S.C. Green's Blog, page 3

New article about self-publishing on The Big Idea

I’ve written a short article about self-publishing on The Big Idea. Pop over there to check it out!

I’ve been writing up a storm about publishing and writing career advice lately. Keep an eye out for future articles and projects coming soon :)

Announcing the Steffanie Holmes Merch Store

I am so so excited to announce a wee project I’ve been working on behind the scenes for a while now – MERCH.

T-shirts, mugs, notebooks, pillows, phone cases, stickers, ALL THE THINGS.

‘Jane Austen is my HOMEGIRL’ t shirt.

My fabulous illustrator friend Bree (she who did the illustrations for Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones) has created three designs inspired by Mina’s t-shirts in the Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries.

‘Welcome to Nevermore Bookshop’ phone case.

They’re available in a range of colours and types. If you see a design you want but you think it needs a different colour, let me know and I’ll make it up.

‘I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie’ hoodie.

Everything is on SPECIAL for the next two days only. Great for early Christmas shopping or just cuz you deserve a treat. Grab ’em here.

‘I Like Big Books And I Cannot Lie’ baseball tee.

Join the Rage Against the Manuscript FB group

When I started this year, I had two goals – to level the fuck up in my writing career (I had a specific number around this and let’s just say thanks to Kings of Miskatonic Prep I’ve SMASHED IT) and to do something to give back to the writing community.

Over the years that I’ve been writing and publishing and building this amazing thing, I’ve come into contact with so many writers who’ve freely shared their advice and encouragement and methods and numbers. These writers have gone out of their way to use their own stories of success and failure to encourage others to follow them up their ladder. They’re the kind of people that believe writing isn’t a zero-sum game and that we can all lift each other up.

I am so incredibly grateful for these people because without them I wouldn’t be the writer I am today.

I’ve been thinking for AGES about what I can do to pay it forward and share my own story with other writers, and help them to level up alongside me. I want to be able to mentor promising voices and signal-boost awesome people doing cool projects – especially fellow writers with disabilities who might not have the means to get their voices out there.

Let’s just say I have a ton more ideas than time or resources to make them happen. But that doesn’t mean I can’t start somewhere. So, this week I opened up Facebook and created Rage Against The Manuscript. This is a FB group for writers – that’s it. That’s the criteria. It’s for you if you want to write amazing work and build a badass writing career.

We’ve already got a thriving community with a great vibe and tons of useful info. If you want to join – do the thing! We’d love to have you. There are only two rules – no self-promo (unless it’s on a dedicated thread) and don’t be a dick.

And as for cool things that are coming next from me for writers… this is only the beginning.

Upcoming events – NZ Young Writers Fest and Ballgowns and Books

Hey hey! I am back from Europe and it was AMAZING. I would blog about it but honestly, I’m finding it really hard to write long articles like I used to. To get a glimpse of what I’ve been up to, check out my instagram.

If you still read my blog, I wanted you to know about a couple of events I’m involved with in the coming months. I’ve also listed them on my events page.

And don’t forget, if you want a speaker for your writers’ event, HIT ME UP! I am always keen to talk writing with awesome folk :)

Programme for NZ Young Writers Fest.



NZ Young Writers Fest – Dunedin, 3-6th October

Held in the heart of Dunedin, come celebrate the cutting edge of literature and learn how to get your voice heard in the NZ Young Writers Fest. I’ll be giving a self-publishing workshop on Friday 4th October from 10-12. Come join me and learn how to publish your own book and build a writing career.

Come join the fun! Register here.

Girl reading in bathtub in her ballgown – promo image for Ballgowns and Books 2020



Ballgowns and Books – Sydney, Australia, Sat 1 Feb 2020

Ballgowns and Books is a fantasy romance book convention showcasing more than 70 international authors, including MOI!

Hosted at the iconic Parkside Ballroom in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, attendees can expect to be transported to a magical wonderland designed to bring your favourite books to life with dragons, unicorns, a fae forest and even glittering crowns.

Tickets are strictly limited and nearly sold out – book to avoid disappointment.

If you’re attending BABE2020, you can pre-order my books and swag for signing here.

I’m constantly adding new events as people invite me to things. I hope I’ll get to meet you soon :)

Steff on WROTE and Write with Love podcasts, and article on making a living as an indie author in The Spinoff

I’m counting down the days (eeee!) until we leave for our European adventure. I’ve been so busy frantically trying to finish two novels that I haven’t been updating you guys on all the fun things I’ve been doing.

First off, I’ve made an appearance on two awesome podcasts. On Write with Love with Sarah Williams, I spoke about my writing journey, my upcoming projects, and writing as a legally-blind author. On WROTE – a podcast about LGBTQA+ authors, characters, and books – I had an amazing discussion about being an ally, writing queer characters as a straight author, and the characters that mean the most to me. Have a listen to both episodes!

I’ve also written an article for The Spinoff. It’s about the future of publishing and what traditional publishers might be able to learn from indies like me. I’ve been very nervous about it coming out (for reasons that will be very obvious if you click through and see the title) but so far the response has been positive. So yay!

