The agent said that my novel (Poplar Hill) was
"too Canadian" and the character "too quirky" to sell in
the US and the target audience would largely be older women and that was outside the
demographics for "Woman's Literature." She never heard of Farley
Mowat, judging by the blank stare I got when I mentioned his name, and thought that "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx was old news, barely worthy of a shrug.
She did manage to come up with a really great synopsis: The story is a riches
to rags to riches to rags story with a Zelig-like hook in Germany. It’s an
oddball story like "Waking Ned Devine."
After hearing my pitch in a query workshop someone told me
that the title should be “Poplar Hill or Kitty Stevenson’s Two Wakes.” So that’s
the tile from here on out.
