Author William Heath's first novel, Devil Dancer, explores the world of Lexington, KY in 1972 and the shooting of a prized race horse. He secured an agent right away when he wrote the book in 1980, but the agent struggled with getting a publisher because it was perceived as both a crime novel and a literary novel. He was told by a second and then third agent to rewrite it, which he did both times, but received the same rejections. Heath then decided to publish the novel himself with a small press, where he was asked one more time to rewrite the story due to its dark nature. He refused and chose to move it to a different press where it was finally published just a few years ago. Although the rewrites were challenging, he truly feels the story got better each time.
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