Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Merging Message and Medium By Nina Sadowsky
By Nina Sadowsky When I sold my first book in 2015, I was cautioned against sharing my political or social opinions on social media. I was warned that being vocal about certain issues might alienate some readers. My response was a shrug. It was too late. I’d joined social media prior to my becoming a […]
Letters To Ourselves
My mother sits at the kitchen table, her hat and boots still on, her chair dragged at an awkward angle to the corner of the table so that she has to reach to write her letter. We have just returned from a shopping outing, the first time we have gone shopping together in years. She […]
Writing about Bladder Problems: it’s a Piece of Piss!
By Dr Jennifer Meyer Everybody has a book lingering inside them, right? So why did I finally decide that mine had to be born now? I invite you to the conception of Piss to Bliss: Agony. Bloodbath. Ambulance. It’s 4 am on the morning of my birthday 2018. I’m on holiday alone in Spain, sitting […]
On Finding Our So Now What
Why I Wrote Willa’s Grove by Laura Munson Book ideas are always coming to me. I’m usually working on a few at the same time and always in different genres—different ways to find the truth. That’s what I’m after: truth. Each book begins with a central question—some quirk of humanity that gnaws away at me. […]
What Makes Christmas Romance So Special?
By Nan Reinhardt I love the holidays, don’t you? For years, it’s been my second-favorite time of the year, only fall beats the holiday season for me. But I’d written five romance novels before I discovered the enticing world of Christmas romance stories. I’m an avid reader of romance—have been all my life—but I’d never thought […]
Step Away From Your Comfort Zone
By Beverley Harvey For the last month, my writing has stalled. Spectacularly. It’s not time, opportunity or commitment that I lack, it’s motivation and self-belief. Like myriad writers, I am prone to introspection, anxiety and low self-esteem. No sympathy required here; I count myself lucky that I manage these personality traits – and that they […]
Getting Ideas And What To Do With Them
Getting Ideas (And what to do once you’ve got them) As writers, we often get asked: “Where do you get your ideas from?” It’s a question that always tickles me. Perhaps it seems as though we writers have admittance to a special “world of ideas” that ordinary people can’t access? Perhaps we seem so much cleverer […]
Headstrong: Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury
Headstrong: Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury She didn’t see the hammer. For a fraction of a second JoAnne Jones saw a young black face, framed by a black hoodie, and then she descended into a place where she felt and saw nothing. Jones survived this sudden assault by a stranger, but it left her with […]
How To Develop Music As Its Own Character In A Story
Mathea Morais’ novel THERE YOU ARE (October 8, Amberjack Publishing) is coming-of-age story about two friends returning to their racially segregated hometown of St. Louis in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death and amid the awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement. Drawing from her own roots in St. Louis, work as a hip hop culture writer […]
Crime Writing Tips
One of the late great Elmore Leonard’s top tips for writing was ‘Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.’ I’m a devotee, which is why ‘Cut to the chase’ remains my mantra for writing strong crime fiction. In essence and, as brutal as it is, boring bits have to go. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? […]
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