"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

No time for a test! We got our first rejection

January 17, 2024

Yesterday on my Patreon (and today on the blog) I wrote what I was going to do each time I got a rejection to my query for an agent to represent my novel, which is gifting an eBook to all my middle and upper-tier Patrons every time that happens. I promised I was going to make a test to see if the encoding I’m using works for everybody.

Well, there’s no time for the test!

One of the (two) submissions I sent yesterday already got a faster-than-light rejection that had to do with my personal profile.

This means we can test the system with a free book!

The book is a short one, the one I was preparing for the test, and it’s an original translation of a fairy tale written at the beginning of last century by an Italian symbolist poet, Guido Gozzano, and it features:

– a beautiful girl who’s cursed to be lighter than air;
– the Prince of the Fortunate Islands who’s cursed to be heavier than lead;
– a group of grateful helpers;
– a good fairy;
– three evil fairies in their castle.

The first section will shortly be up for 1st level tiers.

The eBook in two formats will be up for 2nd and 3rd levels.

Not a patron yet? Consider becoming one!

technology

Hey, teacher, leave the bumblebee alone

Every few months it comes back. A pencil drawing of a bee, a quote in a serif font, and different authorities invoked as the source: aerodynamically speaking, the bee cannot fly, but it doesn’t know that, so it flies anyway. It gets shared and liked,

October 28, 2026 9:00 am

Spooktober

Spooktober 28 – The Black Monk (3)

Chapter 5 Glad that he had been so successful in the part of peacemaker, Kovrin went into the park. Sitting on a garden seat, thinking, he heard the rattle of a carriage and a feminine laugh — visitors were arriving. When the shades of evening

October 28, 2026 6:00 am

Spooktober

Spooktober 27 – The Black Monk (2)

Chapter 3 After supper, when the visitors had gone, he went to his room and lay down on the sofa: he wanted to think about the monk. But a minute later Tanya came in. “Here, Andryusha; read father’s articles,” she said, giving him a bundle

October 27, 2026 6:00 am

1 Comment

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Posted at 11:40h, 21 January Reply

[…] book to be the first one my Patrons were going to receive, but I wasn’t ready when we got our first faster-than-light rejection, so I had to opt for an Italian fairytale. What’s there to prepare, you ask? Well, at the end […]