That day I got a call from an agent...

Okay.  That thing about dreams.  They're a thing I have - I posted about them a while back too, because I've had this one for quite a while.

It goes like this.  You sweat blood over that precious manuscript, get it as polished as you can, peruse your list of the best possible agents, write cover letters and press SEND, crossing fingers, in fact crossing absolutely everything...
Then, you wait.  And it can be quite a wait.

This book's a psychological thriller - my first in this genre and I had no idea how it would be received.  Going on past experience, I know you get rejections.  On this occasion, I submitted to a small number of agents, not getting my hopes up too high because I've been here before.
Sure enough, Agent X got right back to me with a no thanks. 
Here we bloody go again, I couldn't help thinking.  Deep breath.  Told myself, No...  It's just one rejection.  And you only need just one agent...
Next, Agent Y pinged back please can I read the rest and I sent it straight away, suddenly hopeful again.
Then Agent Z pinged back yes, too.  Sent it to her too, starting to get quietly excited.

But then I stopped myself, because this happened to Wildflowers.  Six requests for the full MS and no takers.

Anyway, a sleepless night followed.  This book has done this to me, especially latterly as I got closer to finishing it.  For the last few weeks, every other night has been a two or three o'clock-er which is a great time to write but not so great the next day.
But, I'd sent the book off.  There's another I'm writing but I couldn't concentrate.  So I faffed and procrastinated and went to see if any other insomniac nutters were about on Twitter, which they weren't, and so I started perusing all the writery kind of websites I like reading.  And this name kind of leapt out of the screen at me.  And I thought, why haven't I sent this to him?

So I did.  At about six in the morning.  Got an email at half past 10.  Please could I send the rest. so I did.  Carried on day writing other book, then after lunch, sleep deficit well and truly kicking in, moved to the sofa with cat, switched on mindless TV (no offence, Peter Andre and Sixty Minute Makeovers) and was just dozing off when the phone rang.

It was him. The last person I expected.  We'll have to call him Agent A, at this stage, and he said such lovely things about my book, I was completely tongue-tied.  He really, really liked it - so much he even missed his lunch to finish it...
So we arranged to meet. 

I phoned my husband to tell him.  Voicemail.  Went to meet my son off his college bus.  He wasn't on it.  Kept it to myself for two whole hours - surreal.  Then phoned Georgie in Greece - she's thrilled for me.
Our meeting's the same day Georgie comes home after three  months in Greece.  It's going to be one of those one-off kind of days and I can't wait.

So, I went from submission to meeting in less than a day.  And truly, I've worked hard as I can, and I've dreamed of this kind of response, but if it's happened to me, it can happen to you, too xx.

But this is only the first part of the story...