Author: Randy Coates

I’ve finished the latest draft of my zombie apocalyptic novel entitled In the Blood.

Today I will go onto Query Tracker which lists agents and the type of genres they are searching for.

My focus is strictly on Canadian agents.

Querying an agent usually calls for you to send a query letter, a synopsis of your work, and sample chapters.

If the agents are extremely busy, you may have to wait a few months before receiving a reply.

I am patient.  I have another project to work on:  revising my first novel that I completed when I was 19.

I don’t plan on publishing the finished product.  I just want to clean it up.  It’s a book about my experiences in high school.  At that age, I didn’t have much experience with anything else.

The writing is atrocious.  The main character, based on me, is a depressed boy who thinks that he is the only one who experiences the tribulations of teenage life; the only person who has felt that the world is treating him unfairly.  I don’t pretend to think that a teenager’s life is inconsequential, especially in this age of social media, but my dialogue is often laughable.

At times, we writers believe that our words are clever and erudite.  After years, when we revisit them, we have fun seeing how clichéd they are.

One thing I’ve learned about myself:  the fact that I want to revise something of mine and not seek publication for monetary purposes means that I love writing for itself and not for profit or attention.

My two cousins and I grew up watching horror movies.  In particular, ones about zombies.  We’d have sleepovers and although we received very few channels on cable, we’d search desperately for any movie in that genre.  We fantasized about being in a zombie movie.

My passion for writing has been with me for fifty years.  In my teen years, I wrote nothing but horror, probably inspired by my love of those movies.  When I reached my mid-20’s, I started writing about other genres.

My writing focused mainly on short stories and on January 30, 2012, I wrote my first zombie story entitled Bad Meat.  I included characters based upon my cousins and me.  On December 13, 2014, I wrote my second zombie story, Blank of the Dead, and on March 7, 2023, my third, Dead Cells.

In early 2017, I entered Bad Meat in a short story contest for Red Tuque Books, Inc.  I was excited to learn that I received an Honourable Mention for the story.  It was published in a magazine and I received $25.  Sadly, to this day, it’s the only compensation I have gotten for one of my stories.  Still…

A year ago, I had the inspiration to write not just one story about zombies, but an entire novel.  I am still in the midst of writing this novel but I have incorporated the plot and characters of the three stories mentioned above.

I suspect that the novel will be finished by next week.  It needs a lot of tweaking so I will start the next draft after finishing the first.

As we know, we’ve been beaten to death by zombie movies.  Different characteristics have been given to the zombies by the directors (e.g., their speed, their spread of contamination).  In some degree, I have followed past descriptions of other zombies and the insecurities of living characters.  Having watched the original Walking Dead series, I wish to make my living characters people that the reader cares about.  Characters whose deaths will make people cry.

And so what makes me think that my book will stand out in a forest of other zombie or zombie-like novels?

I have taken a new stance on how the zombies can be stopped.  I won’t give any spoilers but I will say that it’s not without its controversy.

After I complete the second draft of the novel, I hope to look for an agent who will represent me.

Armadale Free Methodist Church was designated a heritage property in 1985.

Shortly after visiting Armadale in February of 2020, I witnessed the world coming unhinged from the ravages of Covid.

The virus restricted the progress of the church book.  Interviews were halted as people were discouraged from meeting face to face.  I could assemble parts of the book in lonely rooms but that was the extent of my organizing.  The book’s publication was delayed.

Finally, on April 30, 2025, On Solid Rock:  The Story of Holt Free Methodist Church was officially published.  I had started working on it in June 2017.  So it took me eight years.  To some authors, that is not unusual.

A description of the book is on this website.

Although I paid for the services of the publishing company, I decided that all proceeds would go to Holt Free Methodist Church.

The congregation of the church continues to decrease as church elders die off.  If, one day, the church cannot reach its past glory, I hope that this book, in some way, captures the spirit and history of the institution.

When I was a child, my family attended a Free Methodist church north of Toronto.  We considered ourselves Christians with a few flaws.  None criminal.

When I moved to Toronto to pursue my teaching career, I did not associate with the church as much due to the distance between us.  Occasionally, I would rent a car and go visit my parents on a weekend.  We’d take some time on Sunday to go to the church.

