Posted by: Marie Phillips - Author, Gods Behaving Badly

Hello Canada! (Now I sound like I’m doing a stadium tour.)

Here’s my first novel: Gods Behaving Badly. Well, I say “first novel.” That’s not strictly the truth.

I wrote my actual first novel when I was 13. It was a gothic tragi-comedy entitled The Lone Bagpipe, inspired by a book found in the school library entitled The Joy of Bagpipes and is now sadly out of print. (The Joy of Bagpipes, I mean. It will come as no surprise that The Lone Bagpipe was never actually in print.) The Lone Bagpipe was followed by Lady of Spain, an erotic novel composed at age 15 in collaboration with two friends. It was the result of extensive book-based research as my erotic experiences at that point numbered nil. I didn’t embark on my first grown-up novel until I was 27. This one—The Talentless Miss Pidgeon—was ill-starred, though why publishers wouldn’t leap on a story of a homicidal screenwriter who becomes possessed by her imaginary twin, based on Macbeth, I cannot fathom.

By the time I started writing Gods Behaving Badly I was working at a London independent bookshop and wondering if I would ever see my own name on one of the covers that surrounded me every day. I thought I might be in with a chance this time, as Gods… had a relatively innocuous plot-line following the antics of Greek gods living in contemporary London. A sort of romantic comedy adventure fantasy with gods in it. Which didn’t stop people from asking me whether it was autobiographical.

Working in a bookshop is the perfect job for the aspiring author. You are surrounded by books all day, you talk about books all day, you read and read, books and reviews, you see books you hate become bestsellers and books you love sink without a trace. You get very opinionated about covers, stickers and blurb. You learn how the industry works (and doesn’t work). You are armed and ready for when your book enters the fray.

And as it turns out, Gods Behaving Badly would probably never have been published if I hadn’t been working in a bookshop. It was my boss who chatted up the UK Random House rep and made the discovery that Jonathan Cape was accepting unagented submissions. I needed no further encouragement and off the e-mail went with chapters one to four.

Shock number one: Dan Franklin, Cape’s publishing director, replied straight away to acknowledge receipt. That never happens.

Shock number two: the very next day he asked to see the rest of it. That never happens.

That was a Friday. He’d said he was going to read it over the weekend, and when Monday morning came I opened up the shop feeling queasy, knowing that this was the day I was due to receive my rejection. The phone rang. It was Dan, calling to offer me a deal. That so never happens it’s actually a black hole of not-happening, sucking things that do happen into its maw. Except that it happened to me.

Within a week I had found an agent and the book was making waves at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We sold it in fifteen countries, including Canada - hurrah! My father spent the war years in Banff, and I did my own winter trip when I was 18, walking the streets of Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, wearing six coats, with a Margaret Atwood novel in my gloved hand. From what I understand, we have a December release date for Gods Behaving Badly in Canada, which is great as reading is my second favourite indoor activity. (My favourite is playing the piano. Why, what were you thinking?)

I very much hope you enjoy the book. If not, feel free not to mention it to anyone, but if you were accidentally to leave it lying face up on a table…

Thanks for reading.

Marie Phillips