Category: Contemporary Women Writers
In Conversation With Ellen Langer, Mother Of Mindfulness
I came across Ellen Langer’s research online, in a NY Times article What if Age Was Nothing But A Mind Set? My first reaction to the headline was skeptisicm. But, as I often do when something makes me feel uncomfortable, I decided to read. The article described her landmark 1979 “counterclockwise” study in which elderly men lived for a […]
Why I Write: Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli
The earliest I can remember wanting to write was when I was around twelve. I had thoroughly enjoyed many of the books in Enid Blyton’s “Adventure” series featuring two sets of siblings: Phillip and Dinah, and Jack and Lucy-Ann, and Jack’s parrot Kiki. I had lived vicariously through them by reading The Island of Adventure, […]
What Happened When I Reached For The Lifeline Called Writing…
Growing up in Oklahoma in the 1960s, writing was reserved for professionals, and voice as vocation or vocalization was too. Journalists. Singers. Politicians. Diaries came with miniature locks and tiny keys and typewriters pecked out papers letter by letter. Being a cheerleader or singing in the choir was as loud as a lady could respectfully […]
Words You Need To Redefine
You cannot write if you live your life by someone else’s definition of a word. When your words are not your own, you can’t tell your own story. It’s time to redefine these five words and change the way you see your work. Aggressive This is when you’re pushy. You say what you’re not supposed […]
What A Hazard A Letter Is: The Strange Destiny Of The Unsent Letter
I’ve always been fascinated by letters. Listening to Sylvia Plath’s being read on Radio 4 reminds me just how powerful they are, how swiftly they take us back into former lives – our own and other people’s. And for biographers, letters are like buried treasure. The American author and journalist Janet Malcolm describes them as […]
How My Work Influences My Writing
I help teach GCSE English to adults with learning difficulties. These include dyslexia, Aspergers and mental health issues. My students have experienced barriers to mainstream education because it is not sufficiently geared to their needs. Not only barriers but failure. Many have been told that they will never pass an exam, and see themselves as […]
Writing With—And About—Invisible Disabilities
It’s almost like you can watch my dreams die as each rewrite of my book progresses. The first draft featured protagonist Becca as a famous author who got six figure advances, whose book was being made into a movie, who employed several assistants to help her with fan mail. The second draft saw Becca as […]
Class And Writing
Street Cat Blues is my debut novel and it was a long time coming. I guess it could be categorised as cosy crime but with a definite noir bite. I am the child of what I sometimes think of as a mixed marriage. By this I don’t mean mixed in terms of ethnic or religious […]
Her Mother’s Daughter: Writing and Inspiration
My book is not an easy read. I know that, because it was not an easy write. It is not a true story, but there are elements that were inspired by my childhood, and many of them I wasn’t even aware of at the time I was writing. Rather than having inspiration for this novel, […]
Labor Pains: A True Life Story of Giving Birth to a Book
Writing a novel is hard work. Much like giving birth, one struggles to conceive, grow the thing inside you and then push it out—it is messy and intense, and you are never entirely sure of the outcome. Before encountering your child, there are countless nights when sleep is impossible, as complicated plot lines revolve around […]
Recent Comments