Gabriel & Athena, Book One: Fate (A Wattpad Featured Story)

Letter to the Fans

Wait, that's not the end end, is it?

So, if you've finished reading FATUM, I bet the question above or some form of it is going through your mind right now.

Lol....well, before I answer that question, I'd first just like to say a big THANK YOU for reading FATUM!  When I decided to post FATUM on Wattpad, I really didn't know if anyone would be interested in reading it, let alone like it.  But all of your sweet comments and votes have been amazing, and I am honored so many of you take the time to tell me what you think, and how much you're hoping for a sequel.

I first started writing FATUM in February of 2008.  Back then it had a different title, and a few different plot twists.  Though I have always loved to read, just like Athena, this was my first time attempting to write a novel, even though becoming a published author has always been a dream of mine.  I finished the first draft in about two months.  Then I went back and revised the entire thing, but even with that, the story still needed so much work.  Only, I didn't know it at the time.  And so, I made a very naive decision and decided to start querying literary agents.  

Over the course of the next four years, I queried about 100 literary agents.  Not all at once, of course.  I would usually contact about 10 at a time and wait for responses.  I actually did receive a lot of requests to see more work, and some requests to see the entire novel.  But every request ended in a rejection.  The cycle would basically be me querying, hoping for requests to see more, sending my novel if I did get some, receiving the rejection(s), going back and revising the story again and again (always ending in making it better), then start to query again.  Well, one can only take so many rejections, and so there were periods of time within those four years where I actually did nothing with FATUM.  At one point I had made the decision to just stop with not only the querying, but also with writing/revising, feeling like becoming an author just wasn't meant for me.  I went a whole year without touching it, but the story was always in the back of my mind.  There would be times when a scene between Gabe and Athena would just come to me and start playing out in my brain, even though I had decided to leave it behind.

When I realized that these characters weren't going to let me go, even though I had decided to let them go, I wanted a way to share the story with the people who mattered.  Not with literary agents or editors, but with people like you.  I could have self-published, but it wasn't about the money for me.  I just wanted to share my story and see if anyone out there would be interested in it.  Wattpad turned out to be the most wonderful outlet to allow me to do just that.

And the response has been overwhelming.  When I read comments saying how much you love Gabe and Athena, and how you really want to know what's going to happen next, I always have the biggest smile on my face.  The past year has been the most difficult in my life personally, and you, the readers of FATUM, have been one of the very few bright spots in it.  I am so grateful and humbled that you've enjoyed reading my story.

So, will there be a sequel?  The good news is YES, there will be a sequel.  I've always envisioned FATUM being a trilogy.  I've also toyed with the idea of writing a fourth book which would be a prequel to FATUM, which would go back and tell the story of Isaac and Francesca.

Now, here's what I'm sure a lot of you will view as the bad news.  The sequel isn't coming anytime soon.  As I said above, I've been writing/revising FATUM for about four years.  It took a lot of time and work to bring it to the level it's at now, and even with all that I still spot mistakes and things I want to make better when I go back and read it.  While I do know what's going to happen, it's going to take me a lot of time to write the next book, and there's no way I would feel comfortable posting until I have the entire thing finished.

While I know this may disappoint a lot of you, please know that I will at some point be giving you a sequel, I just can't give you a definite time/date.  Will it be within the next six months?  Most likely not.  :( This isn't something I'm going to rush.  I want it to be right.  Gabe and Athena deserve that, and you deserve that.

In the meantime, I have been debating on whether to self-publish FATUM.  I may do some research into the different methods and see how I feel about it.  I'm interested in your opinion.  Do you think I should self-publish?

I know it took me a while to get this letter out to you.  Thank you so much for your patience and your never-ending support.  Lots of love to all of you and many wishes for a wonderful 2013.  May it be filled with strawberry smoothies and city boys.  ;)

N.M.