When The Noon God was complete, it felt like something I should share. I sent out a multitude of agent queries and after that numerous publisher queries. Heaps of paper, mounds of postage, loads of effort. The response was encouraging -- I received many 'glowing' rejections. Most agents and publishers said the same thing -- they liked the story, they 'got' the voice, but they could not handle a novella. The Noon God is novella length.

Could I have made the story longer? Yes, but it would have been forced. It did not need more length.

For Gold And Fishes, a mystery set in post-tsunami Banda Aceh and Phuket, the amount of research required before I could even begin writing was huge. This story covered the 30 day period immediately following the 2004 Boxing Day disaster in SouthEast Asia. Because of the story's subject, I was compelled towards accuracy and needed to keep a respectful 'truth' about the book. Six months of daily research followed by 6 months of writing and rewriting, revising and editing were followed by almost 10 months of my work sitting with one agent who had requested 'exclusivity' in my query and had shown interest. When I finally got my reply, the agent had experienced recent changes in home life and could not take on any new authors.

I did submit a few more queries after that, but soon realised the subject matter of Gold And Fishes was time-sensitive. Hence the decision to self-publish. I could not bring myself to bury such a significant measure of my labour.

Having already self-published 2 books, it was much easier for me to reach this decision once The First Excellence was complete. Of course, I went to a local writers' conference and had an agent meeting, as well as sending out a couple of queries. The few agents I submitted to all said the same thing: Americans will not be interested in a story set in China.That may be true, but I have to write what's in me. Personally, I love to read about exotic locations, and I'm willing to do the hard work and research necessary to make the stories ring with truth.

So again I found myself "doing it my way".

Mother always said I was a rebel!

#LitChat Response -- Nov. 6/09 4:00 pm EST @Donna_Carrick n Twitter

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