An Agent Speaks To The Slushpile

While a face-to-face meeting with a literary agent is more likely to get your foot in the agency door, Susan Golomb believes in the merits of the slushpile.

You can read an interview with the storied literary agent here, and find hope that if your writing happens to land on her desk at the right time, you just might get your little toe wedged in before the door shuts in your face.

Study carefully and you might get a hint as to what Ms. Golomb is after these days. You would only be disappointed if you submitted something she is not looking for because it would be a rejection outright, no matter how your prose sparkles.

Pay attention to her stories of discovering writers now popular, because those same writers were unknown at one time. Just like you. There might be a suggestion or a phrase that will inspire you to try a new approach.

After you've read all that, you'll want to recall that this is Easter weekend, with the anniversary of Ireland's Easter Rising of 1916 looming. What does it mean, you wonder. What happened and how did things go that far, to see hundreds of people take to the streets and start shooting? You can read all about it here, in a fictional form that avoids the dry dullness of the average history tome. A TERRIBLE BEAUTY is historically accurate but eminently readable.

Enjoy it with a box of Cadbury chocolate eggs on a quiet Easter Sunday night, and fall into a world of espionage, intrigue and double-dealing. You won't be able to put it down once you start, so be sure to lay in plenty of tea before you're wrapped up in the tale of one family and their generation-spanning quest for liberty.

Still hungry for more stories about rebels against the Crown? Katie Hanrahan's third novel, THE LIBERTY FLOWER, is also available for an instant download and an evening of reading pleasure that will keep you turning the pages until you reach the end.