22 May 1994
I have put up a second story: Blackfriars Rain. It is leaner than The Watermark and meaner in the mouth, which may mean it is better or only that I was in a particular temper when I wrote it.
The page is beginning to feel less like a stunt and more like a room with the lights on. A few people have written through other channels to say they read the first story. One of them used the phrase "unsettling discipline", which I have been carrying around all week like stolen jewellery.
I am still sending paper. I am not naive enough to think a Web page replaces the old machinery. But it changes the first exchange. Instead of saying please imagine what I can do, I can say look. There it is. Make of it what you will.
The agent has the manuscript now and is marking it up with a pencil that apparently has moral authority. I am being corrected, encouraged, sharpened, and occasionally flayed. Good. I wanted the work to be taken seriously. Seriousness has teeth.