It’s been a while!

I haven’t written on this blog site for a while – so long, in fact, that I thought I had disappeared altogether. Panic set in. Eventually, I found myself. Phew.

But lockdown has been a bit of a rollercoaster, and writing a blog hasn’t been high up in my thoughts recently. End of the world scenarios. Thought about those kinds of things quite a lot. About the creeping idea that we’re living in the beginning of one of those apocalyptic films where everyone carries on as normal and you’re screaming at the screen for them to get to higher ground, or to under no circumstances open the door to the lab where the deadly virus’s vial is cracked, or haven’t they noticed they there’s a virus creeping its way insidiously through the population maiming and killing as it goes and why the hell are they still pretending life’s normal. Oh, wait… Mouth’s gone dry again…

I’ve thought about my family, my friends. Thought about the people I truly value. The people that I really want to spend time with. Come to some realizations. It’s been cathartic.

Also reached the conclusion, that just in case, I ought to get a wiggle on, stop procrastinating, and see if I can make the next step happen with one or two of the manuscripts I have sitting on my desk.

Enter Twitter. Now, I’m not a big Twit. Tweeter. Twitter-follower/poster. Not even sure of the correct terminology. I’ve read some threads recently on race, the pandemic, harmless get-well-soon tweets by celebrities to other celebrities/their families, in which the contents of some of the replies made my eyes bleed. So absolutely and monumentally unpleasant that it kinda puts me off. Certainly puts me off posting anything/replying to anything.

However, a few times a year Twitter hosts the #PitMad challenge, where writers can pitch books, using special hashtags, and agents/publishers can like your work. Giving you the green light to query them, as it were. Coincidentally (or maybe not – algorithms, and all that) I also saw a course designed to help with the specifics of entering the #PitMad arena. With my procrastination gloves firmly locked away in the drawer, I decided to have a go. At the course, and then at #PitMad itself.

Made my brain hurt. A lot. But in a good way. And I posted my tweets last Thursday, and then nervously checked Twitter like never before. Which wouldn’t be hard, but I went from checking Twitter once in a blue moon to checking it roughly once every thirty seconds, or more.

The result? I got some hearts, and today sent off a query to a publishing house. What will come of it is in the lap of the gods. But like someone very clever once said – if you never send queries then you won’t get rejected, but you won’t ever get published, either.

And whilst I wait to hear back? I’ll try to keep those apocolyptical thoughts at bay. Maybe I’ll watch a movie. Haven’t watched I Am Legend for a while. Or The Rezort. Or 28 Days Later. Perhaps one of the original Mad Max films…

Or maybe I’ll go for a walk.