Heather O'Brien✍️

#Novelist
🚫 AI
❤️ 70s music
❤️ dogs
👎 unsolicited DMs
🚫 trolls
#WritersCommunity
#books
#authorsofX
#Writers

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Three families.
Two decades.
One secret.

Music is Murder...Long Live Rock'n'Roll.
Grab your backstage pass here:
https://t.co/fF1q5mZ59p

#fortheloveofauthors

https://t.co/k2H5EIDMf8

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@AuthorGFAllen A Wrinkle in Time
or
Phantom Tollbooth

Can't remember which was first.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@MasonJamesShow @jandrewellis Reductive. And muted.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

I come from a long line of artists in various groups. Maybe outlining this will make naysayers understand a little why I hate AI.

Musicians, artists, toymakers, and writers. These were my ancestors.

Creatives are not "non-essential."

My great-great-grandfather played on one of the penultimate recordings of the Star Spangled Banner while he was Principal Cellist in the Chicago Symphany Orchestra (having been hand-picked by Theodore Thomas for its inaugural season - originally named the Theodore Thomas Orchestra). Thomas poached him from the Berlin Philharmonic.

His wife was a lauded and highly accomplished pianist, and later played in a trio with him.

His five nieces and nephews were all child prodigies and performed for czars and kings. His father was the Stuttgart music director.

My great-grandfather studied art in Paris, had his work on display in Chicago museums, then went to LA and opened two art galleries, and he periodically worked for Paramount. He also wrote several books.

His nephew (my grandmother's first cousin) is responsible for Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite Brite, Mystery Date, and a host of toys and games most of us grew up playing with.

My grandfather was a draftsman by trade but spent his life drawing and painting. He worked at the toy studio (where he met mybgrandmother), for Lockheed (draftman), and also for Sonny Sunbloom (artist), and did their Sunkist Soda calender for (if memory serves) 1959/1960. I have two or three of the original months' artwork. He also built a sailboat with his own two hands.

My grandmother painted. My dad wrote two full-length novels and was working on a third prior to his death last year.

I have written 4/7 of a mainstream fiction saga based in the music business, and one as yet unreleased true crime book about an unsolved quadruple homicide. My original dream was to be a singer, and I started in a recording studio when I was 14.

My daughter went to a performing arts high school and has won awards for her paintings.

My other daughter is an exceptional photographer.

My grandchildren are all talented in one or more artistic disciplines.

So yeah. I'm a bit touchy about being told art, music, literature, etc. are "non-essential."

We spend real time, effort, thought, and creativity practicing and perfecting what we do.

We fill your museums.
We play in your symphonies.
We make your movies.
We adorn your walls.
We entertain, amuse, and teach your children through fun.

Is that non-essential? Are plumbers and electricians and builders and physical laborers the only essentials in this life?

What are we working so hard for?

Where are we spending our money?

Aside from monthly obligations, we spend it on things that bring joy to the life we've worked to build.

And in return, we are mocked, devalued, and told we're "butt hurt" over AI robbing our work.

I will never be okay with that. I speak for myself and all the generations before me.

Attached are sample of our work, either created by us or written about us.

Since I can only add 4 at a time, I'll add a post in the comments with more photos.

[J.M. Goodwin @jmgwritten]

Indie Authors:

- fun social media sells to your followers
- a killer pitch sells to everyone you meet
- Writing quality sells to everyone *your readers* meet
- Covers sell to anyone who sees them

Take a second and consider the relative size of each of these audiences

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@AuthorGFAllen You'd be my favorite sous chef, then. I love to cook, but it's better with someone to talk with as I'm doing it.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@NatashaCL7 Nowadays, they're trying to convince all creatives that they aren't essential...

while pirates steal our books and AI steals our thoughts (stories we've put on paper) to help talentless hacks compete with us by pushing a few buttons.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@ElChandler Way too long. I am deep diving and removing all I can.

I'm not gonna lie - it's at 180K words.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@BasedMikeLee Except no one will actually prosecute.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@AntiLeftMemes He's not writing it.
The auto-pen is ghost writing it.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@SenRickScott Constant buyers' remorse while saying all the things we "should" or "must" do...which are never done.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Both trad and self publishing require an author to market their own book.

Every single "real" reader I know has no idea who is trad and who is self published. Readers read. Heck - I just finished two series and a memoir and (because I'm a writer) I went back layer to see who was with who.

One series was trad.
One series was self.
Memoir was a small press.

It's hard work either way.

The real difference is how much professionalism is put into each product's preparation and packaging.

More and more, I'm seeing sloppy editing in trad books, while more indies are taking that seriously. That playing field is evening out. For that reason, I won't soapbox on its importance.

Covers, blurbs, font choice, and formatting ... usually, trad wins these categories. But serious authors are learning or paying others to handle these things.

Not minimizing the choices you're considering. Not at all. But when one evaluates the real differences, the gap between the two narrows.

Someone who just wants their book out there doesn't necessarily release an inferior product. They just don't have a spine that displays the "Simon & Schuster" logo or whatever.

And if the indie book one releases is "that" good or taps a lucrative niche market, the publishers take notice and approach that author (e.g., Stephanie Meyer & E.L. James).

You will ultimately decide which route best suits you. As long as you're at peace with it, no one can find fault.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Ditto what he said.⬇️

[Noah Ray @NoahRayWrites]

Stealing is wrong.

Thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Arguing that stealing from creatives because it's "legal" doesn't make it right.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Justifying - or even legalizing - theft does not lesson the theft itself.

It just says creatives are useful to be stolen from and if they disagree, they're "butt hurt."

Having your personal work stolen to enable talentless hacks to push a few buttons, have no independent thought, and capitalize on the very things the thieves try to tell US don't matter is the most egregious money grab in history.

"Your work doesn't matter. Creatives have no value"

Yet book pirating and AI steal out thoughts and then use it to their will.

Legalizing it doesn't justify it. It's theft.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

@SirPogsalot @jandrewellis I disagreed with the premise, and he got it and we had a decent conversation.

You're welcome to answer as you see fit.

[Heather O'Brien✍️ @RealHeatherOB]

Justifying - or even legalizing - theft does not lesson the theft itself.

It just says creatives are useful to be stolen from and if they disagree, they're "butt hurt."

Having your personal work stolen to enable talentless hacks to push a few buttons, have no independent thought, and capitalize on the very things the thieves try to tell US don't matter is the most egregious money grab in history.

"Your work doesn't matter. Creatives have no value"

Yet book pirating and AI steal out thoughts and then use it to their will.

Legalizing it doesn't justify it. It's theft.