Stephen Potts' Adaptation of Pulllman's Butterfly Tattoo

I've been following Stephen Potts' running commentary on the British SCBWI listserv about his screen adaptation of Philip Pullman's Butterfly Tattoo. He's just shared this YouTube behind the scenes video of it (and nope, he hasn't seen the final version yet). I thought it would be a treat for slushpilers to see the making of the making of.

Happy Christmas!

Season's greetings from the Slush Pile on Boracay Island, the Philippines!

Yes It's You: Good News Strikes

It felt a little bit like winning Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

When the moment came, it took me ages to process what was actually happening, Rejection having been my default setting for so long.

The phone rang and I took a message. The message was: YES.

Yes, I like your book.

Yes, I want to represent you.

Yes, it’s going to happen.

Come to think of it, that was David Almond’s inspirational message this past SCBWI Writer’s Day. “It happened to me, It’s going to happen to you.”

I got the call last week and I’m only blogging about it today because today, I had my first meeting with My Agent.

I tried to explain to the Husband what a different experience this meeting had been from a previous agent near-miss that had ended in disappointment. Was it the way this agent expressed an interest in my other work? Was it the fact that she urged me to chase her on the phone when I needed to follow something up? Was it – ? The Husband stopped me in mid whinge.

There’s no point looking back. The difference between then and now is this book. You have written another book.

And that’s the thing.

I’ve written another book. And it’s better than the previous one. Which was better than the one before.

So after more than 10 years, three novels and dozens of rejections, I’ve got an agent.

One can only get better at it.