So this happened today:

http://angryrobotbooks.com/2015/03/introducing-peter-mclean-angry-robots-latest-author/

That’s right, I’m now officially, really and truly signed to Angry Robot as a debut author!

This is one of those things that is difficult to write about without sounding lame but this really is a dream come true. I’ve been writing for over twenty years, short stories and sketches and bits of novels and unfinished half-of-novels and for the last five years or so, complete novels that no one wanted to publish.

But you don’t give up. If someone had told me last year that I would never, ever on God’s green Earth get published, I’d still be writing novels. Because I have to. If it’s what you do, you have to do it. And with every book you finish (and the key here I think is finish, not abandon) you learn something. About writing, about perseverance, about yourself. You keep going. You get better. You learn your trade, you learn your industry, you network and you make contacts and you learn from them and you go write some more and some more and eventually it’s good enough and you get somewhere.

Eventually.

I’m overjoyed to be given this chance by Angry Robot and I will not let them down. Drake is going to sell. How much I don’t know, but I know it’s going to sell. I’ve worked too hard to let this fail now.

But the first person who asks me what it feels like to be an overnight success is going to get punched in the face.