The Accidental Fires of Revisiting an Older Work

A Publishing Quest Update for Paid Subscribers

Hey You,

In December of 2020, I finished a fantasy novel called The Accidental Fires of Asti Faraway Ward. Clocking in at 168,000 words, it’s a beast, but I’m proud of it. I only queried it in that form to about ten agents, though, before another project (This Phone Can Call the Wind, which I’ve written about extensively on And More Slow) ran away with my attention and emotional energy.

Querying is hard, painful work. I self-rejected Fires because it’s so long—not obscenely long for fantasy by any means (A Game of Thrones, the shortest in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, clocks in at more than 292,000 words)—but long, and complicated. It is hard to imagine an agent taking on from an unknown author (where I am in my career now is not comparable at all to where GRRM was in 1996).

And one morning this month, I woke up pissed off,