After Cereus Blooms At Night became a runaway success, New York agent Maria Massie of Witherspoon Associates contacted Mootoo. Press Gang agreed to allow Massie to negotiate sales of international rights. Editor Ellen Seligman and Doug Gibson of M&S also took an interest, enabling M&S to publish the current softcover version in Canada. Lucrative sales of foreign rights were welcomed by Press Gang, the all-women's collective that has encouraged women to publish since 1975. The Vancouver-based collective had recently moved into a cozy heritage building, formerly a post office, just off Commercial Drive. Mootoo's agent also represents Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize recipient for her first novel, The God of Small Things. "Maria's really neat,"; says Mootoo, "I just love her. She's done things really slowly. She could have sold things faster than she did. Bloomsbury in the U.K. offered more money but she thought the editor at Granta would be best for me."; Film rights have yet to be sold. The reputation of the novel, as it begins to gain admiring reviews in the United States, will only push up the final price. Shani Mootoo meanwhile lives modestly in a new East Vancouver apartment, with her dog Frankie. She commutes to see her lover in Brooklyn while learning how to cope with the demands of promotion. In 1998 Mootoo participated in Victoria, Shawnigan Lake and Edinburgh festivals. In October of 1998 her novel was launched in the United States by Grove Press. "I don't know how people who have a lot of money can work,"; she says. She may soon have to find out. The 41-year-old has gained world-wide recognition for Cereus Blooms at Night (M&S $14.99). Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 1997, this first novel subsequently became a finalist for the Chapters/Books In Canada First Novel Award and the Giller Prize. Mootoo also made it onto the 'long list' of candidates for the Booker Prize, the United Kingdom's most coveted literary prize. [BCBW 1998]