The Unsettling, and an Amazing Surprise

Two unexpected events over the past week – last weekend I went to review some dog friendly accommodation near Wadebridge, the set up of which was very strange –like walking onto the set of a sci-fi film, or a ghost town, and that feeling seeped into the whole weekend. I came home feeling very uneasy, for a variety of reasons, including Mollie nearly disappearing over the clifftops in pursuit of a rabbit. It made me realise how often life trips you up when you least expect it. Or at least, my life does.

We had some lovely walks – see picture of Treyarnon Bay above – so parts of the weekend were great, and will appear in Cornwall Today, but even transcribing the tapes, I find they have a chilly shadow over them that I need to eradicate to do the walks justice.

But onto the good bit. On Friday I received Highly Commended for the New Talent Award for my novel FOUR LEFT FEET at the Festival of Romance. Unfortunately, due to a blip, I wasn’t told I’d been shortlisted until a week before the event, or I would have gone. As a result I missed out on a reception where I would have met literary agents and other authors (stifled scream).

I only found out that I’d won Highly Commended through a message from Talli Roland on Facebook on Monday morning. I contacted the organisers, my pulse racing with excitement, and received a long and apologetic email back swiftly. But the best bit was that a literary agent was impressed by my work and wants to see more, so she gave me her email address and suggested I send my whole manuscript to her.

I did, and today received an email back from the agent, congratulating me and saying she will read the ms and get back to me as soon as possible. Fear grabs my guts. My stomach swoops and I feel sick, as if I’m in a lift descending far too quickly. My hopes and dreams, tears and hard graft over the past years, lie in 95,000 words of paper sitting on someone’s desk.

I daren’t hope too much – I know too well how incredibly difficult it is to get an agent, let alone a publisher: I’ve been disappointed so often in the past. But to have got this far is a real bonus. And as my dear friend Andrea emailed, “It goes to show that you have to keep at it. Yes, it would be simply wonderful if something did indeed come of this. Then again it might not and instead something else will pop up. Novel writing is not for the faint-hearted; takes enormous tenacity."

So do think of me. Send good vibes towards this agent, please, and hope that she falls in love with my book. Or perhaps can recommend someone else who may. Please……