I am light and dark, soft and rough. I am nuanced and loud, shy and strong. I love, vastly, an ocean of pulsing veins, and I mourn in salted tributaries. My heart beats fast. Staccato. And sometimes, it barely beats at all. I am a writer, highly emotive, who happens to ink and record the tapping of music on a keyboard. I am human. Full-stop... Whenever I seek professional help (no, not that kind of professional help, marketing professional help!), I am invariably told: "R.B., you need to BRAND yourself." So I ask the talented Lilah E. Noir to send me a "signature," I visually adapt my social media accounts to match, and I attempt to provide consistent writing "columns" or weekly prompts in the form of #sixwords Saturday or #ShakespeareSunday or #writingromancelines or #foundpoetryFriday to everything in between. And that's just the problem. I cannot categorize myself or exactly what it is I do. I am a writer who doesn't fit into a "branding" category. My mood and my writing runs the gamut on any given day. Those who have met me through The Nu Romantics (http://thenuromantics.weebly.com/) might know me as the sweet romantic; those who met me before I published "for cash" on Literotica might see me as the dark, dubcon erotic writer who later turned those stories into what has become the Thorne series and the Imogen series; others may see me as a writer of BDSM with a fetish for orgasm denial (it is a fetish, sometimes, but that is a topic for another day!) if they followed my Natalie's Edge series ; and still others, who may have found me on Facebook as a "friend," may not even know I've published a damn thing! As I embark to finally compile some of my poetry in a published collection, I come back to branding. I haven't the faintest idea how to market myself as a "poet." I somehow got categorized as a writer of erotica, but that is the last category I would put myself. Though I write quite a bit of erotic stuff filled with kinky sex, it's never without a story; it's never without heart; and it's never without the contemplation of the dark and light of the human spirit. Instead, I guess I would say I write about the human condition, with all its nuanced flaws, the angst of relationships and folly, love and all its misunderstandings, and often, how those damaged find redemption and happiness.
So who am I? I cannot be categorized or pigeon-holed. I'm human first. And I don't see the world in black and white or live that way or write that way. Most of us don't. Most of us just live and breathe and connect as human beings, even if it's only through the lovingly-worn pages of the creased corners of our favorite books. I am Rosemary O'Brien. My friends call me R.B. I am uniquely me, and I'll leave the branding to you.
5 Comments
11/30/2017 18:28:32
I only became aware of you, R.B., when I first read the Thorne series, but I didn't feel I knew you as a writer until you (and others) launched the Nu Romantics, and I became interested in the material you wrote.
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J
11/30/2017 21:15:37
It's really nice to see you back from your hiatus. I always enjoyed your blog postings. I have been seeing some poetry from you on Twitter feeds and wondered if you gave up the erotica.
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Robin
12/1/2017 00:11:31
You write with such passion that your love of the written word basically jumps off the page. I understand that feeling of defining oneself, branding and goal setting, but sometimes you just need to stop and enjoy the process. As a mother, I felt my biggest success would be to raise an independent and freethinking child. I will share with you a few of the words of wisdom that I told to Derek from childhood on. I would say to him " be unique, ordinary is boring", "do what makes your soul grow", " don't be boxed into a mold not of your own making' and "try and do all things with respect... for self and others". You are human, you are a writer, you are a teacher, you are talented, you are emotional, you change your mind and you chose to share yourself with others. These are some of the ways that you have described yourself or others have described you and they all have a place and value. I will add my word to the picture I see of R.B.- multidimensional.
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Dee
12/1/2017 10:52:32
RB I have known you only online, but it has been for a very long time. Before Thorne, before Facebook, before NuRomantics you have been the same adorably driven author that seeks something more, wants more and works so hard for more. Labeling of what you are and what you do is in my opinion for others. A writer is the person that absorbs life and regurgitates it through their own filters and their own experiences. Dwelling on labels and marketing are for me distractions from what you want to do; express yourself so that others can gain an appreciation for how you communicate and how you feel about subjects, issues and the human condition. You do so much, you are involved in so much, you are one of the most driven and yet sensitive persons I have ever known. Perhaps I could just ask you to lighten up on yourself and let you be you. Don't measure what you do in terms that others will agree with, measure your work with the satisfaction it gives you in the form of a poem, a story a series a post a blog. The commercial world is full of those that know how to market and how to make themselves appear to be something. I prefer to see you as you are and want others to as well.
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David lee
7/21/2018 07:43:05
Rosemary please delete my previous email address in your records as it no longer exists. Phone and email crashed. Had to buy a new phone and create a new email address. My apologies for the inconvenience
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I LOVE to write and read. I particularly enjoy reading erotic romance that has tons of emotion in it. I hope you will ask me questions and share your favorite authors and novels. I welcome all feedback.
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