HOLIDAY rejected Yet Again

NVDL: BTW I am not considering the self publishing route for HOLIDAY. I’ve provided at least 6 individuals with copies of this manuscript. All feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. An avid reader in her late 70’s said she read it twice. An acquaintance who works at SABC has recommended I send it to Hollywood as a script. It’s an important, compelling story, and – I feel – way overdue.

‘Holiday’ is a topical account of the human condition. It presents two characters, a middle-aged man and a young teenager – a girl – who find themselves propelled into an austere, warming world that has gone rapidly beyond the ‘tipping point’.

The story challenges the reader to establish what is real and urgent, and what must be done when the world and all information becomes essentially an ill-defined ‘gray area’. Without rules and regulations, without obvious patterns (in the weather and other areas), Hugh and Stella must decide what to make of themselves and the world.

In the end, everything is stripped away, the world is burnt black, and the only color, the only life that remains, is in these two surviving characters. ‘Holiday’ is a story filled with metaphor, and the metaphor is ironic: for we are not on holiday, there is plenty to do in a world that is increasingly hostile towards its human inhabitants.

Comment on 'HOLIDAY'

Read your book through the night recently but left the last couple of chapters for later as was subjected to symptoms of looming panic attack! Dreamt of doom & gloom & all sorts of associated nasties, so I guess the positive spin is that it's not lacking in impact! The Amazing Race without the glitz...

Dear Nick

Thanks for sending us the sample chapters of your novel. I can see why your readers react as they do – this is, indeed, the stuff of a drama, i.e an exploration of a situation (rather than a novel?) and of Hollywood.

We feel that it would be better promoted in the international market than in our relatively small local market, despite the South African component. This will, probably, require the services of an agent – there is a list in the Writers and Artists Handbook, available at bookshops.

Regretfully, I must decline HOLIDAY for publication by Umuzi. Another South African publisher may feel quite differently, however. So, don’t give up.

Best wishes
X

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