Thursday, April 07, 2005
Fooling some of the peeps
Cain't "phoal" all of the people ...
Again I come back to the question of anonymity. As an ex-publisher/Lit Agent and current reader of whatever my publisher pals send me to sieve from the slush pile. I don't actually see real names or About a year ago, I appended a note to a short story :"This the third I've read from this one. Worth checking into if you haven't signed up." Now I hear from an agent, "Your protegé. Do you have contact address?" Well, no, he isn't my protegé and I never have contact addresses. It's a guy who submits under the equine nik of "Phoal" (foal, geddit?), writes devastating short stories of anything that takes his fancy, but occasionally lets slip glimpsed roots of Native Indian life that rival anything that 'owner' of the war bonnet, Sherman Alexie is putting out. He mails them in, no return address, nowhere to send the £, so of course they can't be published. Prob is, there's a body of work from this nostril-pierced scamp that top editorial directors are chomping over. I don't do chat rooms but psycho@gmail points me to Delphi. The sleuthing is on
i know the delphi person your informant referred to, by the way.
If you have any links to her work, I'd really appreciate them.
Thank you!
Knowing these types, the front desk receptionist entrusted with assessing this over the transom work has filed the letter in the wagga and all trace is lost.
I was just a reader: got sent stuff, read and said yea or nay, and got on with the next load of rubbish. "She", you say? Interesting. I do recall being quite impressed - not least by the lack of any groveling letter or need to "explain" her submission. the words spoke for themselves and they did indeed.
thanks for following up.