Official Site of Rowan McBride

Category: Writing

  • Possibly call it a comeback?

    Sorry, LL Cool J on the brain for some reason.

    I used to have my novels at several different indie publishers in an attempt not to have all my eggs in one basket. Then the mega corporation THAT WE WILL NOT BE NAMING HERE BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE THE CASH FOR A LAWSUIT put all of them out of business.

    I don’t want to submit previously published books (this go around there’s at least one that will be a Third Edition). I also don’t have the energy to maybe get accepted by a new publisher only to see it crash and burn. I know there are ones that have been around for a minute, but that was the case with my old publishers as well.

    This time I’m taking the self-publishing route. Given how corporations work, the platform I’m using might very well get gobbled up, but at least I’m trying something new, right?

    And self-publishing isn’t so bad with the backlist. I’m always trying to improve as a writer, so it’s cool to take stuff that’s already been edited and do my best to make it better.

    With the new stories… Not so cool. I can’t afford an editor, and I get hyper-fixated on my writing. The super rough draft of my next book–Flow–was on my favorite forum (which also no longer exists) for a hot second, but I took it down to make it an ebook. There was a major plot issue that took me literal years to figure out, which caused a cascade of changes that I also had to figure out. I think the overall story is much better than the rough, and honestly I think the draft I have now is some of the best stuff I’ve ever written. It’d be nice to have an editor confirm that, though.

    Because. I cannot. Stop. Self editing.

    Yeah, best stuff. But IMO the prose could be much better. Plus it’s my longest novel to date at over a 100k words. For context, my next longest is 60k. So… What if my pacing is off? What if there’s something developmentally wrong with the overall story? What if I’ve handled some issues insensitively? Plot holes? Cringe language?

    There are many different types of editors, and asking just one to tackle all that is unreasonable. But having one editor usually gives me the courage to stop obsessing and publish the the thing.

    I’ve been away for a long time, so I’ve lost touch with most of my writer friends. I remember they would send me emails or IMs (God, I’m old), that simply said, “PUSH THE FREAKING BUTTON.” I miss that. It made that last, stressful step almost fun.

    Where does that leave me? Save money. Practice writing techniques that I want to implement but can’t quite grasp 70% of the time. Hire an editor if I can. Buy some ISBNs. Edit. Read books other than mine in genres other than mine. Learn. Edit some more. Maybe find a writing group and force my introverted ass to make some friends. Do another pass on the novel. And, as soon as my anxiety drops the tiniest but…

    Push the freaking button.

  • Uh. Hello World. Again. Again.

    This poor post has gone through a website that absolutely did NOT work for me, to the free WordPress blog I used to mirror the previous because apparently being able to comment and subscribe is an entirely new concept. Now it’s here, with the domain name rowanmcbride.rocks, because moving pretty much everything to a site where I can actually do the things that I’d like to do is awesome. It’s a process, but I’m doin’ my best. 👍🏽

    I also wanted to say that I have plans, and even though things will happen at a slower pace, I definitely intend to do them.

    Before I do that, I should mention that ODSOL lost my original domain name with no explanation even though I’ve been with them for TWENTY YEARS (god I’m so old), GoDaddy SOMEHOW is hosting it now and has no explanation, and Ueni seems to have been made more for people who have actual storefronts or home businesses with services/physical products on hand. Just want to let other writers know. Oh, and Ueni rewrote everything I sent them (about me, splash page, and my BOOK BLURBS.)

    (Text below originally published June 18th, 2025)

    I’ve been gone a crazy long time, yeah? There were a lot of health issues (including two near death experiences) followed by a bout of pretty serious depression.

    Then one day I started to (horrendously) play piano again, then draw again, and finally write again. Mostly I’ve been revising my existing books and self-publishing them. So far I’ve got “One Good Hand,” “One Good Year,” and “Lone” up.



    “Chains” has also just launched! And it’s free!

    If you’d like some to pick up any of these stories, go to books2read.com/rowanmcbride, choose the story you want, and pick the retailer that suits you. Chains is free, but not available on Amazon, because Amazon’s gotta Amazon, I guess.

    As you’ve probably noticed, my domain name has changed. That’s because it was stolen. Even though it was paid for. And now I’m being ghosted by my previous hosting company. But no no. These things happen (although no one seems to be able to tell me HOW), so I’m not in a rage or anything.
    (╬ Ò﹏Ó)

    But rowanmcbride.rocks is kinda cool, yeah? I smile every time I see it. 🙂

    More news! I’m saving up to buy some ISBNs. The publishing platform I use offers them for free, but of course there are catches. I figured owning mine would be much better for me in the long run. One Good Hand and One Good Year were listed as brand new books on Amazon. Last I checked they had no reviews, which makes me sad. When I publish “Flow,”  I’d like it to have a longer shelf life.

    Let’s see… email address (mcbride_rowan@yahoo.com) is the same, so feel free to contact me if you want to reconnect.  🫰🏽

    As always, take care of yourselves. We are living in “interesting” times.

    — Rowan