Happy Birthday book!

Day 49

It has happened at last - as I write this, my book is zinging it's electronic way across miles of country, in an email to my first agent. It is now officially a thing in it's own right - not just an idea of mine, or a project I work on in the privacy of my home, or something that will happen 'one day'. It is a manuscript about to land on somebody's electronic desk, that at some point will be read and considered by a stranger, that has a life of it's own now. My little book has been born.

I spent all of yesterday (until 9.30 at night) hacking away at the computer, and all of today as well. I have searched for, located, and researched nine agents that are currently accepting work from children's authors. I have found out the names of their clients, the kind of work they represent, the person whose desk it should arrive at, and the format they prefer it to be in.

I have scanned in and endlessly re-formatted all my artwork, producing a comprehensive and - dare I say it - beautiful manuscript, reducing an initial file of over 38,000 megabytes to just under 8,500 with Steve's eternally patient help. I have written a covering letter and a short CV of myself. I am now completely cross-eyed and my bum has turned to concrete, but oh, what a buzz!

I have three more agents to email tonight, then tomorrow I must print everything out and send it to the other five. Then that's it - there's nothing else I need to do until I hear from someone. This could take up to ten weeks, so I will push on with book number two whilst I wait. If I got an agent - wow - what a Christmas present that would be!

My book is now the first thought I have upon waking and my last glimpse of consciousness at night. If nothing else, it is helping me to develop My New Life at a rate of knots. My old concerns and difficulties are getting replaced by a constant developement of ideas about my book and it's marketing etc. I always knew that if I wanted to change my life, I daren't wait until I recovered from my illness, I needed to act differently first and then my body and soul would rise to that.

Although I am shattered, I can feel it sitting comfortably upon me, like a well-earned rosette. I am happy, I am happy, what more could I want from life?