Pauline West
  • Journal
  • Candlemoth
  • After Ice
  • Contact

Update: adventures in submitting to literary agencies

6/30/2014

 
There's not really been much new to report yet, really.  So I printed out my manuscript again and have been kind of picking at it.  

I've let it sit long enough now that I find lots of stuff I don't even remember writing.  It's almost like reading something someone else has written.

And I like it.  I like it a lot.  It's exactly the kind of book I'm always looking for, full of place-ness, all dark and chimerical.  

I've now had two requests for fulls.  I still need to submit to a few more agencies... and will be very lucky to hear anything at all back before August.  (That's where this is so tricky-sticky... all these different, unpredictable response times.)

I'm really itchy to start my next book, Savages.  I've kind of outlined it and have done a few sketches for chapters here and there; I wake up from dreams and write notes to myself about it.  So it's almost time.

Experiencing an interesting reluctance to start on it too soon.  (My deadline to start again is August 1.)  It's been such a blissfully carefree feeling to not carry around hundreds of pages in my head all the time.  I've been so much more present.  We had a blissful weekend. Dinners and parties with lovely friends.  We threw a big one before a friend's concert on Saturday, went nuts until four in the morning.  Then a lazy Sunday, reading, making pizza, watching movies.


But... I also can't wait to build a whole new world.  We watched a fantastic documentary on D.T. Suzuki the other day.  At the end he talked about how all is one- life is death, and death is life, all that. Strength and weakness the same thing.  

This habit of mine (of mind) I have, this penchant for writing; it's my greatest strength, and so my greatest weakness.  At once it is my tenderest and proudest place. 

But I guess we're all that way about the things we love, aren't we?  A friend was telling me how its a good thing, my writer-y-ness, but I wonder.  This very same penchant, not so long ago, I guess I'd have been mauled by a lion.  And if society goes all to hell, what with climate change and shifting world powers...well... I guess I might get mauled by a lion yet!  

Anyway...


“Anyway is a such strange word," Ada said. "When you think about it.  It’s a secret passage of a word.  ‘Anyway’- always taking you from here to there.”

“Ada, my dear, you are fascinating, and I have forgotten myself.  It’s late.  You should go on to bed.  I can show myself out.”  Patrick shot out his watch.  It was old fashioned, with a fawn colored leather strap.  “Your parents probably don’t even realize I’m still here.” (Evening's Land.)


    
Anyway...  Recently read Lawrence Osbourne's The Wet and the Dry, and The Paris Wife.  The Wet and the Dry was very, very good.  Unapologetic and fascinating.  Loved it but was chilled.  The Paris Wife, which Andrew's lovely grandfather recommended that I read, was incredible.  I wrote to him this morning:

"What a sensation- to have had such a vivid and beguiling window into Hemingway's life, then to have had it close again, for good.  Jarring.  

But I guess that must have been how Hadley felt- shut out from [Hemingway] forever.  I haven't read such an immediate and deeply transporting book in a while.  I was sad to reach the end. 

The last lines were perfect though."

It was an absolutely wonderful story.  I still feel a little caught up in it.  
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Pauline West

    ​Pauline West's first novel, EVENING’S LAND, is winner of the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Award and recipient of the Carol Marie Smith Memorial Scholarship for the NOEPE Center of Literary Arts.  

    West's writing has been shortlisted for The International Aeon Award, and featured in International School Leader Magazine, Reddit’s NoSleep channel, The Art Mag and The Sierra Nevada Review.

    Pauline West's books on Goodreads
    Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance
    reviews: 15
    ratings: 27 (avg rating 4.04)

    Evening's Land Evening's Land
    reviews: 20
    ratings: 24 (avg rating 3.46)

    Candlemoth Volume 2: How To Spend It Candlemoth Volume 2: How To Spend It
    reviews: 7
    ratings: 10 (avg rating 4.40)

    Candlemoth Book 3: A Twist of Fate Candlemoth Book 3: A Twist of Fate
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 6 (avg rating 4.17)

    Stalker: A Gothic Thriller Stalker: A Gothic Thriller
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 4 (avg rating 4.25)

    Categories

    All
    All Babes Are Wolves
    Astra
    Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance
    Children: The Kids Are Not All Right
    Evening's Land
    Illustrations
    Instagram
    Journal
    Linocuts
    Loveliness
    Meditation
    Oddities
    On Writing
    Poetry
    Redux
    Savages
    Short Stories
    Stalker A Gothic Thriller
    Stalker: An Erotic Horror Story

    Archives

    December 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    August 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.