Trying hard to get some brilliant new writers launched and it made me think of when WLTGO was out on submission. Here is what publishing had to say about Gods back in 2015 (naming no names...!):

"I read some of this last night. I like the idea behind it, it’s a bit like a British take on Rick Riordan. But I thought it could have got into Virgo’s appearance in the cow-shed a lot quicker, and I suppose I wasn’t taken by the humour as much as I’d hoped to be."

"I thought it was a riot and thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Lively, immersive, full of great characters. However, we are rather full in this 8+ adventure area. I’m afraid it isn’t an area of the list we are currently looking to invest in, so I’ll pass."

"I'm afraid it's a pass for us. It's a little too close to Rick Riordan, who also blends humour and mythology in his series."

"I’m afraid, conceptually I just don’t think it is strong enough to stand out in the current market."

"Unfortunately, while there was so much I liked about this submission, I wondered whether the humour was just a little too grown-up and sophisticated for the target age group, and that some of the jokes might be lost on a younger reader."

"Unfortunately I ultimately felt that the humour wasn't quite as child-centric as I was looking for so it's a close no this time around."

"I know these things are often subjective, the humour wasn’t quite there for me. We’re being so selective at the moment and with Percy Jackson still doing well on the market, I’m afraid that even with work on the humour, we just wouldn’t feel confident putting this out."

"She has such a nice humour to her voice. But we do have another middle-grade book filled with a pantheon of gods and after some in-house discussion we’ve decided that having two series with this kind of pitch on our small list could prove tricky."

And then finally, from @rachel_leyshon @chickenhsebooks the day before my 35th birthday, the cut-off point I'd made to give up on writing...

"This is SUCH a funny book! I loved it - laughed out loud many times. We would love to meet the author..."

And the rest... is infamy.

Keep on keeping on, people xxx