No news is good news?

Anti Stress Therapy - Tin Sign
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No real updates, but reviewing the current state of play it is interesting.  Every agent who has rejected (aside from the one who sent me someone else's rejection slip, and the interesting one I got last week) has said there is no market for the genre in Britain. Ironically these are all agents whose websites and Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2010 entries state that they specialise in it...

One did stand out however, as being particularly honest right upfront: They said they loved the book but could not sell it because none of the publishers they dealt with would be interested in adventure stories. However if I sold it, I should get back in touch as they would happily take me on as a client.  Since agents rise and fall on their authors' reputations and these ones are reasonably established it's the closest thing to a vote of confidence I've yet had, although my nasty cynical side suggests that most companies would be happy to make easy money at the point.I'm going with the good version:

Thanks guys, I needed the boost.

On the other hand, spending the last week dealing with four net scammers, an escaped cat and a nasty computer virus (rogue anti-virus which we suspect was sent by one of the four previously mentioned) has pretty much wiped me out. Can this week be better please?

A week for it?

And on the e-commerce front, I've just had two scammers to deal with in 24 hours. Strangely enough, like most companies, the one I work with does not commit:
1) Customs fraud
2) Postal Fraud
3) Visa fraud
or in fact any form of fraud. So why on earth we'd get requests to do all of the above in one day I don't know. And since I was up half the night dealing with this (so we could report it first thing this morning with evidence lined up), an ill cat, major engineering works, and am very tired, I'd like to get some sleep.

Or good news. Good news would also be very welcome! It might even wake me up...

Class Two rejection

Warning: post may be severely tongue in cheek in parts.

Wow, I'm so touched. I just had my first class two rejection. For those of you who don't follow the blog that is a ( Lady Bracknell voice) "How dare you presume to let your trifling little manuscript cross the threshold of our great and glorious agency!"

They were indeed less than polite. My partner is very annoyed. I'm trying not to kill myself laughing, which is apparently an odd response.

You see, it's hard to take it personally. They haven't read the manuscript or synopsis - that's stated clearly and the papers were returned in exactly the same condition and bundle they were sent in so I believe them. From the content of the pithy two lines (personally written, not form letter so they have no excuse) they haven't even read the cover letter. They don't give a reason for the rejection. So what's being rejected?

My writing? They haven't read it.
The idea? They didn't get that far.
The cover letter? They didn't read it.
The genre? They don't know what it is.
Me personally? They know nothing about me.

It's actually quite bizzare. To be quite honest, the most likely explanation for what I received is an agent with a large slush pile deciding to cull it. It's not hard to imagine: the frantic agent, surrounded by piles and piles of unsolicited manuscripts which tower over her, coffee on the small patch of clear desk, grabbing an envelope from the precariously teetering pile, pulling the contents half-out as her elbow hits another pile and sets it rocking, scrawling urgently across the top of the first sheet, and then shoving it back in the envelope and sticking "return to sender" on it as she clutches the piles before envelopes can cascade everywhere...

After doing three hundred of those I can imagine the urge to not be terse, not polite. However, as someone whose business runs on goodwill and excellent customer service, I will also add I'm not impressed.

The only thing I will thank you for is the return of my unused SASE, which will be departing here shortly on its way to another agent. After all, if I let a nasty comment stop me writing I wouldn't be any kind of author at all.

Vulcan in trouble

It looks as though XH558 may not make it past the end of the month. They have put the engineering staff on 4 weeks notice.

While sad, it does not seem too surprising given that the requirement for a huge amount of engineering work for this winter was revealed in September, rather than during the airshow season when people had her fresh in their minds.

That said, given the current climate, please support them for free. They are trying to get their video to go viral, so any links to it would be useful. Also the fiftieth birthday card world record attempt.

And if you'd like to donate but have no money, try everyclick: each search raises 1p

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Lens 150 - The A1 Tornado

#150 The A1 Steam Tornado
http://www.squidoo.com/A1-tornado

The A1 Steam Trust's Tornado is the first steam engine built in Britain for forty years, and is currently in mainline operation. A Peppercorn class she is capable of great speed pulling a nine coach train - and looks absolutely stunning in motion.

I had been debating what to do for 150, as I wanted to do something special for my target lens. The A1 Tornado is definitely something special. Besides, as I like steam engines and jet planes, a steam engine named after a fighter jet is the best of both worlds.