The hidden drawer of manuscripts

[mistri]

With the news that Pyr is accepting unagented submissions (full manuscripts no less, and over email), I had a look at some of my older completed books to see if anything was up to scratch.

I almost sent something.

I wrote the email, even attached the document. But I couldn't bring myself to press send.

The book in question was Plague's Perfume, a

Comments

[redlauraa]

Overlap can be useful to get little bits and pieces out of the way before the place is filled with all your stuff. When I moved in here I found it really useful have the space to get all the new Ikea flatpack made up :)

Congratulations on the house.

[mistri]

Thanks! I do like a bit of overlap for a house move. We're looking to put new flooring in the living room and maybe do some painting so it'll be nice to do that with no furniture about :)

[mistri]

That's our thinking - get the place as good as poss. before all our stuff is in there,

Good luck with the submission :)

[blythe025]

I personally think you should send it off anyway, because if you get a sale, you'll be more than willing to do the work smoothing it out.

I don't remember keeping up on all your past posts on this, but personally I don't see the problem with the banning perfume (if that's the main concept that you feel is problematic). I know that there are plenty of workplaces that ban perfume, because of people's allergies. For some people it's a big problem, so the whole office will ban perfume and even scented lotions sometimes. So unless there's a lot more to it than that (which being a novel and a fantasy, it very well may be), I think it should work.

[mistri]

I am somewhat tempted, I have to admit. Though I'd like to be more confident of it before sending it anywhere again.

The perfume thing is a bit longwinded, so apologies in advance. Perfume can be imbued with magic in this particular world. The Empress of a particular region had her family assassinated by magicked perfume, so has banned scent. Someone else needs one (made only in her part of the world) to cure a plague. It's a bit random but I was on a huge hand-blended perfume oil kick at the time :). I had a couple of 'how would she ban 'smells'?' comments.

[blythe025]

I totally understand about wanting to be confident in your work before sending it, so no worries there. :)

It seems to would that the "how would she ban smells?" comment wasn't paying attention. If a particular scent has to be man made, as many perfumes need to be, then it makes sense that someone would be able to ban a particular kind of perfume.

What ever happens with your story, it certain sounds interesting. I hope you can eventually keep working on it, because it sounds like it would be an interesting read. :)