Being on a Longlist: Misha Herwin
It’s a strange experience having a book on a longlist. It’s never happened to me before and now suddenly two of my books are awaiting a decision. The first is “Vladimir the Vampire’s Cat” a children’s book which I entered some months ago for Writing Magazine’s Chapter Book Prize. “Vladimir” is something I’ve been working on literally for decades. I began in the 1980s and it has gone through endless incarnations since then. Last year however I decided that I was going to work on the final version. Whatever shape it ended up in, whether as a short story, a picture book, or something longer that was going to be it. The decision having been made, it didn’t take long to do. Years of reading to grandchildren gave me a feel of how it should be, plus constructive feedback from Renegade Writers, and I finally could type THE END. When it was done, I had to make up my mind what to do with it. After sending off the first chapter an agent wanted to see the full ms. When that came back wit...