1912. A chance meeting between scullery maid Lizzy Parker and heiress Evie Creswell leads to more than an enduring friendship and a new job for Lizzy; it draws her into a world of privilege and intrigue, and delivers her into the loving arms of a killer.
So there we have it; and the query must have hit the spot because around a week after sending it out to pretty much the only agents I could find who accept e-mail submissions, I had a bite: Diane Banks e-mailed me to say she'd enjoyed what she'd read so far, and invited me to send the full MS. After flapping about and muttering "ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod," for a while I got a grip, prepared the e-mail and sent it.
Of course I knew the chances were good that it'd be knocked back, and I was right, it was. But Diane was perfectly polite about it and while she didn't offer any feedback (disappointing and now feel slightly adrift) she did have the good manners to let me know right away instead of keeping me hanging on for months and making me ask. I had the rejection in two days.
MAN that hurt! Hurt loads worse than having a query rejected, because I could always tell myself before that they hadn't bothered to even read it, yada yada yada-all-agents-are-mean! But Diane read it and she said she "didn't feel strongly enough in the end, to take it further in what is an incredibly competitive fiction market."
Ho hum. Never mind. It's out there working, still; sitting with 4 more agents and entered for two breakthrough/debut novel competitions. And when those run out I'll start in on the printed submissions - I can't quite believe there are still agents out there who don't accept e-mails, not in in this day and age. But - there are, and one of them might just be the one who connects with Lizzy Parker and wants to help me tell her story.
