Category: Contemporary Women Writers
In Praise of Slow Writing (and Reading)
“[T]houghtful and quintessentially Southern … The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt unfolds like a magnolia, slowly revealing a languid beauty.” —Publishers Weekly In my household, we have pet snails. Around six common garden snails call our terrarium home, each the size of a dime, the first of which my nine-year-old daughter found in her fairy garden. […]
Write Here, Write Now
Turning something into a daily practice, be it writing or exercising or even flossing, can be a daunting process. In the case of writing, having a schedule is important. It’s also a good way to keep the writer sane. What do I mean by that? Well, a writer who is not working is a dangerous […]
HOW TO WRITE FICTION ABOUT THE UGLY PARTS OF OUR PAST
The first time I met him, my father-in-law Art regaled me with stories of the Spanish conquistador who claimed territory and opened trade routes for his queen before he traveled to California, married a local woman and sired Art’s family tree. His connection to this valiant man was a great source of pride, but what […]
Human: Know Thyself
I often wondered what would happen if I didn’t take a drink. Or eat a bag of cookies when I was stressed. Like 70% of the country, I use mildly destructive distractions to cope with everything from mid-afternoon boredom to my son’s impending puberty. I think for writers, the percentage is more like 100. Something inside […]
Colombia—Land of Magic and More Magic
“Excuse me,” I said, “I don’t believe I heard you correctly. We’re going where?” “Colombia,” my husband repeated. “Bogotá, specifically, but likely elsewhere in the country too.” “Are you out of your mind!” was my swift rejoinder. Back in 2009 drug cartels, kidnappings, and the like were synonymous with that country. It’s true that we’ve […]
How Novels Bloom
As a girl, I listened to my mother’s stories about her teenage year quarantined, deathly ill and bedridden after a diagnosis of tuberculosis in St. Paul in the mid-1940s. As an adult, upon my mother’s death, I discovered for the first time I’d been adopted as a 7 month-old infant. As a writer, I’ve used […]
The May-December Affair in Novels: The Allure Versus the Perils
The May-December Affair in Novels: The Allure Versus the Perils By Cindy Fazzi Readers have always been fascinated by May-December relationships, judging by the wide appeal of novels like Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier). However, when the age gap is too huge, the relationship turns creepy, just like […]
Writing While Blocked
Writing While Lazy Uninspired Distracted Overwhelmed Self-Critical Blocked At book presentations, I’m invariably asked, “What’s your process?” By which the curious listener is asking me to describe how I managed to come up with some 350 pages of narration. Questions about process make me quail. Yes, I’ve created enough content to fill the pages of four (soon to be five) books. […]
Finding Inspiration in Failure By Barbara Claypole White
In my second novel, THE IN-BETWEEN HOUR, my protagonist is a celebrity author on the cusp of a career crash and burn. The hero of his best-selling series, Agent Dodds, is dangling from a helicopter, and all Will can think is, “Let go, dude. Just let go.” Unlike Will, I’m not one of the big […]
Inspiration and Obsession in Historical Fiction
by Elisabeth Storrs Inspiration ignites the spark to imagine a novel; obsession fans the flames to fuel the journey to complete it. As an historical novelist, I also face the added task of researching as well as producing a narrative. Luckily for me, history always provides me with both the motivation and evidence to produce […]
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