One of my favourite things about winter is escaping winter and taking a summer holiday in the northern hemisphere – which is exactly what I did for 4 weeks! It was a fantastic break (Hawaii, New York, Canada) but I’ve been back for a couple of weeks now and am straight back into writing work.

The first draft for LTE2 is coming together nicely, and I’m almost up to the end of part 1 (out of 3 parts). I’ve also been setting aside time each week to submit Kalileia out to agents in the US and UK – I’m doing 4 submissions a week. This might not seem like a lot, but I’m doing it this way strategically. I’m hoping that I might receive some feedback on my early submissions from some of the agents, which will allow me to then improve my pitch package going forward.

To date, my Kalileia submission tally is:

Agent submissions: 16

Awaiting response: 13

Standard rejections: 2

Rejections with feedback: 1

Requests for manuscript: 0

The one rejection I received that was non-standard did give me some specific feedback on why she was passing on my pitch, which has helped me revise it slightly to see if I can get any interest. I have a few other ideas of how I could possible enhance it further, but I’m going to wait another week or two and see if I hear anything else back from the submissions still out.

What I’m Reading

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella. Sadly this wasn’t one of my favourite Sophie Kinsella books.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. I’m only about 80% through and really struggling to make it to the end. This book is just so long!

What I’m listening to on Audible

The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary – fantastic story and great voice actors!

Getting Rid of Mathew by Jane Fallon

My Sweet Revenge by Jane Fallon – I love Jane Fallon’s books, and really like the quality of the audiobook versions.