Ryan McFadden

With the busy ‘work’ season behind me, I’ve turned nearly all my attention to my book, both Nathaniel and my current work in progress tentively titled The UnBelonging. I’m not fixed on the name, but we’ll see how it works out.

I’m excited about both projects, especially now that there’s time available. I’ve vowed to never let myself get that busy again.

I’m 1/4 of the way finished the main edit of Nathaniel. It’s a pretty intensive edit and I should be finished in about two weeks. I resisted the editors at first but now I see that these changes really are for the best.

As for the UnBelonging, I’m finished Act I (if there can be such a thing with a novel) and I’m stuck in the mire of Act II. However, I watched a horrid movie yesterday called Alex and Emma. It was about a writer who didn’t know what was going to happen in his book but was going to let the characters decide what was to happen.

For the first time, I’m going to give that a try. I have the general direction but I didn’t know how to get over some of the bumps along the way. Maybe I’ll let the characters figure out how to get over the bumps.

I finally figured out the ending (after going through all my diaries for the Unbelonging) so now I have the end point that they are aiming for. The ending right now is ambiguous…I have an end point that can change depending on how the characters play out. I figured it’s like a roleplaying game. It should be interesting to
see what happens.

My goal is to have my edit finished for Nathaniel before I go on vacation, that way I can work on Unbelonging and hopefully crank out 25,000 words or so while I’m gone.

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This whole procedure is taking a lot more time then I had ever
anticipated. I finally sat down and am forcing myself into the
editing process for Nathaniel. The main complaint from the
editor was the overuse of the word ‘I’. For instance, “I saw the two
men do something.” Or “I heard the sound of grunting camels.”
Instead, it should be “Two men did something” and “The Camels
grunted.”

My plan has always been to finish the editing when I’m on vacation
the week of July 26th. Going at the rate I am, that sounds about
right. I’ll go up to my Mom’s cottage, armed with my laptop, and
finish the third (and so far most grueling) edit.

Of course, I’m still trying to work on
experiencenathaniel.com. It’s a lot of fun but it’s
more graphically intense than this page (ryanmcfadden.com) so
it’s taking me a while longer. I’m actually really only stuck on two
images: an ancient city, much like a turkish city; and Nathaniel,
dangling from burning rope. Of course, creating those images is
beyond my capabilities so I’ll have to turn to someone else to
help me out there (Brian…John?). Once that page is launched, it’ll be
very intensive to keep it up to date.

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As chronicled here over the past couple of weeks, you might have heard that tragic news of Elizabeth Collins passing. She was the CEO of Gardenia and the driving force behind the publishing house.

Bob Collions sent me my options the other night. They’re not bad, and kind of what I had expected. In fact, the one option is something I had considered myself.

The first option is to withdraw from the publishing contract completely. Gardenia Press won’t be accepting any new novels for publication, so the few authors left would be the last to be put out by Gardenia. Which is too bad. I’ve considered this option, wondering if perhaps my novel would better be suited for one of the big players from Canada or the United States.

The second option is that we continue with publication, knowing that there won’t be a lot of support behind this book. Which is kind of okay too. More of the costs will be shouldered by myself, but then more of the rewards will come my way, as well.

What’s the disadvantage of the second option? Well, first rights would be gone. Publishers want the First Print rights. So if I go ahead with publishing, Nathaniel is effectively a sacrifice to the publishing gods for the sole purpose of having that writing credit. With only my marketing saavy behind the book, there’s no way it could go on to reach any type of success. The Gardenia distribution just isn’t strong enough.

What has changed? Why am I hesitating?

Because I have learned a lot. And I mean a lot. I know that my query letters are crap. I know that my books need a lot of editing. I know that I was lucky to have gotten as far as I did.

My query letters didn’t contain any type of a pitch.

My novels were full of inconsistencies and errors.

Now that I know those mistakes, should I hold back Nathaniel and head out to the big publishers? Or just go ahead and publish…

I just don’t know.

Any comments would be appreciated.

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An online diary. These things are all the rage now, but it’s good for
visitors and even better, it’s good for me to see where I’ve been
and where I’m going.

Today, Experiencenathaniel.com came into existance. It’s
hardly finished, but it’s a good start. While this page will be
grounded in reality (well, as much as reality as I can handle),
experiencenathaniel.com will be the site which will be the ficitional
world of Abomnikus, the place that Nathaniel calls home.

Both of these sites will take a considerable amount of time. This
one with my daily ramblings, and experiencenathaniel.com with
fictional ramblings….

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