Some news. Might be good news. Too nervous to be hopeful.

So this update has been long overdue.

At the end of May, I had a lovely meeting with my new #WriteNow mentor. Funnily enough, he interviewed me during the selection process and I was a bit disappointed when I found out he wouldn’t be my mentor initially. He was so enthusiastic about TWENTY-NINETEEN and appeared to really understand it. Turns out, he really wanted to be my mentor too! He had already committed to another mentee, but when my manuscript came up, he asked if he could have two mentees, but the request was declined. After our lunch, he told me he was sad that I had had such a turbulent time on the programme. As a man of colour, he was keen to help me out.

So at the moment, I’m waiting for his editorial report for TWENTY-NINETEEN and THE REAPER. I’m a little nervous, but also very excited.

And then, last week I received an email from the #WriteNow coordinator that two editors from another Penguin department had read REAPER, and also wanted to discuss it with me. I thought “hell, why not” and asked to get in touch with them. This is the email I received in response:

we were sent over your novel REAPER by ____, and have been absolutely loving it. We have been totally captivated by the world you have created, and your vivid and evocative writing. Gerald and Amy are such a dynamic duo! I can’t wait to discuss it with you.

I know you’ve been speaking with a few other divisions at Penguin Random House previously, and are probably getting quite a sense of our labyrinthine company! To give you a little context before we meet, Penguin Michael Joseph is a commercial division – we publish a range of commercial fiction and non-fiction books from authors like Liane Moriarty, C. J. Tudor, Marian Keyes and many more. In our strong and growing speculative and fantasy list, we have published titles including The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox, The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier and Sylvain Neuvel’s THEMIS files series, and this year acquired the TikTok sensation Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy. It’s a list that we’re keen to grow, and so we’re very excited to be talking with you about whether we may able to find a home for REAPER here too.

So this is where I am right now. I meet with them tomorrow. As heavily emphasised by the coordinator, it’s never a guarantee that Penguin will publish any mentee’s work. I assumed these two editors from Penguin Michael Joseph just wanted to have a general chat. The final line about potentially finding a home for REAPER almost made me drop my phone. I wasn’t expecting that at all!

And so I am tentatively hopeful, but keeping my expectations Hades-low. I’ve had so much rejection and setbacks, it’s hard to feel excited. More like dread ha. ha. hahaha.

Please pray for me lol.

ETA: it was good news. I can only hint at it here because publishing is a slow and vague business. But a proper announcement is coming in the next few months.