It’s been a long road, but I’ve finally reached an important author milestone - I’ve just signed on with literary agent Maeve MacLysaght, who will work with me to get A Flesh Most Holy And Incandescent into the hands of publishers and readers.
I’m incredibly fortunate in having met Maeve. She really gets A Flesh Most Holy, adores the whole cast, and has a clear vision for how the story can be honed and refined into something that’ll blow readers away. She loves this genre deeply, and I have an awful feeling that she’s going to push me really, really hard in pursuit of making this manuscript shine. Which is exactly what I’ve been looking for (and needing) all this time. Together, I have complete faith that we’re going to create an amazing book (and hopefully after that… more books!) that you’ll all love.
An agent. Damn. I have an agent.
Damn.
Getting to this point has taken longer than I wanted. I’ve been querying now since 2010, when I was a baby writer smashing out unsaleable Philip K Dick homages. The first book I ever queried, Alpha Slip, was trunked after rejections wore me down. So was my second. My third and fourth were never read by anyone besides myself. My fifth, Century of Sand (retitled The Ragged Blade) sold to Parvus Press in 2017, along with the sequels. That deal collapsed. I also reached the negotiation stage with a Pan Macmillan imprint. Momentum, for my horror series Rust. A week later, Momentum closed. And so on, and so on.
But this post isn’t supposed to be about how hard it’s been. I’d rather talk about how each setback was an opportunity for growth. I wouldn’t have found my voice without all those failed manuscripts. I wouldn’t have learned how to lean into and embrace the themes of my heart if those early stories hadn’t failed to land. And all those rejections taught me bull-headed persistence. Twelve years! Fifteen novels! That’s a lot!
Now I get to knuckle down and focus on just one. A Flesh Most Holy And Incandescent is a story very dear to me, and I can’t wait to hammer it into shape and get it into the hands of publishers over the coming months and years.
Fingers crossed, friends.
(article image - the main character of A Flesh Most Holy And Incandescent watches a shard of a dead god fall into the ocean. Generated using Midjourney)