So, after a long, sometimes gruelling, month in Myanmar/Burma I’m back in London and delighted that The Undiscovered Country has just passed the 50% funding milestone en route to the publication.
One hundred thousand thanks to all of you whose incredible generosity and support has got me this far. I am looking forward to sharing the finished novel with you all, sooner, I hope, rather than later now. The lore in Unbound is that any project that gets to 70% funding will get published. So 70% is the next big milestone.
I’ve been wondering what makes people engage with one book compared to all the others available out there. The Undiscovered Country, in various drafts, has had about six readers so far. And as I wouldn’t have embarked on this project without their encouragement, indeed insistence, I thought I might share some of their reflections in the hope it that their thoughts will help sustain your interest in the coming months.
My wife told me her enjoyment of the book improved immeasurable when she realised that the character of Eamon looked exactly like Michael Fassbender, and that Mick looked like a younger James McAvoy. Another friend told me she’s a sucker for crime anyway, but particularly liked the character of Sophia because she was somebody with a clear moral compass who “took no shite”. A musician friend said he liked the startling discordance between the coarse language of the characters and the complexity of the morality they are trying to negotiate. Another told me she liked that it was such a dialogue driven piece. “Like, sort of, Elmore Leonard meets The Wind that Shakes the Barley?” I asked. “You’ve gotta hope,” she said.
Another friend complained that the absence of a housekeeper for Father Crosby denied the book the gritty verisimilitude of Father Ted. Which just goes to prove, I suppose, that you can’t please everyone.
But I hope that there will be something in The Undiscovered Country to please each of you when you read it. Perhaps there might be something in the thoughts above that would encourage some of your friends or relatives to join you in supporting this project to get to the magic 70% figure?
In the meantime, thanks once more for all your support in getting me this far. Keep safe all.
Aidan