "I researched the agents and sent off my query letters".... I still don't really understand how you "research" agents - you look at their websites, you see which ones represent "quality women's fiction" or some such phrase - and then you see who their writers are - and if you haven't heard of any of them (150,000 titles published a year - so is it likely?) try and look at some of their books on Amazon - decide that none of the writers are anything like you - but have never managed to work out which writers are like me and then have to guess which writers might be similar enough for the agent to like you.   Is that how you research agents?  That's what I've been doing - and looking at Tweets from Literary Rejections to see who's up for submissions.

If of course, one knew which writer one was like - let's say, for the sake of argument, it was Hilary Mantel - it would be plain sailing, you would of course submit to her agent - and then she would reject you, and then what?   So perhaps it's as well not to follow that rule, but I feel I should make an assault on some of the more trad. agents - the scarey ones who run Julian Barnes and people like that.

The (Writing) Year begins

This is where the new writing year begins.   Conveniently for me, it is a new writing year, because although I am tinkering with The Ash Grove, essentially I have begun to research the second novel...probably to be called Conscience and I am now facing the grim necessity of examining the horrors of war and how they affected people.

For the last month or so I have felt a bit confused, but at the moment, although TRF is in the in-trays of a couple of agents, essentially I am going to concentrate all my submissions efforts on AG - since the time seems critical.  I saw JG at a party on NYE - before the drinking started.  She said "Do send it to me!" but I'm less and less sure that she'd be the right agent for me... so what to do?  Saw CA at another party - he is about to have his work produced by the new outlet, called Cumulus which a mutual friend is setting up.  I thought it had all happened very quickly, one minute it was half-written - the next it was about to be published.  Even an established non-fiction writer like CA must have gone through some sort of selection process I thought!

Sounds like I have a really juicy literary life - well, it does feel like that some times, but most of the agents/publishers/editors and writers I know are not in the same sort of line, and aren't really much help.  So I get gossip and commiseration, but none of the lovely successy bits - yet!

I expect it would be a hostage to fortune when I say that "this is the year" - did I feel like that last year?  But I do feel more positive than I expected to feel a few weeks ago.  I worry slightly that this feeling is only because a suspiciously accurate Indian astrologer told me I was going to be rich and influential between the ages of 57 and 63 and I turn 57 in February (and the planet Uranus will stop molesting the Pars Fortune in my birthchart around then too).  So who knows?  But there will be nothing without tremendous boxes of hard work.