Kiwi Novelist Reclaiming Adventure And Romance For Blind Heroine

Blind Kiwi novelist Steff Green is running a Kickstarter campaign that reached its initial goal of ten thousand dollars in just five hours, and is currently up to nearly $35,000. It runs until 29 July 2022 and can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steffmetal/nevermore-bookshop-mysteries-exclusive-hardcovers-swag?ref=user_menu

Green, who writes fiction under the pen name Steffanie Holmes, is running the crowdfunding campaign to support her self-published Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries series that features a blind heroine. It is a chance for readers to get rare hardback print copies that Green has personally signed.

She says: “I'm so utterly blown away by the response to the Kickstarter. Readers have been begging me to do signed books for years and I am thrilled to now be able to do so. It's amazing to know that as an indie author, with no publishing house money behind me, I can build a fanbase and go direct to my people for help to create something truly unique.”

Green has recently been featured on the acclaimed TV show Attitude, which follows the lives of disabled New Zealanders. Her episode, which aired Sunday 19 June on TV1, is available to view online at https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/attitude/episodes/s2022-e11

Producer Robyn Paterson says: “Steff’s prolific writing career and her point of view as a writer with lived experience of disability immediately made her someone we were keen to feature on Attitude.

“Added to this Steff’s background in archaeology, her fascinating array of hobbies, her passionate advocacy for independent artists and her particular interest in metal and goth subculture – it was more a case of why wouldn’t anyone want to give Steff a platform! Our team thoroughly enjoyed working with Steff and we look forward to continuing to follow her career.”

Green’s decision to feature a blind heroine in her Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries series was a deliberate one. She says: "So often when there's a blind protagonist (which is rare), they're often healed, or they have special powers that mean that they can, for example, ‘see’ through the eyes of animals. Something that means the author doesn't have to actually write a blind character.

“A blind heroine never gets to just be herself. So I wanted to write that character. In the Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries, Mina has retinitis pigmentosa and is going gradually blind throughout the series. She's clever and funny and she helps to solve murder mysteries and she has three boyfriends and runs fun events and gets up to all sorts of mischief! Mina doesn't need to be healed in order to be happy or feel worthy of love.”

As well as being a hugely popular and prolific novelist, Green works to give other writers a hand up. She has created a support group called Rage Against the Manuscript to share advice for self-publishers. Last year she created the online course How To Rock Self-Publishing, which she has made free for disabled writers and writers of colour.

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