Serenity feels a lot like exhaustion

[charlottechill]

I am home. It is late. I have pretended I was in college and slept far too little, since last Saturday. I left the event with contacts, and with workshop leaders coming up to me to say, "You've really been a contribution," and "your insight into offering feedback is phenomenal", and more than one person saying "role model" (which I thought was a

Comments

[boogieshoes]

i'm probably a little old-fashioned, but i'd want to publish under a pseud, especially if your mother and her circle are judgmental enough to worry you. or, well, if there's any reason your real name doesn't flow 'trippingly off the tongue', as 'twere.

it sounds like you're considering publishing romance novels? good luck. :)

i've had people tell me i should write pro-fic, and if i ever got around to it, i'd probably write in the sci/fi genre, and there's another reason to use a pseud: fans in the sci/fi genre may respond better to a male name, especially if i write military sci/fi. there's a real tendency for people not to believe women know enough about the military to write anything remotely accurate or that 'feels right' about it. just like there's a tendency for people not to believe men would or could write a romance novel. hence, many pseuds abound in both genres.

whatever you choose, i wish you luck in your pro-fic career, and tell us what you've written, so we can buy it!

-bs

[charlottechill]

Thank you!

So far, I've only sold two short stories and one novel (Farad and I wrote the novel, "Well Traveled", and one short story together; I'm Margaret Mills, she's Tedy Ward). So I'm leaning toward "Margaret Mills-Casey" as a name going forward, so that I'm associated with what I've sold before and so that I don't have too many different names to be worrying with.

During the conference, I went to Ann Rice's web site to see how she markets her various genres, and laughed out loud: "Ann Rice is a best-selling American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica." But then, she'd become a best-selling author before she copped to her erotica pseud. *g*

I found submitting the first time to be very nerve-wracking, but having done it and been successful took the edge off. I say, "go for it!"

[boogieshoes]

*chuckles* thanks for the vote of confidence.

right now, i'm the main block to my trying to be a writer. i've got a successful career else-where, and i'm trying to do a lot of other things that eat up my time, and i don't feel i have enough writing experience under my belt to even try my hand at a full-length novel. fanfic answers all of those issues while i'm meandering through my life right now. i have thought about writing as a second - or third! - career, though. it's something i'd like to explore somewhere down the road, maybe when i feel i've got more time to devote to it. but, especially as i'm rather methodical about how my life goes together, not right now.

-bs

[charlottechill]

:) You're welcome. I completely understand "later" for something as time-consuming as writing. And hey, when career-wise and RL are fulfilling, that's phenomenal.

[aukestrel]

That's a tough one. I've often felt that we're sort of the red headed stepchildren of fandom/the internets. OTOH there's so much shit out there, honestly, why are people still paying attention to us? But I've recently made a virtual acquaintaince who wants to know what I write and I so fucking chickened out. And why? I just took a course in feminism and I've been thinking about this a lot recently, why are we letting others dictate to us who we *are*? Because we have to live in this world, I guess... OTOH I wonder what would have happened if I had just told him, yeah, hey, I write m/m fanfic. Explicit. Deal with it, because your issues are yours, not mine.

[charlottechill]

Yeah; I finally decided on sticking with my pro pseudonym, but adding to it so it stands out a little better