Agent update

The agent called yesterday. So it wasn't an outright, 'Flawless! Let's storm the publishing world!' but it was the next best thing. A page of changes needed to make it work and a definitive next step, to submit the edited ms to a fresh pair of eyes at the same agency. She said she read 'with great pleasure', that my heroine is complex, 'a great character', and that her relationships with the other main characters are 'brilliantly done'. I'd like to say the required changes are just fine tuning. Well, no. It's rather more than that. In some places, it's major new scenes. I have much to cut, and some cunning re-aligning to do. But she clearly thinks I can do it; she's impressed by how far I'd come between the previous ms and this latest one. So I'm telling the niggling demons in my ear ('you ought to have cracked it by now, you haven't the stamina or the time to get it right') to shut up. This is what I needed: enthusiasm and direction. I'm rolling up my sleeves right now and diving back in.