Over the years, much has changed.  My parents died three years ago and since Covid, the church now presents its services via Zoom.  So there is no excuse that I cannot “attend” services.

Around ten years ago, I was in person at one of the services, listening to one of the parishioners talk about past ceremonies, one in which the women of the church wore frilly hats to an Easter event.

One of our long-term members, an anchor in the church, had kept records of the church since its birth in 1909.  Although her notes were precise, they were typed on loose paper which was becoming worn.

I decided that my next self-published book would be a history of our church.  I would research diligently, perusing the notes, interviewing members of the church, finding out what was happening in the community from the early days on.

It was a sad undertaking because, by the time I published the book, some of the people interviewed had passed away.

Still, the book got published by Volumes Publishing, the same company that had published Remembering Clare (see the blog from March 15, 2026).

In November 2019, I approached the pastor who gave me some background on the origins of Free Methodism.  One of the nuggets of information he presented to me is that the first Free Methodist Church in Canada is still standing:  the Armadale Church in Scarborough, established in 1880.

On February 9, 2020, I decided to visit this church.  The pastor, who had been there since 2001, greeted me at the door.  I had given him a heads-up that I was coming.

The church was smaller than I expected.  The pews were shorter and smaller than the ones at my church.  A large person would have trouble fitting into one.  The roof had a leak and needed to be fixed.  The estimate for repair was close to $10,000.

The congregation was tiny.  I ran into three sisters whose dad had been a pastor at my church years ago.

The service was much like the one at my church:  hyms sung, announcements made, collection taken, prayers requested, and a message.

More in my next blog.

Holt Free Methodist Church, 1958

Continued from my last blog.

Alas, I failed to sell any of my books at the CANSCAIP meeting.  This disappointed me because we writers talk about supporting each other.

I provided free bookmarks so perhaps someone took one of these away and handed it to someone who might be interested in the book.

I haven’t received any royalties in the last six years so I guess not.

I consider this novel the 2^nd best, behind PR, that I’ve written.

This underlines the frustration of authors who bleed so much into their work and it often goes unappreciated.

Still, the sign of an avid writer is perseverance.

Life has a strange way of moving in circles.  This past March 26, I attended a book launch for The Water You’re Swimming in by Rachel Schwartz Fagan.  I decided in 2025 to attend more book launches not only because I knew many of the authors but also as a networking ploy.  I learned that Rachel’s agent, Ali MacDonald, was one of the agents I had submitted my work to (See last blog).  I had a brief conversation with her and reminded her of my past meeting.  It was all in good fun.  I am certainly not bitter that she chose not to represent me.  As many authors will tell you, not every agent thinks your novel is trending.

On August 9, 2015, I decided to travel again to Isla Mujeres, partly because I love the place and partly to do research for a novel revision of SATS.

I repeated my excursion to Isla Contoy in order to study the island.  To ensure that I made my scenes realistic in the novel.  I went away, feeling that I had succeeded.

As with my previous novels, I sent SATS out to numerous publishing companies but it was turned down (one of my writing colleagues prefers this expression to rejected).

On August 20, 2016, I attended the Toronto Writing Workshop where an American writer gave the audience members pointers on how to get published.  I’ve attended a long string of these workshops, my hope lurching when I think I can really take advantage of the advice the presenters give, only to be swept away in morass.  Likewise with this one.

There were eleven agents from various companies and we had the opportunity to engage in a 10-minute meeting with any of them, pitching our book ideas.  I chose two who I thought would be the best candidates to represent my children’s novel.

The first one seemed interested in my story and asked me to send her the ms.  The other was more wary and said she wasn’t interested.  One of the questions she asked me was truly puzzling:  did I make my main character proactive or reactive?  I can’t remember my response but I do remember thinking, Aren’t all characters reactive at some point?

I never heard back from the first agent but I did run into her at a book launch for a children’s author she represented.  I reminded her of that meeting ten years previously and she asked me again what my book was about and asked again for me to send it to her.

Yeah, right.

My frustration manifested itself again.  Lacking patience, I had SATS self-published with Baico Books in Ottawa.  I thought it was a damned good book; couldn’t understand why publishing companies “turned it down.”  But, alas, life is short.

As I did with my other books, I took copies of it on a trip to Mexico in July, 2018, and left one in my hotel.

