THE LONG, ARDUOUS JOURNEY

I'm really feeling as though I'm living Olwen's life at the moment:  that long, arduous journey she was taken on, far from her home, across Europe to Macedonia. This journey of publishing is like that - charting unknown territories, hoping for a 'friendly' interaction, wondering when and if it will come to a satisfactory end. IPOMONI: Patience, is my mantra.  So far, I've sent out dozens of queries to publishers and agents and have received very few responses most of them, til now, negatives. Although I did have a moment of excitement a few weeks ago when one published sent me a contract. Turns out it wasn't a good choice. In fact, they hadn't even read my manuscript. And after thoroughly examining the fine print, I decided it was definitely not one to accept.

Then, this weekend when I was feeling down about it and actually had to force myself to send more queries out, I was surprised to receive and immediate reply from a UK publisher requesting to see the whole manuscript. This is a big plus. A foot in the door, at least. And the bonus was, in the letter they sent me, it said that the director of the company is fond of that same history and has read many of the books I used for research or enjoy reading on the subject, such as Mary Renault's books.  So, at the moment I am again feeling more 'hopeful'. Of course, I won't know anything for sure for about 3 more months!  That's the way it goes in this business. Meanwhile, it's coming up for the anniversary of Alexander's death (June 10) so I am hoping he'll send me some luck!

ALEXANDER, as a youth

 

At the moment I haven't been working on "Dragons in the Sky" as I have felt a bit out-of-steam with the writing. For a couple of weeks my computer was in the shop being fixed and I sort of lost my enthusiasm for writing. And since getting it back in running order I've been catching up on travel stories for EuropeUpClose.  But I am trying to get myself back in the mood for Olwen's story again. This is a picture of Alexander as he would have looked at the time she meets him, when he was a young teen-ager.

 

 

This is the coin with the engraving of Philip on the back (and that is Apollo, I think) like the one that Teag gives Olwen when he finds her dancing in the stone circle early in the book.  She carries this coin with her, always wondering who the 'god' is. And when she first meets Alexander she thinks it is him. 

I have actually written the part where she does meet Philip but that's as far as I have written so far. Perhaps I'll take a break from it until after my holidays. I'm heading for England & Wales on June 8 and then going on to Greece June 14. I'm sure I'll get lots of inspiration along the way, do a bit more research for the novel and for more travel stories. And maybe I'll even write some more blogs!