Dear Mrs Earl,
Thank you for sending along TERROR FIRMA for consideration for inclusion in our QUANTUM LEAP novel program.
You're right - it is certainly publishable. I am at the moment looking specifically for the third book on the most recent licensing contract. With your permission, I would like to hold TERROR FIRMA as a possibility.
I make no promises - I have a number of very strong projects on submission, and I need to choose the one that I feel is not only the best written, but also one that will balance with the books already published. Your book, like the first of Ashley McConnell's, is a straightforward Leap, with more complexity than an episode would have, given that books have neither special effects budgets or one-hour time constraints. I like that, and it may be "time" for another such book.
I should say that I'm not sure how MCA would feel about dealing with an author based in Britain. If it came to it, do you have anyone over here who could act as your agent? Think about it.
One last thing - I do find it curious that you would chose to set your Leap story in L.A. You did a good job - except for the spellings, I wouldn't have immediately been able to tell that the author of TERROR FIRMA was British. But one of the requests that I frequently get is for books set outside the U.S. (The book just out here takes place in British Columbia, which has made more than a few Canadian Leapers happy.) Have you thought of doing a story set closer to home? You might - it is one of the things that I am definitely looking for.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write.
Sincerely
Ginjer Buchanan
Executive Editor, SF and Fantasy.
This led to "Run for their Lives" as you will see from the follow up, (to be posted)
In answer to the above letter, I wrote to Ginjer to say that not only was I delighted to give my permission for her to use TERROR FIRMA (which of course she did not in the end) but that I had already begun work on "High Hopes" and had planned out a story set in England (London and Bedford to be precise) as requested which eventually became "Run for their Lives". All these stories (plus "Snake in the Grass" and the final of the series "M.E. myself and Sam,") are linked by a story arc centered around the Project staff, which is why I decided not to post "Run" until "High Hopes" was up.
"High Hopes" was the story I gave to Dean Stockwell when I met him in Milton Keynes, a copy of which he signed for me.
Here is the letter that led to "Run" being completed first:
November 22, 1994
Dear Mrs Earl,
As it happens, shortly after I wrote to you, I got in a revision on a proposal that I had liked a great deal earlier, and sent that along to MCA for approval for the third book. (By the by, it's titled LOCH NESS LEAP, so I may get my book set in Britain after all, written by two authors who live in the pacific Northwest!)
But I fully expect to contract for more books after the first of the year, so I will still hold on to TERROR FIRMA. I like both of your other ideas, too, but in the further interest of internationalism, I might suggest that you work up the nanny one first...
...She then goes on to deal with U.S. agents and payments in foreign currencies, which seemed to be the biggest stumbling block to publishing my stories! doh!
Unfortunately, by the time 'real life' had allowed me to finish working on "the nanny one" (RFTL) and submit it, they had just taken the decision not to publish any more QL novels.
Guess my timing sucks!