Some responses from literary agents.

                   
          I got a message from David Haviland, the fiction guy from Andrew Lownie. The next day. I mean, that is what you want. It doesn't matter if they don't want the business. But it does make a difference if you think these folk actually look at their emails. I wouldn't be surprised if they get hundreds of emails every day.

          Anyway, David Haviland asked for three chapters and a synopsis, the way they always do. I cannot understand this. I do not think folk deal in hard copies these days.

          Last night, several days after sending the first batch of emails, I got a response from Angus MacDonald of Artellus Ltd. He asked the see the Ecuador book!! I was really surprised. Once the folk in New York didn't get back to me, I kind of gave up on that.

          I'm trying not to deal with more than one agent at a time, but David Haviland is a fiction guy and Are There Any Buddhists in Ecuador? is never going to interest a guy like that!! So I've just replied to both of them and sent on the fiction book to the fiction guy, and the Ecuador book to the guy who must be Ecuadorean though he sounds pretty Scottish, being Angus MacDonald.

          |Nobody wants to see the two books for ten to fourteen year olds. These are the best!! But nobody wants to see them. There can't be any money in kidsbooks. Just ask JK Rowling.

My guru!

          \I managed to post this by copying it from facebook!! This photie was taken last week down at the Samye Ling. Very pleased to be able to post it here!!

           I haven't heard from the fiction guy at Andrew Lownie yet. Of course, if he doesn't fancy the stuff on my Amazon book page ... specifically, I directed them to the two books for young adults and the one about blowing folk up. If he doesn't like the look of that, there's no reason for him getting in touch. I'll give them till the end of business on Monday and then go again.

          |I don't really care about getting published because I don't need the money, or any aggravation that might ensue, but I'm going to make the effort because I told my guru I'd try to get her some money to develop the muddy field she's making into a dharma centre in Belgium. You can't dish money out if you haven't got it. And there's no good reason for wanting stuff published unless it's for the money.

         We chatted about deity yoga. I'd read about yogis being able to imagine deities until they seemed to be there and could imagine them so well that they could view them from different angles. The lama said when you imagine the deity above your head, it frees your mind and your mind can them go and have a look from the front, side, etc.

          From my personal experience, that still seems almost impossible. However, my visualisations are getting better although they are still very poor. Of course, these visualisations are supposed to be done with your eyes open. When I gaze at something for a wee while, the whole of my visual field starts to distort. Sometimes things meld into each other and sometimes light seems to cover the edges of stuff. If you just let this process go, sometimes the thing you are looking at almost disappears. Perhaps it is from this kind of visual field that the visualisations are possible, but I don't know. |The lama told me that the distortions in my vision were normal.

          The effects of vase breathing particularly are running away with themselves just now. I wanted the lama to tell me where all this might lead. She smiled and shrugged. We do not know, but forward, forward ... all my plans are simple!

          It was nice to hear some response from Andrew Lownie. |I means the email I sent isn't a complete turn off.

Not a cheep out the them yet!

                      There was no response from anyone today from the six emails I sent last evening. This is not a surprise!! Some time ago I was trying to get an agent for two books I'd written for ten to fourteen year olds. Despite having two adult books published, having eight plays produced, being a school librarian, and having an awful lot of glowing questionnaires, I managed to get one person to read one of the books in ........ two years of trying!!

                       The two books I got published were published because I knew people. C'est la vie!

                        Emails tonight to:
Sarah Ballard at United Agents
Christopher Little
Wylie Agency
Euan Thorneycroft at AM Heath
office@knighthallagency
Andrew Lowrie

The photie is from the Sikkim trip from this Spring. No, I still cannot get photies off my phone onto this blog. Bugger the machines!!

I just got a response from Andrew Lowrie. That took less than fifteen minutes!! Says a colleague dealing with fiction will get back to me. So, hurrah for them.

More agents stuff!!

                  It is now more than three months since I sent Are There Any Buddhists in Ecuador to William Clark Associates, so I tried to prod them into a response of some kind with an email. Well, I had to send it through their query email thing, and I haven't had a response.

                   Somewhat disappointing when agents do that.,,, ask you to submit something and then completely forget about it. Non satis. In future, I'm not giving anyone that length of time.

                    What I think I should do now is put the Ecuador book straight onto Kindle and forget about it, but I did tell Lama ,Rinchen I'd try to make some money to help her with building on the muddy field in Beaumont, Belgium.

                      So I'm going to try and get someone to sell the two young adult books and the crime book. That's Remote Control plus Bugtown and In the Land of the Demon Masters.

                       This evening I sent out five emails to.
Ivan Mulcahy
Jeffrey Simmons
Malcolm Imrie
Angus MacDonald
Jonathan Pegg
and
Jenny Brown Associates.

The emails to Jeffrey Simmons and Jonathan Pegg didn't work!! So I sent three emails. Doing this business stuff is not very interesting!!! It's not as if I even need the money.