We pledge to always nurture and cherish the VOICE of our authors.
We are not wedded to grammar school ideas of literary structure. The only witches hat in our house is reserved for fancy dress. We are not concerned about making a story palatable for those who do not like stories in the first place. This reductive fear-driven jealousy tries to abort all great artists before they begin, those of this age, and those destined for greatness in the next. This is why our heroes are those who never once gave in to such petty plastic surgeons of the creative membrane.
We are only concerned with stories. Good ones. Ones that give us a read that expands our imaginations and heightens our sense of wonder.
We pledge to NEVER MURDER YOUR VOICE.
Having said that, I give you this word of advice. Be complex, not for some hipsterish sake, but to better convey the complex, magical world around us that operates on so many planes. Be learned, for if you find your own voice, I promise you, you will have to defend it.
Be sure you know the intricacies of grammar and literary structure.
Then, let NO ONE who criticizes it murder your voice. Treat it as a legal case, read copiously, learn what the pieces of the stories you read are called. Be prepared to defend your voice with Case Law techniques. Treat is as though you are in a Socratic debate.
But, my friends, be like unto the Grants- Stand Fast, and Let NO ONE MURDER YOUR VOICE.
Not for the sake of simplicity, nor for ignorance, nor for frightened ideas of mass market palatability. Not for anything.
At StarkLight Press, if you have a voice that is not for mass consumption, that is beyond a grade four reading level, that uses big words well, that understands there is more to life than is dreamt of in a small, grasping, oligarchical philosophy, than I say-
Welcome Home.
– Tony Stark,
Publisher and CEO,
StarkLight Press.