Dear Petra

Yesterday I got an email from an old college friend who lives in Newcastle, we haven't seen each other for over 15 years:

"Im coming down to London this weekend, Im taking my huge emo son and his girlfriend along with me to a Peepo gig in Islington on Saturday night at wait for it, Slimeylight..ahem, which promises to be funpacked and goth filled , hoho, Ill need to dig me big boots out. Give me a ring if you fancy a drink...clubs not open til
10...come along if you fancy it!"

I guess that's one plus point of having kids in your mid twenties. You get to go to Goth gigs with them when they are teenagers... or maybe not.

This morning I had a visit from The Agent. Strangely enough she lives in the road behind us, she wanted to come over to look through some of my work. I spent almost all of yesterday cleaning up for her. The flat was a tip, Persian cats sneeze little coffee coloured drops of snot (because of their flat faces), it was all over the floor and doors and walls.

God I hate house work.

The agent is I guess in her early 40s, I can't quite work her out (is she is gay or straight?), she has lived in the area for years in fact she said she used to live in our street. Now she lives in a house with lots of other people including a two year old, so I'm not quite sure what the situation is. It is not really my business, but I'm nosy.

Last night I dreamt I had to do a job for my old agent, it was something to do with a type face, and I was late meeting her. I saw her very vividly in my dream, with her power suit and bright pink lipstick. (It was a kind of Sue Ellen Dallas look)

(A side note about my old agent : She was quite a strange character as well in her own way, she was at that time probably about the same age as I am now. I remember she told she that once she was driving in her opened top car in just a towel, and the towel fell off, and she promptly drove very slowly past lots of lorries. I was never quite sure why she told me this, but she seemed quite proud of it. Her best friend was a high class hooker who turned up to the Christmas party in a pair of thigh length leather boots. I found a picture of the old agent on the Internet recently - she now works in product branding - the Sue Ellen hair was gone replaced with the modern day flat Atomic Kitten style, but I must say she looked very good her age)

There are 4 people involved with the New Agency, the lady who lives in the road behind us, a woman who works from home in Crouch End who has been with them since they started over 30years ago, another woman who I met when I went into the office, and an American contact who works in New York. I get the impression that Charlotte - who lives behind us - has to convince the others about me, though she says that the other two women are enthusiastic about what they have seen, and she hasn't hard back from America yet.

The plan is that she will take some of my work out next week when she visits her editorial contracts, and see what sort of response she gets.

She really likes my work, its really great to find someone enthusiastic, we also talked about comics. She knew about Fantagraphics and independent American stuff, and said she could see that influence in my work. I've never been involved with anyone in a professional context who appreciates this kind of thing (In the games industry its strictly Star Wars, Science Fiction and Super Hero Comics) so this was really nice.

I hope it works out, and if it doesn't then at least I have had some good feed back and advice.

Hope you are having a lovely holiday! The weather is good at least!

Ms Gunn