Busy times! Life has been hectic since my last blog post in … September?! Blimey.

Since September, I’ve completed the following writing:

Sympathy for the Devil is complete, formatted, reviewed by my brilliant beta readers, and is now out looking for representation. So far it’s been to 30 different literary agents, and I’ve received rejections from 11 of them. Eighteen never responded – I assume these are therefore rejections – and I am waiting to hear from one more agent. A lot of the responses from agents have been personal and very positive. There’s been a couple of ‘form rejections’ (those where it’s clearly a standard letter saying thanks-but-no-thanks). The personal responses were very heartening, essentially saying, “Yep, it’s strong enough, the writing is there, but it’s not right for our particular agency.” I love these responses.

All of the submissions I’ve made so far are to agents who accept e-submissions. I haven’t sent Sympathy to any agency that demands a printed submission. I think it’s a waste of paper and money. The author has to pay for printing and postage, and the agency has to pay for disposal costs later (if the author hasn’t paid for a return SAE). It’s so outdated and wasteful as to be laughable. I imagine literary agencies with piles of paper, towers of mulched wood and ink surrounding poor graduates. When instead they could simply transfer a Word doc to a Kindle and read submissions anywhere.

In September I also wrote a short story, Maisy & Jim. I sent it to a literary magazine, which duly rejected it. I will be keeping it on file for a later short story collection, I think.

Currently I’m working on Planetfall 2: Children of Fall. The action picks up twelve years after the events in All Fall Down. Kate Leland is now a Fleet Admiral. The war that Daoud started is still going. And… that’s as much as you’re getting. I’m about halfway through the first draft now, and hope to have that completed in August.

I am also editing another book for Tara Basi (Masterminders, Blocks), and may have some more editing work upcoming for a scifi novel.

On top of that, we’re also moving house soon and having a baby!

Phew.

astro x