Good news from Michael...

...who called yesterday to discuss the book. He'd been gone to Chicago for a book/editors convention and had just begun reading the Century manuscript. He noted the humor, structure, pathos; said the length was probably advantageous (it's short) as a literary novel; wanted to forward copies to two other readers, Lynn Wallace and Bette Powell, who are his partners in publishing.

He event liked the dummy cover, which I am still trying to figure out how to post here.

"This is definitely something I'm excited about publishing," he said, but he also said I should think about sending the manuscript to other publishers and agents, just to see what they thought of it and to see if they would offer me a bigger paycheck than Pottersville Press might see. Further offered to introduce me to an agent that he knows, who is building a client list of literary fiction writers.

"The quality is there that it deserves a broad audience," he said.

Yes, I know this is blatant self-promotion, back-patting of the first degree, to be placing these sorts of things on my own blog. But then, that's what a blog is about, to a certain extent, isn't it?

It's a good time for Michael, after years of struggling. His second mystery novel is about to be released; a mass market paperback company has contacted his agent for rights to both of the first two books in his John Jorden mystery series; he's been invited to speak at the Southern Festival of the Book.