I have also released a new book, Shunned, that hit 45 in the entire Amazon store. Wheeee! It’s been amazing but also a bit overwhelming and I haven’t written much about that yet, but I will.

Thanks for reading this quick update. I hope you enjoy the articles and podcasts. I’ll be back soon with more blogs about things.

From bully victim to bully romance: the journey to my latest book, Shunned.

May is an interesting month for me. I have two books coming out which may on the surface appear at odds with each other. Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones – the Kickstarter success story about a little grim reaper who learns to celebrate who he is – officially launches 17th May. (Although you can already order copies online from Amazon and Book Depository). And Shunned – the first book in my new bully romance series – comes out on the 21st.

It might seem weird that I’ve got a picture book designed to help kids deal with bullying coming out and also a romance book where the love interests are bullies. I don’t think so, but a couple of people have asked about it, so I just wanted to unpick that a little bit.

Packaging up books and art prints of Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones for Kickstarter backers.



What is bully romance?

Bully romance is a new, reader-determined name for a romance trope where the hero bullies the heroine during their initial engagements. A bully romance is usually set in a school or academy. Over the course of the story, the heroine stands up to her bully (often with an elaborate and highly satisfying revenge plot), the bully realises he’s in love and that he’s been a complete plonker, and he works his ass off to redeem himself and become a better person.

It is basically an enemies-to-lovers romance, only on steroids. The bully/victim relationship creates a power dynamic that has to be upset during the course of the romance in order for it to work and create an emotionally-satisfying story.

This type of story is not new, but it is having a moment in the spotlight thanks to some immensely popular books like Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, Erin Watt’s Paper Princess, and CM Stunich’s Filthy Rich Boys.

Why do readers read bully romance?

You might be asking yourself why anyone would want to read a book where the heroine ended up with a bully. Isn’t that highly problematic? Isn’t that kind of gross?

Not if you listen to the readers who love these books. To them, it’s the exact opposite. They find bully romances to be empowering.

Recently, I asked readers on Facebook to tell me why they loved bully romance. Here’s what some of them said:

“I like when people are redeemable but who are also put through the ringer a bit when it comes to getting forgiven.”

Robin

“Everyone loves a bad boy or boys…especially when those bad boys are actually really good at heart and have that hard outer shell to protect them from their own insecurities or past traumas….these type of books have more depth and character development.”

Hilary

“I love a heroine who dishes out justice!”

Erin

“I love them because of the amount of time and effort that has to go into the characters turning themselves around and changing their behaviors. It’s not an instant Happily-ever-after.”

Julie

“I love bully romance because I love seeing the bullied person win.

Jennifer

Readers don’t fall in love with the bullies. They fall in love with the broken, hurting people behind the bullies, and the strength and determination of the heroines. They find these books empowering because they speak to the capacity of the human spirit both to learn from their mistakes and to forgive.

The point of these stories isn’t to justify an abusive relationship type, but to show how love has the power to transform. And that’s basically the same message I give in Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones.

Writing Shunned

I’ll be posting something tomorrow about the process of writing this book, because it’s been interesting creating an entire novel from scratch in three weeks. But I wanted to touch on another part of the writing process – the research that went into creating the characters.

As part of the research for Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones, I read a lot of literature and studies about bullying. One thing that interested me was, what made people bully?

If you’re interested in the why, you can see the results of some research here. Mostly, it comes down to a few factors – bullies have often experienced stress or trauma that makes them feel as though their lives or relationships aren’t secure. They’ve often been raised in aggressive environments and taught to use violence and intimidation to solve problems, and they have low self-esteem and use bullying to deflect attention to someone else (and in fact, most people who are bullies have been bullied themselves).

I’ve written about my own experiences with bullying here and here). It was fascinating as a victim of past bullying to look back on that experience through the eyes of that research and see just how much of it wasn’t about me.

As an adult I can see now what I couldn’t see then – that I was chosen not because of who I was, but because my bullies needed an outlet for their own pain, and I was there. And maybe if we want to stop bullying, we can’t just teach victims how to stand up for themselves and love themselves (although that’s super important) but we also have to do the super-hard work of using our empathy to lift up the bullies, too.

So all this research was percolating around in my head when I first had the idea for Shunned, and I used it to explore and create the characters. There are three heroes in this story who all start off as various degrees of bully. They are not inherently evil people, because I don’t believe in that. But they are hurting deeply, and they are trying to do the right thing and keep themselves and others safe, but going about it in a horrible way because they don’t know any better.

Pit them against the heroine, Hazel Waite, who is the most badass protagonist I’ve ever written, no question. Hazel takes no shit. She gives as good as she gets. She burrows under their skin. She sets them on a path toward redemption that also sees her healing from her own pain.

(And there’s also a creepy gothic school and scratching in the walls and a book bound in human skin and all sorts of other Lovecraftian treats. Because it’s a Steffanie Holmes book, so of course.)