My niece is an author who is traditionally published and she markets herself voraciously.  I wondered if my lack of marketing was my downfall.  So during one of the CANSCAIP (see my last blog) meetings, I chose another route.  It was December 14, 2018, and the writers were invited to do a book spiel on their children’s books and then lay them out on the table in case anyone wished to buy them.

More of this in my next blog.

Shortly after publishing my middle grade children’s book (More Precious Than Rubies) in 2012, a good friend of mine gave me a membership gift for Christmas.

The membership was with an organization called CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers).

My friend figured that since I had written a children’s book then I would probably gain insights from fellow children’s authors.

Pre-Covid, the meetings took place in person.  People gathered to promote their books but there would always be guest speakers who focused on a particular topic important to writers, illustrators, or performers (e.g., how to develop character).  During and post-Covid, meetings have been online which has its benefits.  Before, I was attending meetings in Toronto so only people who lived in Toronto or in the GTA could attend.  With online meetings, people from all over Canada attend.

In July 2014, I had another idea for a children’s book, this time a YA (Young Adult) novel.  Having taught in many schools and observing the idiosyncrasies of students, especially grade 7 and 8 students who I taught often, I thought about this concept:

A substitute teacher is trapped on a deserted island with one of his male students.  It seems contrived but there is a lot more to how this situation comes to be.

The teacher has been a centre of attention in the school that the student attends.  He keeps to himself and the students become curious about him.  On the island, the student learns something about the teacher that he has hidden.  Although the two do not bond, they do learn that everyone has private parts of their lives that aren’t always revealed to others.

By July 2014, I began writing the novel.  I called it Adrift for awhile, then found that another author had used this title.  I chose Stay Above the Storm (If you read the blurb for the book, you will have a better understanding as to why I chose this).

The first half of the novel takes place in the student’s school and home.  The second half takes place in  Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Cancún, and the deserted island.  I had travelled to Isla Mujeres in the past and had gone on a snorkelling cruise towards another island, Isla Contoy which is a bird sanctuary.  Isla Contoy is uninhabited and only open to visitors who come and go from cruises.  A perfect location for my two characters to be stranded on.

While I was in the process of self-publishing More Precious Than Rubies, I generated other ideas for future books.

The “good friend” mentioned in my blogs of December and January was a former teacher and mentor of mine.  As far back as May 2012, I had considered writing about his life and his incredible effect on his high school students.

A lot transpired from 2012 to 2017 while I took on various writing projects.  I spent a lot of time collecting data for the memoir of my friend.  I had a lot of firsthand information since I travelled often with him.  Although he had selections of his poetry published in Canadian anthologies and wrote book reviews for literary magazines, he was never regarded as a well-known Canadian author.  Yet in 1973, he wrote a book entitled, The Neglected Genre:  The Short Story in Canada. 

In the early 70’s, he was an invaluable peer to up-and-coming and established writers such as Margaret Atwood, Irving Layton, Alden Nowlan, Joyce Carol Oates, and Miriam Waddington because he featured their poetry in anthologies.  He was a force in the Canadian industry at a time when Canadian literature was often being overlooked.

By 2017, I published a short book about his life and his influences.  When we travelled to San Miguel de Allende (see previous blogs), we regularly visited our favourite restaurant, El Pegaso.  The staff were used to seeing us at our corner table, soon to be labelled la oficina.  In August 2017, I visited the town and dropped off a copy of the book, Remembering Clare, to the owners of the restaurant.  They remembered us sitting together.  In fact, the back cover of the book shows a photograph of my friend’s reflection in one of the restaurant’s windows.

I also distributed the book to some of his colleagues from The Oxford Tradition, a programme set up for North American students to take courses at Oxford University in the summers.  My friend was chosen as one of the summer deans, an experience which he cherished until his unfortunate death on September 4, 2004.

Here’s to you, my friend.  May we meet again.

We’re after the same rainbow’s end

Waitin’ ‘round the bend

My huckleberry friend

• Moon River, Henry Mancini

Around the end of 2013, there was a special on David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things entitled Flight of the Butterflies, which featured Canadian icon, Gordon Pinsent.

