Last week IIP sent out the press release with the exciting news that voice actors Carmen Seantel and Hel will be doing a duet narration of (many of) your favorite book in the series: That Lesbian Vampire Pirate Story
Hereâs the official press release:
IndieLife: letâs talk about press releasesâŚ
Since IIP is still such a small company, I am still doing things that I canât wait to someday farm out to people who have gotten degrees (or at least a lot of practice) in how to do them.
Press releases are one of those things. My degree in Comparative Literature basically trained me in how to look at what the parameters of the writing assignment is, quickly study up on how to do them, and then, with some sweat and occasionally tears, write something that fits that style and has the required content. (This may not be precisely what the professors were trying to teach me, but it got me graduated cum laude, so⌠đ¤ˇââď¸)
Press Releases are what I consider technical writing. You have a word count and precise layout, you have information you must get across to the reader in the most optimal way for them to intake it, and you have a tone you have to hit. Itâs no different than a white paper or a manual. (Both things I have been paid to edit, btw, so I know!)
If you are intent on doing that #indielife, you will be writing your own press releases (unless you have a particularly awesome friend) so a search on âhow to write a press releaseâ and some concentrate learning is in your future. My suggestion is to look at other authorâs press releases and then shamelessly steal the layout and style.
Itâs some of the least fun writing youâll ever doâŚbut somebody has to do it! Until, and I personally as an author and human being cannot wait for this, you can pay someone else to do it! đŤ°đŤ°đŤ°
 Anyway, now that I come to think of it, I honestly donât know what your favorite story in the series is! So please tell me!
RavenLife: How I got into photography
(This RavenLife was set in motion by Andrija Popovic. Thank you so much for asking, Andrija! If you want to suggest a future RavenLife section, just hit reply to this newsletter and tell me what you want!)
Growing up, I knew I was an artist. I had these pictures in my head that I wanted to bring out into the world. I took drawing classes, painting classes, pottery classes, you name it. I spent my childhood trying pencils, oils, watercolors, crayons, everythingâbut I never felt like Iâd found my medium, my way of expressing myself.
When I was in freshman year, I was dating a sophomore named Kevin. Kevin was doing photography. Since I was dating him, I was obviously a free model. I was a competitive ice skater at the time, so Kevin asked if he could tag along to the rink. I said yes, and he got me stretching, doing my warm-up, and then running through my competitive routine.
Some nice images came out of this, but so much more important, I asked myself: âWhy havenât I tried photography?!â
It was too late for that semester, so I stole my motherâs Konica Autoreflex TC 35mm SLR and basically taught myself a lot of what NOT to do over the summer. I also got some great shots because it turns out that photography was MY medium, and even with no knowledge of how a camera works (beyond what the tiny Konica manual taught me) I was able to start realizing my artistic vision in a way that felt more âthis is it!â than a pencil or paintbrush ever did.
The next September I was enrolled in photography class, and ended up having a Photography Major in high school. I adored the teacher, Mr. David Prifti, beyond words. He was the perfect combination of teaching vital technical skills and at the same time challenging your artistic self. I remember him looking at one project I turned in and saying, with evident approval in his voice, âYouâre a real weirdo, Raven!â
Me being me, I immediately set out to âshock the schoolâ with the most scandalous images I was allowed to make. (Pushing up against limits being a core part of my personality, which Iâm sure comes as no surprise!) They would not allow me to do nudes, which I fumed about, feeling very censored and held down.
My very first self-portrait. I wasnât an over-dramatic proto-goth or anythingâŚ
Prifti (all of his more serious students just called him that) started something I kept up for a long time: an annual self-portrait. Back when I was working with film, this was not the same thing as selfies are today. I at one point hung the camera from a tall pole and posed directly beneath it! But mostly, I figured out that I could use another person as a living selfie-stick by posing where I would be so that I could get focus and composition right, then trading spots with me and hitting the shutter for me. I did an annual self-portrait until I got a mobile phone, and now thereâs selfies all the time. Less artistic ones, though. But I do have my own visual exploration of myself for each year before I got a mobile.
When I tell people Iâm a photographer, they say, âWhat kind?â I hate that question! I started photography wandering around taking pictures of whatever I wanted to take pictures of: people, still lives, nature, event photography, political statements, all the things. The right image of anything is art, and I have absolutely zero intent to be boxed in to just one subject. I am a photographer of all the things I want to photograph, thatâs what kind of photographer I am đŞ
Shooting nature in the UK, 2016
Sadly, being a writer has pulled me away from being the semi-pro photographer that I was for years. I canât put in the time on both building my career as a writer AND as a photographer, since both a very time-consuming if youâre not just doing them as a hobby. But I do a lot of my own product shots, and obviously all the promotional selfie stuff, so my photographer side is not totally abandoned đ¸
My best photography story is when a friend and I snuck into the chapel on our college campus, and she climbed up on the alter and put the gaudily bejeweled cross between her befishnetted legs. I was doing long-exposure, multi-flash photography that night, and so I had to set up my camera on a tripod, with the shutter on âBâ and held open with a rubber band, and then run around hitting my flash in various areas around the shotâand get it all done before the campus police found us! đ
âMulti-Flash Sacrilegeâ 1996, Bradford College Chapel
No, wait, thereâs a better story! In my first year of college, I was very excited that I could now work with nudes (this had been frowned upon in high school, for some reason) and apparently my enthusiasm was a bit intense for some. âDonât let Raven approach youâsheâll ask you to pose nude!â became what was being said behind my back on campus. The upshot of that was that anyone who didnât run away from me was the kind of person who was willing to do nudes đ
âClassic Nude Pile-upâ 1996, Bradford College Theatre
After transferring to U/Mass from the teeny Bradford College, I didnât have the option of a Photography Major anymore, so I just did my own shoots and used the rentable school darkroom, lugging my own trays and stuff around with me. Eventually I made the switch to digital photography (although always missing the real darkroom and hoping for my very own someday), learning and loving Photoshop to point of attending annual âPhotoshop for photographersâ conventions đ¤, shooting three weddings, one pregnancy, and myriad fetish events around the world. Iâve had two shows, both in local coffeeshopsâI love the idea of bringing art out into the world for people to interact with it while going about daily life. I would love to have my work in hospitals and other places it could bring comfort through art.
âMan of the Mindâ 2026 (part of an ongoing project)
OK, Iâve got a novel to get back to writing! âď¸ See you in two weeksâŚand as always, be good or be good at it! đ
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