Never Give Up!

Hooray!  August is the month that has witnessed the release of Dicing with Death.  It’s been a long time in the shaping.  I wrote it first, nearly ten years ago, as a competition entry.  It was unsuccessful but I felt that I had ‘something’ and was determined to keep going with it.  I added another 20,000 words and sent it out to publishers and agents, receiving the inevitable round of rejections.

At that time I was unrepresented and Joanna Devereux, who is now my agent, was interested enough to request the full manuscript.  She suggested some changes which were duly made but unfortunately the book still wasn’t quite right for her.  At that time she didn’t sign me and I felt that another opportunity had slipped through my fingers.

I shelved Dicing with Death and went on to other projects which did lead to Joanna signing me, albeit several years later.  An introduction to the lovely Rachel Kellehar and the brilliant Kate Paice (the keenest eyed editor I have ever worked with – and yes, if she reads this she’ll be yelping at the poor grammar) led to the dust being blown off Dicing with Death’s cover and it being re-written for Bloomsbury’s Black Cats series.

And so, over ten years on from its original conception, with half a dozen re-writes, Dicing with Death is finally out there.  It just goes to show that sometimes a good idea for a book isn’t always enough.  It needs to be matched with the right editor, at the right time, for the right audience.  So don’t give up.  Just because you haven’t found your match now, doesn’t mean you won’t in the future!