I am (still) a writer
So I got rejected by Bookouture – Of Black Bulls and White Horses is ‘written strongly and atmospherically’, but not what they want. It is what I expected and, as a result, I immediately sent it to an agent and two independent publishers. It is now another waiting game. What is interesting is that I sent the whole Sam Green series to three publishers/agents in March and not a squeak of a response. This is very common in my world, but also very annoying. I know these people get masses of submissions, but it wouldn’t take them too long to have a quick glance at your covering letter, realise I’m an elderly white bloke writing espionage fiction, discount me out of hand and reply, ‘no thanks’. A stock, polite reply would be easy, so people like me could cross that particular avenue off their list. Ho hum.
But, never mind. My plan now is to work through the OBBAWH script, make one or two of the more substantial changes which were suggested by my beta readers, wait for 12 weeks to see if I get a response from my latest submissions and, if not, get the book proofed and published for Christmas. In the meantime, have I got a plot for book seven in the Sam Green series. Think Balkan War, eugenics, organ harvesting, Middle East, Serbia, a decommissioned UK power station, Sam, Frank, a Serbian journalist and his sister, maybe Holly, the senator’s daughter from The Innocence of Trust and, well, a whole load of mayhem. I was thinking it through when I was driving back from Mum’s on Tuesday and, wow, I got excited. Really. I am looking forward to it. I can’t wait to start.
I reckon I’ll be into it all starting at the end of the first week in September, And 130k words later … hey presto, another Sam Green book.
Which is interesting, because you would have thought that a rejection would have hacked away at the underpinnings of my love of writing, but no. It has inspired me to do more. I’m still selling books, still getting great reviews and, although I’m making next to nothing, there is an appetite. Interestingly, yesterday I found this web page: https://spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=1904. Yes, Sam has her own page (as do I), on the ‘Spy Guys and Gals’ website. And it’s very positive … what fun!
[image error]what fun …
And, whilst talking of ’employment’ I have been doing some more work with the MoD. Yesterday I took a zoom team-building session – which was fun. And a second MoD team is putting together a business case to employ me to do the same sort of thing: team 360, followed by leadership coaching. That may come to something.
But, I am so excited by the plot for book seven, I fall back on my original premise: I am a writer first.
We’re at Mary’s at the moment and will be here until tomorrow. And then we will turn around (not sure how quickly) and head off up north for a month or so, trying to get something like a summer break. It is funny, isn’t it? It’s just not the same. 2020 has sent everything into a bit of a spiral. We will not travel on the continent because of covid-19. And now we will not venture into Scotland for the same reasons. We don’t want to go somewhere we don’t think we’re welcome. So, northern England it is. Let’s hope for some decent weather.
Keep safe. (And dry.)
