The Doctor, The Plutocrat, and The Mendacious Minister

Glyn Pope and I've hinted for months now that his book, The Doctor, The Plutocrat, and The Mendacious Minister, will be the debut novel for Cactus Rain Publishing. It is his third novel.

Their could be some sanity questions regarding going with an unknown publisher. I think, though, Glyn is fine with his choice.

This still isn't the official-official announcement of "the deal." I'll get to that when the CRP website gets launched. More on that at a later date.

Let's talk about what it was I liked about "Doc" that made me offer Glyn a contract. I like the title, but it was a long time in coming and we had a [different] working title for about 6 months (longer for Glyn).

I wasn't requesting submissions at the time Glyn queried his book. (Honestly, people need to work on their query letters. Even I'm getting more picky about that - just a tip for aspiring writers.)

What I liked about Doc: Glyn was certainly enthusiast about Doc. He pitched the project with all his heart. That got my interest right away.

Another thing in reading the ms was that he really put the reader back in time to post WWII, England. The story was 100% believable. It fit with what I knew of history, meaning it wasn't heavy laden with historical facts for history geeks; it was readable for a general audience.

The characters were well developed and there was a good balance of secondary characters for the main characters to stage with. He balanced age and youth, wealthy and regular (normal) people. There was greed, innocence, and the vicar was funny. Basically the characters mirrored real life quite naturally; nothing was forced. There was a good amount of dialogue, which is a commercial element too.

Certainly there was a need for rewrites and I'm sure I must have seemed demanding at times, but Glyn always got to work and did them without complaining or arguing. Let's face it, arguing with one's publisher is a fast way to get dropped.

There were formatting issues which I probably won't have time to deal with in future acquisitions.

Overall, Glyn's attitude and his writing carried the day and here we are 9 months later sending the galley to the printer.

I've turned down far more mss than I've accepted. Two broke my heart because I thought the themes had great commercial potential, however the writers thought they knew everything and that a first or second draft was ready for print. Um, NO!

There's a bit of a glimpse inside Cactus Rain acquisition mindset and a really quick peek at Doc. Congratulations, Glyn...we're almost there!