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James Ruffean Latham
James Ruffean Latham
1 year ago

Holly, I was a student on the old website.
How do I transition to the new website.
James R. Latham

Laura Wilson-Anderson
1 year ago

Hi Holly —
I went through your classes back in 2016, and I loved it, so much that I got up the nerve to let my parents read the story I had in the anthology. Their horrified look on their faces made stop writing, to the point I that have a hard time writing at all.
I know that’s ridiculous, and part of it is that I have a seizure disorder, which wasn’t so bad until the last couple of years, and I’m lucky to be living with my parents (as long as we don’t talk about writing).

Holly Lisle
Reply to  Laura Wilson-Anderson
1 year ago

Yeah. Got one like that for you.

I’d sold my first novel, Fire in the Mist, and gave an autographed copy to my parents. My mother started reading it. I dropped by later… same day maybe, but probably next day, and the expression on her face was one of horror… and some cross between disgust and dismay. She said, “It’s about witches, Holly!”

And while it was high fantasy with really big fun with biology, and while it wasn’t about witches, it did kind of include them.

Some years later, when Matt and I were living off his job and my fiction, when I had a bunch of books published… she tried to get me a job cleaning horse stables so I could give up writing fiction. “Because you like horses, Holly.”

Seriously.

You can love your parents. You can want them to be proud of you.

But understand they’re NOT YOUR READERS. They’re not your audience. They’re not anyone who should ever be let anywhere near any of your books.

Let them be proud of the number of stories you’ve written, the number of books you’ve published, the really nice life you’ve built for yourself with your success in writing fiction.

But keep the fiction to yourself.

James, F.E.
Reply to  Holly Lisle
1 year ago

Supposedly, even up to several years ago, Bruce Springsteen’s father told him he should give up that crazy rock and roll stuff and get a real job.

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