Lucius Fausto is sent to barbarian Britain, to bring back a renegade druid. What waits for him in the forests is an immemorial evil. MALEFICIVM cover by Dafeenah Jameel at Indie Designz | MALEFICIVM is my Romans vs Celts erotic horror that I burned through to exorcise all the pent up nastiness you get from writing Young Adult fantasy fiction. It's dark and bleak and occasionally funny with lots of demented sex scenes and, well, you know, it actually turned out pretty good. I posted the book up on the indie writers' site Authonomy and it attracted a keen following among people who like naked druidesses and troubled Romans and paganism and monsters - kindred spirits, if you like. Authonomy is run by Harper Collins and has a polling system based on the support users offer each other's book. When last I checked, MALEFICIVM ranked a respectable 700th. I pitched the book to a London Agent who liked it but suggested some alterations in the service of commercial appeal and not frightening the horses. Quite right too. Then I got distracted by non-fiction writing for Philosophical Investigations as well as Cthulhu Abides and Myth - and of course (groan) working for a living. I left Authonomy alone for about 6 months. When I log back on to the site, MALEFICIVM is at #10. Then it goes to #5. Now it's #1. If it holds on in the top 5 until the end of March, it goes off to Harper Collins to be reviewed. Amazing! What happens after that? Well, based on the advice HC send, I'll redraft the book and try to find an Agent and a publisher. |