Thanks Cathy, thanks Mike. This brings long frustration to a close. My first four books were accepted by the first four publishers I sent them to. Now it's been eight years since Very Far North, I have four collections unpublished, and I've been rejected everywhere I turn. I assume the combination of homosexuality, hard-core Catholicism, passionate bloodsport and confessional alcoholism, all in strictly rhymed measures, is enough to offend both right- and left-wing editors. So here is a book of verse on cynegetics, the art of hunting with dogs, targeted to a very specific and enormous audience. It is full of joy, of high elegiac sentiment, fieldcrafty beyond reproach. A theme last treated in 2100 hexameters, skillfully written by one who didn't know jackshit about his subject during the late Hellenistic Age. Maybe I have to do the same with the devotional verse. Whatever. I am very grateful to Alex for rolling the dice on this one, and I hope I can help him hit the jackpot.
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