I just took a look at what you sent of Chapter 1, Deb, and I think a prologue would be a good idea. It would provide a good contrast to the, more or less, idyllic setting of Lumbe cottage and set the mood for the book. Plus, it can be obscure enough to get us wondering what the what is and drop all kinds of red herrings and nifty clues that we'll look back at later and say to ourselves, "gah, she sixth sensed me!"

Sail, that's my feeling as well. I think I know the scene I want for a prologue, but I need to decide which town in Cornwall I want to set it in; I'm personally most familiar with the southwest corner of the duchy - St. Ives, Penzance, Mousehole (pronounced MAO-zuhl). But if I want to do a teaser with an Arthurian undertone, it should be north in the duchy, at Tintagel, where Arthur was supposedly born.

OTOH, if I stick with the south bits, I can use St. Michaels Mount. I used to walk out there from Penzance harbour during low tide, and swim back to shore when the tide started coming in and covering the stones of the causeway.

And St. Ives is seriously amazing and haunted. I wish all my pictures of when Jo was a toddler, tromping round St. Ives in her coveralls and red wellies, were digital.

Oh, you have got to set it in the south, just so you can fit in Mousehole. It's begging for a cat to be stalking it.

Can I get input on a less important matter. I'm getting mixed pings on something and wanted some judgement.

The publisher who responded to my Query acknowledged the proposal and told me to call him if I did not hear in a week. Granted we are looking at a really small publisher but this still seems awfully quick. How can I tell if this is a legitimate hose - not a subsidy publisher or some such? I mean if at some point I get asked for money obviously a scam, but don't want to get to that point. Not on the standard lists of scam site. I don't know if I'm being sensibly suspcious or unconciously playing the "there is something wrong with any club that considers admitting me" game.

Gar, I don't call that less important. Hell, I call that vital.

Can you google the publisher? That's the obvious first step. If you don't want to say who they are on a public forum, email me and I'll see if I can locate anything about them.

But honestly, I don't think it sounds all that quick. This is a proposal on a very specific niche proposal.

Deborah - insent. Yeah I think I'm probably just being insecure and neurotic.

Checked. I don't think they're a vanity publisher - if they are, they're hiding it expertly and they've got Ingrams as one of their distributors - but I can't exactly ping my agent about it, not anymore.

And, prologue is done. I'll send this out to WIP readers when I finish chapter one, which should be tonight or tomorrow.

This is now at 5K words. Moving along.

Happy Birthday, deb! For your birthday, I hope you get an agent. And I hope this upheaval brings about better representation and a wider audience, the Kinkaids, Fly, and much much success.

For Nic's birthday, I hope he gets that job.

Deb, happpy birthday to you and Nic. May this be your year, in so many wonderful ways that don't seem possible right now.

Deb, I'm so sorry about the situation with Barb. I hope it is one of those hidden blessings that opens new doors for you.