Sold: The Lonely Hunter

[realthog]

I've sold my recently completed novella The Lonely Hunter (the one whose working title was The 5000 Spirits) to Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers at PS Publishing for standalone publication in 2011.

I'm absolutely hopping with delight about this, since I can't imagine there could ever be a better home for the piece -- which I love inordinately. It's a sort of slipstream/interstitial story, slightly displaced into the future although not science fiction, a fantasy-of-perception about literary creativity and loneliness and alienation and obsession, and maybe it's a murder mystery as well. Such items, especially when 25,000 words long, are, ahem, a hard sell to the genre magazines . . . It's an enormous credit to Pete and Nick that they've created somewhere that's as welcoming to the unclassifiable as it is to more obviously genre material. And they're a joy to work with.

At the same time, of course, there's always that sense of slight panic I have on making a sale to PS or The Anthology Once Named Postscripts. PS Publishing's standards are so goddam high, and their stable of authors so imposing and terrific, that I feel quite intimidated: come 2011, my humble offering is going to be judged by all the world in that context. Ulp. On the other hand, PS's publication last winter of The City in These Pages (see icon) didn't bring too many brickbats my way, so . . . yeah, maybe I'll survive the experience.

Comments

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Congrats :)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay, that's awesome - congratulations! (And we shall be stablemates, in the PS Class of '11 - I also have a novella coming from them that year...)

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

Awesome, congrats!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

*big handshake*

Wot? Just a handshake?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Well, they don't look at all alike . . .

Do you have a copy of my previous PS novella, The City in These Pages? I can't remember if I stuck one in your Xmas box last year. If not, gimme a yell.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks!

Just been emailing you.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

we shall be stablemates, in the PS Class of '11

Oh, congrats right back at you, then!

Hm. Depending on when in the year mine comes out, Pam and I might pop across to Fantasycon. Golly, this could be a joint launch, we play our cards right!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks, B!

[thisplacehere.livejournal.com]

Oh, this sounds like a wonderful book. Congratulations on the sale!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That? Would be exceeding cool, if the timing worked. Though I have a feeling Pete may have said "the first half of 2011" for mine. And if so, I'm not going to ask him to put it back, not even for the privilege of sharing a launch with you. 2011 is already too long to wait, damn it...

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Mazel tov! That's lovely news!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty certain Pete intends my offering for late in the year (hence my musing that Fantasycon could possibly coincide), so: so much for that idea.

Oh, well . . .

What's your novella? Do tell.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! And my knees are already clattering in dread anticipation of your review . . .

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks! As noted, there's always an extra-special frisson in placing something with PS.

Mind you, I was saying to Pam last night that there's also a feeling of let-downness here too. I mean, this is a novella, there's not a whole lot of white knuckle action in it, it doesn't fit into genre categories . . . all in all, I was bracing myself to take me a couple of years or more to sell the piece, if ever: could this be the "previously unpublished extra" if ever I persuade a publisher to do another collection of mine? And so on. My adrenalin was building up in preparation for the long haul. So to sell the piece overnight on first attempt -- I e-mailed it just before bedtime and the acceptance was waiting for me when I logged on next morning -- has left me in the position of the dragonslayer whose dragon backed out of the contest.

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

"Wot? Just a handshake?"

Oh all right, a big hug too, and a slap on the ass, er, back.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

How pleased you are, and you should be!

Love, c.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks, C!

xx

[mylefteye.livejournal.com]

That's a terrific sale, Paul. Congratulations!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"That's a terrific sale, Paul. Congratulations!"

Many thanks!

At one point I thought this might be my entry to that uber-lucrative story comp you recommended, but then it got more interesting than their 7000-word limit was ever going to allow.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Congrats. Will you be writing a novella with the title "The Heart Is" at some point?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Will you be writing a novella with the title "The Heart Is" at some point?

You've spotted the exact reference.

[jmward14.livejournal.com]

Congratulations {{{{thog}}}}}! What a fabulous home for the story--one where it fits right in with the company. :-)
Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie

[realthog.livejournal.com]

one where it fits right in with the company

You bet. So far as I'm concerned, PS is the bees' knees -- sort of up there where The Third Alternative used to be before it decided to become a horror/"dark fantasy" mag instead.

one where it fits right in with the company

You bet. So far as I'm concerned, PS is the bees' knees -- sort of up there where The Third Alternative used to be before it decided to become a horror/"dark fantasy" mag instead.