Tell me the Truth. Do I Need a Stylist?
Please welcome Anne Holly to my blog today.
Anne Holly is a Canadian writer, mother and teacher, who currently lives in Ontario. She’s the author of two contemporary romance novels and numerous short works, and is working on two historical pieces at the moment. You can find her on Facebook, GoodReads, Twitter, and her blog, or check out her books on Amazon, B&N, and elsewhere.
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Tell me the Truth. Do I Need a Stylist?
A guest post by Anne Holly
While skimming the writers’ forums I like to lurk on while avoiding work, I came across a thread about a rather well-known author of a recent controversial bestseller. Someone had posted an article on her success for which she’d been photographed and interviewed. Most of the comments were what one would expect, critiquing the article, decrying the State of Literature, etc, etc. A little sour grapes, here and there, I admit.
But one post clearly stood out to me, it was so jarring. Yet, not as uncommon as I’d like.
One poster said something along the lines of, “You’d think she could afford a stylist with all that money!” The post picked on a few points of dress, and made some derogatory reference to kiddy carpools, for which she was better suited, according to this poster.
I could only sigh in response. This is what someone gets as a reward for writing a bestseller (even if I or you, or the poster, didn’t like the book)? I tell you, it’s moments like that that remind me that being unknown has its blessings.
So, tell me: Does the way an author looks reflect the state of their book? Or, is this just a way to dismiss her book as “stupid mommy lit”? I’m inclined to vote for the second, since that carpool quip didn’t seem accidental.
Maybe I’m old school, but I generally give creative types and academics wide passes when it comes to dress. Well, to tell the truth, I don’t really care how anyone dresses, outside myself and my child, but I’m even more forgiving for the “absent minded” professions. My first reaction to that post was, basically, if writers are expected to march to the cookie cutter directions of stylists, then imagination is doomed, and we might be crawling into a pit of vanity and consumerism from which we might not escape.
Okay, so maybe that is way overkill, but it did irk me.
My second thought was whether this “you need a stylist” business would have been directed at a male writer. Or is it that women authors who fail to dress according to Hoyle are slobs fit for the carpool, while male authors display their shambles as mere adorable eccentricities? I don’t think I have ever seen a poster dismiss a man’s writing based on his shirt or hairdo; have you?
In any case, it was a low moment in professional discourse. Say her book is crap, fine. Say you’re concerned about the tastes of the public, okay. Hope that trends change, why not? But I haven’t used someone’s clothes to dismiss their minds since junior high, and I’d love it if we stopped judging authors by their covers.
Oh, and by the way, the answer to my question? Do I need a stylist? The answer is no.
I’m too busy writing.
Anne Holly’s most recent novel is Textbook Romance (link: http://textbookromance.webs.com/)
Chase after love? As a single mother, Professor Liberty Sullivan knows better. Between her flighty mother and a disastrous history with men, she’s pretty much soured on the whole concept of romance. Personal freedom and self-reliance are her new guiding mantras. Raising her son and being a career star are the most important things now.
Then she meets Seth.
An ex-cop who’s making a new life for himself and his daughter, Seth Webster has every reason to play it safe. Then he meets Liberty. Prickly about love, following some crazy anti-romance curriculum, she still makes Seth’s heart pound. And a lifetime of cop instinct tells him he’s about to teach Liberty that this romance will be anything but by the book.
LINKS:
Website: http://www.anneholly.webs.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anne-Holly/140519945969686
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4509212.Anne_Holly
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anneholly2010
Blog: http://anneholly.blogspot.ca/
Amazon profile: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GR1CGY
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/anne-holly
