Okay, wasn't expecting to blog again so soon, but yesterday I did something completely bonkers. I only submitted The Forest to Curtis Brown! Yes, I know! Curtis Brown! What was I thinking?! I suppose they can always say no. Hell, who am I kidding, of course they're going to say no. I mean, me submitting to them is like the Bury St Edmunds under 11s rugby team applying to play in the 5 Nations, never gonna happen.

The whole submitting process was unlike anything I'd ever done before, in that, instead of attaching your work to an email as is normal, you have to cut and paste it onto a submission form. This I duly did, it promptly undid all my lovely formatting, so-o-o-o, gone were the italics, the page breaks, the chapter headings, the double line spacing, and what was left was one solid mass of text. Also, the spellchecker on the form was very USA so red squiggly lines everywhere, and I mean everywhere!

It looked awful, I considered going through and changing every word, but then reconsidered, The Forest is a quintessentially British manuscript, if Curtis Brown reject it because there's a u in favour, then there's not a lot I can do about that (ooh, obviously Goodreads have the same US spellchecker - there's a u in favour, suck it up!). I hope that someone at Curtis Brown with heart and imagination reads it and sees just what a truly awesome book it could be. Not really blowing my own trumpet, just letting you know I have a trumpet, that's all.

On a more downbeat note, my tablet has broken down. This is truly tragic as I need it for my daily Instagram posts. No choice for it but to head to the shops as soon as they open and buy a new one. Gulp, desperately emptying my piggy bank and counting the pennies.

Anyway, that's it for now. If anyone is reading this, I'll keep you posted about Curtis Brown - although I think we can already bet on the outcome. Still, writers are dreamers so I can but dream...

Take care, whoever you are.

Julia Blake
Struggling Would Be Writer