Hexagonal Peg in an Oblong Hole

Hey all!

Ryder here. I’ve posted recently and sporadically on Author Media Social, but I’m a longtime listener of Novel Marketing and Thomas’s content. Happy to be here amongst many like-minded (and different-minded!) authors.

That very dynamic is the crux of a topic I wanted to pose a question about:

As an author starting out, (or maybe even after many years) did you ever feel like you didn’t quite ‘fit’?

I’m not even talking about genre, voice or style here, so much as your own inner perception of how you fit ‘socially’.

For context, I am an ex-worship pastor turned Younglife Area Director who writes fantasy and supernatural thrillers, most notably a series that is very much based on / inspired by my hometown I grew up in, where I still live and did vocational ministry for a decade and a half.

I’m ‘well-known’ in the community for that reason and also for having been in a musical family and playing out in bands. My dad was well thought of here (he passed in 2024, just as I released the first iteration of my now novel as a serial on Substack) and was third generation born and raised in the area as well.

Really, I used this ‘platform’ to launch my story initially and generate excitement around it. It was truly special to see people come around the project on Substack and then later on Kickstarter, with a genuine buzz in West Michigan about a story set in the 90s in the real-life town, inspired by The X-Files, Twin Peaks and all things supernatural, thrilling and weird.

The shadow side of all this is many people had ostensibly built their paradigms of who I was and would be. So when I resigned from my ministry position after a sabbatical and started to come out with the fact I was writing in the genre I was writing in, (the word supernatural being oddly taboo in modern Christendom if you ask me, given the basis for the faith itself) the positive buzz was countered with a puzzlement, in extreme cases outrage, or in perhaps the most frustrating and even a little hurtful cases, former co-workers in ministry seemingly ignoring or refusing to acknowledge my writing of a book.

I know the truth is when you break out and branch out of the paradigms people have set in their minds, it causes a sort of chaos, either met with delight, ire or something in-between. Human nature I suppose.

All that coupled with the fact that I am a devout Christ-follower who is writing in a genre often known for it’s godlessness, I’m trying to navigate the waters of how I present my books and myself as an author.

Really, I know it’s just being my authentic self and letting everything flow out of that. It’s just tough sometimes to know whether that flow will ultimately drown out the actual work and product of my writing, or whether it will rise with the flood waters because of it.

Just something for discussion, and would love to hear your experience with these sorts of identity based / social perception dynamics as a writer.

Write on!