[stylist] Greetings from a new list member

Fri Jan 30 15:23:25 UTC 2015

Sem,

Welcome. Hope to see more of you on Stylist.

I have my BFA in creative writing, my emphasis being creative nonfiction--
memoir/personal essay writing-- but I've always had a fondness for fantasy
and love to write it when I can. It's nice to see other fantasy writers on
the list.

I've often blended an element of fantasy into my nonfiction writing. For
example, I wrote an essay beginning with the line, "Once upon a time," and
the essay took on the princess-locked-in-the-tower motif. I also work a lot
with a lyrical voice, which lends itself to more creative phrasing.

I love Neil Gaimon and Margaret Atwood, to name a couple. They blend a
literary style with fantasy and speculative fiction. Neil Gaimon uses a
lyrical voice often, and I love this.

Like you, I've only had material published in magazines and anthologies. I
did write a blog about blindness and diabetes for a few years for a local
newspaper, but when they hired a new editor, we had creative differences,
and after a couple of my blogs were re-written in her own words, I decided
it was time to move on. The really weird thing, and why I moved on, was that
I had one of the top read blogs for the paper, so it was like, "Why are you
fixing something that doesn't require fixing?"

Anyway, I've started several ideas for full-length manuscripts, both fiction
and nonfiction, but I reach a certain point then move onto a new idea, and
so I have yet to finish one. I find the full-length manuscript daunting and
difficult. A short format, I can do, it's what I'm familiar with, how I
learned at university. Creating longer formats, just tedious at this point,
grin.

So my entire point is to say, there's pretty much anyone out there selling
services to help people with a variety of things. You can find people
willing to take care of the business end of publishing and sending queries
for a price, but I would caution you to do a lot of research on a person or
group providing such services. And make sure they understand you and your
material. At the end of the day, this is a PR thing, and you want someone
representing you and your work that will showcase it the way you want. As
tedious as it can be, I suggest you study up on the business end and do it
yourself. You can also trust yourself in a way that you can  not trust
others, grin.

And like magazines, research the publishers and agents you send your work
to. Make sure they are really the right entity for you. Is this a
person/group/company you want your work in the hands of?

Good luck, and I hope to see more of you on Stylist. Look forward to reading
your work too.

Question, I'm always curious as to why people use a pen name to publish.
What brought you to that decision?

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Semirhage via
stylist
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 4:44 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Greetings from a new list member

Hi everyone. How very exciting to connect with other blind authors! I'm Sem
and I write fantasy, horror paranormal with comic elements. My pen name is
Ciaran Corby,and I co-write with my husband, also legally blind, and his pen
name is Coal Corby. Currently we've just had short stories published in
anthologies and there was one on worldcastle publishing. They're honest, as
in we got checks in the male for sales, but I don't think they do loads of
publicity so you'd have to do a lot of your own.

We also write full books, but are seeking larger  publishers for those. That
point brings me to my first question. We're far better at the creative bit
than the business end of things. We've sent out tons of  queries to agents
and larger publishers but just gotten back form letters that basically say
they didn't even look at our synopsis because they're not taking more ETC.
Then we get discouraged which does not help the creative flow. So my
question is this. Does anyone know where we can look to hire someone to do
this that really knows  the business and how and where best to shop us
around? We're  more than willing to pay someone who knows what they're doing
as we don't, and we'd much rather someone else do it as though there are
methods for  learning the skill it's  just like cooking or anything else.
It's best done by someone with a real knack for it. LOL. I say do what you
do well, and pay someone else to do that which you do not or  do not enjoy.
Sem
I'm friends with the monster that's under my bed.
I get along with the voices inside of my head.
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