A chance encounter

Another day, another horoscope. This week's one tells me that 'a chance encounter with a stranger will lead to excitement.' And - a chance encounter with a stranger has done just that! Meeting some good friends in a lovely gastro pub near Great Portland Street last week, the Boy and I got chatting to some other people in the pub. It materialised they were from the sales team at the publisher Hodder and Stoughton, and I laughed that was quite a coincidence, as last week I found the strength to take a chance and submitted my manuscript to a well-known literary agents.

One of the group then took a real interest and asked me about my book - what genre it was, how it was written and who it would appeal to. I mentioned it had some similarities with One Day, in that it is told from alternating perspectives and is set over a period of time. It then materialised the man I was speaking to worked very closely with the person who had edited this book at their publishing company. What a twist of fate! He gave me his email address and told me to send in a few sample chapters, which he could pass to his colleague - of course, with no guarantee that his colleague would think anything of my writing, but he could at least ensure my text was read.

And so I took a deep breath, fine-chiselled my opening chapters, and I have submitted them. I'm almost sure that nothing will come of it, and I'll be in good company of authors who were rejected early in their careers and then went on to become incredibly successful as they honed their art - but it was an opportunity, and in this limited life those fleeting and precious chances cannot be ignored. For there is a chance, or hope if you like - tiny as it may be - that my book may touch the right person, in the right way, at the right time. And how can that not be exciting?