For me, writing the book (and the next book in the series, Initiated, which I’m working on now) has been a cathartic, healing experience, especially following some of the things I’ve had to talk about in interviews, etc, for Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones. It’s a story of survival and forgiveness, and I think writing it more than anything else I’ve ever done has enabled me to 100% forgive my bullies.

So no, I don’t see Shunned as being a weird addition to my backlist. It’s not the kind of story I think you should read to your kids at night (there’s adult content, and also elements of cosmic horror and the aforementioned human skin book), and it’s definitely not for everyone. For some people, a bully romance could be triggering, and that’s okay. You gotta look after yourself. But please know I have very carefully and deliberately made sure that this series tells a story about survival and strength and love and forgiveness that will pack that empowering emotional punch readers crave.

Shunned is available for pre-order at a special discounted price. It will go up upon release, so I suggest grabbing it now!

Steff appearing at the Auckland Writers Festival

If you’re in Auckland 13-19th May, you might like to check out the Auckland Writers Festival. This is the largest event for writers and readers in NZ, and this year it features a star-studded literally lineup including Jeff Tweedy, Douglas Coupland, Lloyd Jones, Sir Antony Beaver, Paula Morris, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and me.

Join me and a host of other writers at large, writers let loose for Literally Lorne – literature takes to the dens and alleys of Auckland’s Lorne Street and surrounds in the Friday night fiesta.

There’ll be a specially commissioned short detective story from the Scotsman Liam McIlvanney read at the Central Library basement by ultraviolet torchlight; high-spirited writing exercises at the Academy Cinema; inspired writing at Gow Langsford art gallery; fun-and-games storytelling and typography at DesignWorks; and letters to James K. Baxter in the St James Theatre Lobby. Plus Friday Poem readings, and short poems with sweet cookies from The Receptionist coffee kiosk – all presented by an array of the writing great and good. 

It’s like a fun, free literary pub crawl/scavenger hunt. You start at 6PM at the first venue and follow the crawl along Lorne street, visiting all the different events for 15 minutes each. It’s totally free and you’re going to love it!

I am at the DesignWorks event with two other writers. We’ve put together three sections of a story, but we were only allowed to know the first and last line of each section. It’s like that kid’s game where you draw the head of a monster, fold it over and give it to the next kid to draw the body, and then the next kid draws the legs. It’s going to be hilarious. Come meet my literary monster and sample some of the best in New Zealand writing – all for free.

See the full writers festival programme here . The Literary Lorne event details are here . I’ll be hanging around other festival events on Thursday and Friday so if you see me, come say hi!

New release: Pride & Premeditation

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune will be gruesomely murdered at the ball.

Mina’s excited to attend the annual Argleton Jane Austen Experience at the stately Baddesley Hall. It’s just what she needs after all the recent murders – a whole weekend of dancing with Morrie, attending poetry readings with Quoth, and helping Heathcliff field marriage proposals from adoring fans. 

But murder and intrigue follow Mina everywhere. When an eminent Austen scholar is run through with his own sword, Mina and her boys must solve the mystery before the killer claims another victim. 

The Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries are what you get when all your book boyfriends come to life. New from USA Today bestselling author Steffanie Holmes, this book bursts with petticoats and plots, steamy scenes and scandalous liaisons, manners and mystery, magical books and time-traveling rooms, and a healthy dose of Jane Austen humor. Read on only if you believe one hot book hero isn’t enough!

Read Pride & Premeditation now on Kindle or in paperback!

Hoping to be invisible: freelance with a disability

The lovely folks at UnderPinned – which is a bitchin’ magazine for freelancers of all shapes and colours – contacted me about writing a piece on freelancing with a disability. Of course, I said, hell yes.

Here’s my essay – Hoping to be invisible: freelance with a disability. It’s about where I came from, how I became a freelance writer, how I’ve built my business, and why I think freelancing can be a viable career option for people who live with a disability.

I think you will dig it – check it out.

Learn how to write reverse harem in my new book!

Learn how to write and publish in the hottest new romance genre… reverse harem!

Reverse harem books are hot in the charts right now. The trope of one woman having multiple male partners is attracting authors of all genres.

If you want to write your own reverse harem story and create the ultimate wish-fulfillment story where a strong, sassy heroine gets all the hot guys, check out this guide by a six-figure bestselling reverse harem author (that’s me!).

In Writing Reverse Harem for Fun & Money, You’ll learn:

What readers are looking for in their next reverse harem readHow to write sizzling sex between multiple partners.Whether or not to include MM in your reverse harem novel.A simple 7-step method for plotting your book.How to build a successful reverse harem series.Popular tropes reverse harem readers love.Tips to create a cover that grabs eyeballs (not literally!)Marketing your novel to this growing audience, and…How to build a thriving long-term writing career!

Filled with tips and examples from my own personal experience, as well as references to popular reverse harem novels, this book will be your essential guide to this hot new genre!

Available on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and Google Play – get started on your reverse harem novel today.