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.