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Printer-Friendly ModeSVSU creative writing majors apply their skills and publish novels
March 10, 2008 —
Senior Joe Hickey and junior Shiloh Slaughter, both creative writing majors, have gone above and beyond the typical college student's workload of school and a part-time job by writing and publishing their own novels.
Slaughter's novel, Charyli, Where Love Never Fails, unites two lovers from Earth in another dimension known as Charyli.
Hickey's novel, The Deity Chronicles, also takes place in another dimension and deals with a young boy finding out that in the new dimension, he has the potential to become a god. He then must deal with the responsibility and danger behind that power.
"I only get to write maybe one or two hours a day while I'm going to school," Slaughter said. "The majority of this book was written while I was off for a semester, when I wrote for maybe six to eight hours every day."
"I have been writing since I was really young. It's always been a goal of mine to publish a book. After setting the goal, I set out to write the book," Hickey said. "The entire writing process took almost four years to complete."
When they finally finished writing, each author set out to tackle the competitive book market and publish and market their novels.
Slaughter sent her novel to many publishers with lackluster results.
"I was rejected more times than I can remember," she said. "But no matter what, I kept sending it in."
The book was eventually published by Publish America and is available at many online book retailers. The book's Web site, www.charyli.com, has a list of Web sites that carry the book.
Hickey self-published his book through www.lulu.com and expects to be selling it by the end of March. He wants to try to sell at bookstores in the area.
"Hopefully a little local recognition will help take the book to the next level," he said.
As for advice to struggling writers, both suggest writing as much as possible.
"Set goals for yourself and stick to them," Hickey said. "Try to find a group of writers that you trust to read your work and give you the criticism you need, positive or negative."
Slaughter made many of the same suggestions and added that knowing what the public wants is also important.
"Prepare yourself to write what other people will want to read if you want to be published," Slaughter added. "And in the beginning, have fun collecting rejection letters."
