The best rejection I've ever had, book one feedback, and book two progress

Christ, it’s been a long time since I’ve been on here.

A lot has happened since my last update in April. I’ve had a birthday, the UK coronavirus lockdown has not been lifted (boo) and I have been absolutely bowled over by my day job (which has somehow become my night job too).

Thankfully my work has recently returned to next to normal patterns, which means we can get onto the important stuff.

What has happened over the past two months? I haven’t had a full manuscript request yet (boo) but I have had one of the best rejections ever. Far from a simple palming off, the wonderful John Jarrold gave me some fantastic feedback on my work while telling me it wasn’t for him. Honestly, to have the man who managed the great Robert Jordan and (one of my favourite authors of all time) Iain Banks, praise my work, has been a huge boost. John said he could see the “imagination and intelligence” in the opening chapters of A Better Crown but couldn’t represent me because he didn’t love the book which is fair enough; he doesn’t want to market a book he doesn’t wholeheartedly adore and I wouldn’t want that either. He might not love it but I will take imagination and intelligence all day long. So, in short, no literary agents are keen to take A Better Crown to the next level yet, but I feel bolstered by John’s words and will be drafting another set of queries to go out very soon.

Speaking of A Better Crown, my wonderful beta reader Annastasia became only the third person to finish reading my manuscript in May. She then proceeded to give me enough feedback to keep me preoccupied for the rest of the month. I can’t thank her enough for the effort she put into her crtitiques. She has given me the insight and perspective to further enhance the quality of my manuscript. When you can tweak those twists, change those clues, nip and tuck here and there, then you know that the story is just going to land so much better. I would call this A Better Crown draft four; a bigger and more refined finished article, that is reader-approved and reader-ready.

I will be publishing a second extract from A Better Crown next week; it’s got some killer artwork to go with it and I can’t wait for you to have a read. It features one of my favourite and most mystucal characters; The Wanderer an ancient Runebearer.

I have also made some progress on Book Two, Glory Before Death, however, I would emphasize my use of the word “some.” I’m still umming and ahhing over large details of the synopsis, swaying between my original plot plans and some crazy, half-baked notions that, weirdly, come to me when I’m midway through a run. I have 12-15 chapters mapped out in my head, locked in, set in stone, as well as story archs for a number of key characters which I will be cracking on with before I make any other plot decisions.

I have had ideas for short stories but no time or drive to get them onto paper but, with my work easing, I know that will eventually change. The ideas are there, and I’m sure a few half-finished word docs with random titles and notes will soon flourish into fully formed shorts. To make that happen I just need to adhere myself to a practice that I deplore; patience. Christ, it’s relentless. In other short story news ; I have been selected to try out a new blogging/social media website which is launching in the UK. I say much more about it, only that it’s extremly exciting and I’m looking forward to getting some stuff out there.

So that’s me, A Better Crown; imaginative and intelligent but still not represented, Glory Before Death being worked on (slowly but surely) and my short stories waiting to be finished.

It’s been tough, but hey, who said it was going to be easy?

In the meantime: stay strong, keep reading, keep writing.