Serendipity

Ever since I was a little girl, I've adored fairy tales. I once owned two volumes of encyclopedia-sized fairy stories and would dip in and out of them as the mood took me, right through to late adolescence. One of the biggest regrets of my life was giving them, at the age of nineteen, to some neighbour's kids, along with my enormous collection of Enid Blyton and Sweet Valley High books. I wish I had just let the kids borrow them until they grew out of them and then had them returned to me. Still, never mind - we live and learn.

Yet no matter how much I adored those stories and books, from as far back as I can remember I used to wish those princesses and fair maidens weren't quite so... wimpy. I had the same problem with my Enid Blyton books - if ever you find an old battered Famous Five and discover various scrawled insults to Julian inside them of the 'sexist pig' variety, it's safe to assume that book once probably belonged to me. But I digress.

At the weekend I had reached the dreaded middle section of my wip. As I am still waiting to hear from my editor at M&B, I was reluctant to write my way out of the impasse because, for all I know, I might be heading in completely the wrong direction. I was also still waiting to have an editor assigned to me at Entangled (I have to say, Entangled Publishing are an absolute joy to work with and I sincerely hope that Tempted by Trouble is only the first of many books I publish with them). Then I saw a call-out on Twitter - Entangled were after Halloween novellas. And one of the call-outs were, specifically, for fairy tales with a zombie twist. As soon as I looked into their requirements in more detail I became so excited I was bouncing around the house. At last, I had it in my power to take one of my beloved fairy tales and turn my princess into a heroine with balls! And thus, what I call my 'Kickass Cinderella Zombie Killer' was born. I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing anything - I'm having an absolute blast. And the fact that it's a novella means that I should, hopefully, be able to write it around my edits when I get them, and my M&B story when I hear back from my ed there.

And now comes the serendipitous moment. A couple of days ago I received an email from Entangled confirming who my editor would be - I had been assigned to Adrien-Luc, the very same editor who had done the Halloween call-out, the very same editor that Kickass Cinderella Zombie Killer will be winging its way to when it's all done and dusted. There then ensued some more bouncing!

Obviously this does not mean my Halloween novella will be deemed suitable or good enough but I'm not too bothered by that - I'm writing this one for me.

Thanks for reading, and take care all xxx