Anna Branford

my lucky underpants

For the next couple of months after meeting Pippa but before hearing much from her again, I was a bit of a fruit loop. I wonder if this happens to all writers at this stage of the process? I remember an idea from my first year anthropology studies that there is a direct correlation between levels of people’s uncertainty and the strength of their beliefs in magic. Honestly, if you’d met me at that time you could be excused for wondering if the Enlightenment ever happened at all.

I wore lucky undies and spurned unlucky socks. I threw coins in fountains and was careful under ladders. I wished on fluffy white seedpods, evening stars and eyelashes. I crossed every digit on my body. This in-between time was like finding a golden ticket and being allowed into the chocolate factory, but still feeling unsure if you are a Charlie Bucket or a Veruca Salt.

And then came another email from Pippa.

You know how with gmail you can see the first line or so? This one began, ‘This email carries very good news’. That may be the nicest sentence in the world when it comes from your literary agent. And in this instance it was probably an understatement. Two publishers had expressed interest in my Violet books.

Over the next few weeks a couple more publishers made offers and I moved between two main headspaces – euphoria with almost inexpressible gratitude and a fear that I was dreaming (which has never really gone away, I must admit. I still sometimes wonder if I’m about to wake up abruptly in 2007 beside a half-written thesis and tell A. that I had this crazy dream that I wrote a children’s book and America had a black president…)

Pippa set up a day of meetings with publishers in Sydney so I flew over again. Once again, there was a feeling of being on hallowed ground. In these places there were original sketches by dream illustrators, covers of books by dream authors which had not yet been released but are now everywhere. Everyone was kind and welcoming and seemed almost as fond of Violet as I was! There was one really exciting meeting back in Melbourne too.

In the end, Walker seemed like the best possible publisher for Violet and I’m not sure I’ve ever made a better decision. I always did love that little bear carrying its candlestick!

The other thing I love is lucky undies. Regardless of the Enlightenment and also regardless of increasing raggedness, there will always be space in my drawer for those.