James Ryan has been writing pieces for a few years now, some of them actually readable. Online he’s appeared in Rooftop Sessions, Rational Magic and Pyramid; in the ‘real world’ he’s put work up in Dragon, Lacunae, the Urbanite and The Dream Zone. He lives in New York (home port for both Thomas Tew and William Kidd, among other freebooters) with his wife Susan and son Jamie; when he goes on the account himself, it’s usually a choice between Visa and American Express…
All content Copyright © 2008 James Ryan
4 Comments
April 16, 2008 at 2:09 pm
James,
This is Mark McCrary of the Wannabe Pirates.com. Thanks for you comment. I’m looking forward to reading over your novel. Keep it up.
M
April 17, 2008 at 3:25 am
For those wanting a quick link to Mark’s site the address is http://thewannabepirates.com/cp_dir/; the trip for the read is worth it.
July 23, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I hope you don’t see this as damning with faint praise but, there was a review site (web fiction guide) that wasn’t terribly complementary but definitely not condemning so I came and took a look and stayed. Sometimes yes the chapters are weak but, I love your commentary about modern-day pirates. I think that you could benefit from a longer chapter length and don’t always try to end on a point of suspense but leave the incomplete story as the motivation to go to the next chapter.
July 26, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Thanks for the comments, cm. I did get pretty well drubbed over at Web Fiction Guide, which I think may be the result of the shorter chapters; compared with the usual lengths of chapter postings for other works reviewed by the site, I wonder if I would have fared better if the reviewer’s “first 10 chapters” policy might have been waived to allow for a “first 30 or so” exception…
I appreciate the observation concerning the chapter breaks and length. The format for each part was decided on in the beginning as the best model for doing a two-a-week posting that would encourage the reader to return every few days; thus, the effort to keep readers coming back drives the need to hang off all those cliffs.
As for the length, there was an effort to make each chapter more easily digested for all readers, especially those reading on the go with personal devices. As I noted in another post, though, I’m sure there are better ways to make those coming aboard through their iPhones and other mobile devices more welcome; anyone who can suggest tools to help with this, please sing out.
As we’re discussing formats, I am looking at the possibility of a physical edition of the novel via POD. One likely difference with the online edition may be that the original parts will be combined into bigger chapters. That will probably be one of the main differences between that and the current version; well, that and some VAM…