Do you remember dear reader that I used to write about my book PmyC, aka Pardon My Camino?
Many posts on many other subjects have appeared since then on my blog. It was March (Date me up Scotty!) when I last gave news of what was afoot with my book. There it was written, edited and formatted, full of vim and vigour and sent off to a publisher. Then I got on with the rest of my life.
The publisher did warn me that it would be several months before I would get a reply. That was in February. I did get a further e-mail saying my submission has been uploaded into the database for the editors to read. A ray of hope, it had not been rejected right out.
But last week I got a short but polite note saying they would not be taking my novel any further. By way of a small salve to my pen hand or computer fingers, a sentence that they were a small company and only published a rather limited number of books each year.
Sigh, no I am not surprised. Small they may be, but at least they are in business. There seem to be few publishers around in Canada, and even fewer that are interested in non-niche works. Being middle of the road is a rather lonely place in our cultural scene at the moment. I don’t see myself as vanilla but I am not an angry young person with a cause burning through me. Sounds like I wasted my youth in the ‘60s, I should have produced a book then. In fact, I am an optimistic rather cheerful person. It would be a great lack of grace on my part, with all the luck and good things in my life to be grumpy. If I can’t be jolly, who can?
The idea of PmyC is about a couple, who like me, do have a lot going for them, but they manage to screw up their lives in middle age. Along the Camino, Bob and Brigit have to sort out financial follies, infidelities, revelations about their past and if there is a future for their marriage. There is a daring rescue, a theft, and police harassment. They make new friends and link up with an old friend who is gay, and he meets a charming Spanish fellow. Lots of goings-on, quirky locals, good history, food and much wine along the trail.
Well, what next for my book? When I sent it off to the publisher, I did say I would research self-publishing – in case. I don’t think I want to hang around a lot longer waiting for a possible publisher; my book languishing like a wallflower at the dance waiting for a partner. I would like to get Pardon My Camino out there and have some fun sharing it with friends, having some laughs and chats all about how Bob and Brigit walked the Camino; we can share their joys, insight, and redemption, sympathy and humour.