It's just an honour to be nominated...

Okay, so I decided that after a handful of really good reviews in Amazon, I might as well bite the bullet and start shopping ‘Barricade’ around.

By nature, I am not a gambling person. I rarely buy lottery tickets, and have only set foot twice in a casino (First time won about $150, second time lost $20). I’m not opposed to any of it on moral or ethical grounds. I’ve just figured out that I’m more likely to subsidize winners than be one myself.

Trying to get an agent is, in many ways, a lottery play. I say this with no small measure of pessimism. 

Please don’t tell me the odds because I know them by heart:

•  Chances of a positive reply from an agent – 100:1

• Chances of a positive reply from an agent asking for a sample – 300:1

• Chances of a positive reply from an agent asking for the whole manuscript – 400:1 or 500:1

• Chances of a positive reply from an agent from a top level agency asking for the whole manuscript –  ???? : 1

Okay, so Friday night, my ten year old daughter went to a chaperoned dance at the local Oddfellows Hall. As my better half had handled the first leg, I took the return visit. Nice drive back, listened to very silly music very loud, and pulled into the driveway. No big deal - it's how we roll.

Get out of the van and as I’m heading to the house, I check my Blackberry and the cause of the little red flashing light. It was an e-mail in response to a query I sent that essentially conforms to the very last scenario outlined above.  Request to see the whole thing, and from an agency that I would never have queried if I had let my feelings of inadequacy rule my head. 

Not appropriate for me to name the agent or the firm, but on one writer's blog, they said getting picked up by them would be the equivalent of  "hitting a home run, with the bases loaded, in your first game in the Majors." Yeah, and that doesn't make me anxious in the least!

Am I going to be on the New York Times Bestseller list? Doubt it very much.

Will I get a publishing deal with a big imprint? Not holding my breath.

Will I get taken on as a client? Would be bloody fantastic, but I have absolutely no clue.

Am I feeling like there’s something in my writing? Hell, yeah! It got my foot in the door. The question is whether it gets all of me past it.

I guess it’s like the Oscars – maybe it’s enough just to be nominated.

One thing for sure, it has distracted me from watching for new reviews on Amazon. Like the rest of it, it's been much better than I expected...