It’s about honeybees, witchcraft, unrequited love, and the price you pay for the magic you need.
I think I’m going to send it to magazines.
Category: Sundry
(transcribed from graphic: “C.L. Polk’s debut WITCHMARK, in which a doctor returned from a recent war has faked his death to work at a cash-strapped veteran’s hospital, but when a fatally poisoned patient exposes his secret healing powers to a witness, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder, in a two-book deal, to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com, by Caitlin McDonald at Donald Maass Literary Agency.”)
It’s happening. It’s real. My novel is going to be published – not just anywhere, but at my dream publisher. I’m represented by the agent I secretly wished for when I was making my agent research spreadsheet. From my first queries in February to signing the contract in December, I’ve been so lucky.
I think I wouldn’t have managed it, though, if it hadn’t been for entering a novel mentoring contest and being selected by Michelle Hazen. Her suggestions and insight into wrangling the complicated braid of all Witchmark’s plots into something more connected made all the difference. I definitely wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for Liz Bourke, whose kind words about my manuscript tickled the curiosity of Justin Landon, who reached out and asked to see it. We’ll be diving into a new round of edits and I cannot wait to get started.
Witchmark will probably be available from tor.com in 2018. I’ll give more detail when I know for sure.
I have an agent! I’m now represented by Caitlin McDonald of Donald Maass Literary Agency. I’m so very happy and I have been DYING to announce this and now at last I can!
Yeah, there’s nothing to see here. I haven’t published a book yet.
I can tell you about the novel I finished, though.
Witchmark is an 83,000 word Fantasy about an ex-army doctor who is the only one who can see that his patients who suffer from violent fantasies have an infection in their brains, and a guardian of the dead in search of souls lost from the underworld. Together, their pursuit of a journalist’s murderer leads them to the terrible answer behind each of their puzzles, and the revenge that could devastate the nation if they don’t find a way to stop it.
Not one to sit on my laurels, I’ve started another book.
Project Arcade is a contemporary romance currently in the drafting stages. Sexism and harassment won’t stop Juliet from making the video game of the year, but a secret relationship with the game’s lead actor could end her career.