I found it serendipitous that the programme followed the studies of Dr. Frederick Urquhart and his fascination with the migration of the monarch butterflies to Mexico.  Pinsent played the role of Urquhart and I sent his agent a copy of The Monarchs to pass on to Pinsent.  I included these words:

“I am sending you a book that I recently self-published.  It is mainly fictitious; however, I did use the butterfly migration as a catalyst for the events of the novel.

Since you have a connection to Flight of the Butterflies, I thought that sending you my novel is the least I could do for such a respected Canadian icon as yourself.”

Whether he received it or not is another thing.  I never heard anything back.

I wanted book reviewing companies to evaluate my newest foray into writing.  I sought the opinion of Blueink again (See blog from Nov. 8, 2025).  I received both positive comments such as “…offering a raw and sometimes painfully realistic book at how one paired-for-life couple handles their final years, months, and days together” and negative comments like, “One or two such scenes showing us the way cancer has made Robert’s life almost unlivable would be enough, but Coates revisits this theme so frequently and intensely that it overshadows the charming relationship between curmudgeonly Robert and his loyal, if frequently sarcastic, wife.”

I also received these upbeat words from the Clarion Review (See blog from Nov. 8, 2025):  “Coates flawlessly combines their spoken and unspoken reflections and points of view, and what begins in jest…gradually takes on a deeper meaning.”  The writer is referring to Robert and Sharon’s discussion about seeing the butterflies in Mexico.

In July 2014, I visited San Miguel de Allende and left one of my books at the Bed and Breakfast I normally stay at, the Villa Mirasol Hotel.  I also left one at the Biblioteca Pública, the library, which has one of the biggest bilingual collections of books in Mexico.

When I returned from Mexico, I discovered another review of my book, this time from Kirkus Reviews.  Again, I had to brace myself for some rather harsh words:  “…Robert and Sharon’s social ideologies are jammed into the narrative at perplexing intervals simply to make what come across as half-baked points.  Rants about…religion, and cultural differences between Mexico and Canada are unfocused and distracting.”

Jump ahead to Sept. 25, 2024.  I paid a little less than $300 for a promotion of TM in Goodreads.  Some very willing participants gave the book glowing reviews which were supposed to give me hope that people would read them and buy my book.

Alas, when I checked my royalties at iUniverse in December of 2024, I discovered that not a single, extra copy had sold.

Writers put out money to make money and rarely ever catch up.

Below is a picture of Friar Juan, one of the founders of San Miguel de Allende.

The “good friend” I referred to in my last blog died tragically in September of 2004.  It was a strange twist that added more poignancy to the novel which I had started thinking about in 2002.

The novel still involved the relationship between a couple in their early sixties but I changed the title to The Monarchs since the two make pilgrimages to Mexico, resembling the migration of Monarch butterflies.  The novel flows between the couple’s dreary existence in Canada and their more adventurous lifestyle in Mexico.  Regardless of their escape to the Mexican landscape and culture, they cannot deny that Robert, the husband, is dealing with cancer.

My pursuit of information concerning cancer became intense and I decided to make Robert so depressed from the affliction that he contemplates assisted death.  I sent a letter to the Hemlock Society which eventually had its name changed to End-of-Life Choices, asking if I could engage someone in conversation about the topic.  I never received anything back.  Even though I had cited the purpose of my novel, people in the organization might have suspected I was the one considering suicide.

Eventually, by March 27, 2005, I had completed the first draft of TM.  In April, I began to send out queries to publishing companies to see if they were interested in publishing it.  I approached about six companies, all of which turned down the prospect, and ran out of patience.  I put the book aside and focused on other projects.

In July 2012, my failure at getting my work published caused me to consider self-publishing TM  since I had done so with MPTR (see past blogs).  I wished to use iUniverse again (see blog from Sept. 7, 2025).  Also, I had an idea for what I wanted the front cover to look like and approached my niece about designing it.

Writing a novel takes time.  Writing one over a long period poses its challenges.  From the moment there was a germ of an idea in 2002 until 2012 when I sought iUniverse’s services, a lot had changed in the world.  When I began writing TM, George W. Bush was the American president.  There was a section in my book in which Robert and his wife, Sharon, discuss the U.S. presidency with some Republicans.  By 2012, the president was Barack Obama.  I revised this section.  This is what occurs often when writing a novel.  Political leaders change.  Technology changes.  World conflicts change.  And, of course, sometimes they don’t.

Below is the cover that my niece created.