Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Six Essentials To Pack On Your Novel Writing Journey – Marlene Adelstein
Have you ever gone on a trip and discovered you hadn’t packed all the right items? You didn’t have a sweater when the weather turned unexpectedly cold or an umbrella for that sudden rain storm. It’s uncomfortable to be away from home without the right gear. It can put a real damper on your trip. […]
Female Thriller Author Ditches Traditional Pub Track
In October, 2002, I stood across the street from the old HarperCollins Building at 10 East 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan and pointed it out to my traveling companions. “Someday,” I intoned tearfully, “Someday my novels will be published there.” “Great,” my husband said pointing at our cranky three-year-old in her stroller. “I think Layla […]
Author Brand: A is for Authenticity
What’s your brand? Do you have an author platform? Whether you are an indie author or traditionally published, every writer needs these. When I indie published my first novel, The Bridge Club, eight years ago. I had no idea what I was doing. One clear message that never stopped resonating was that, if I wanted […]
The Healing Power of Writing
As a holistic health practitioner, I use a wide variety of healing modalities in my private practice. One of the most effective therapies is therapeutic writing. When integrated as adjunctive therapy in an overall treatment plan, it can serve to promote psychological healing. Most of us write alone. It’s a solitary experience. But in the […]
Once an Immigrant, Always an immigrant!
Clasping a big folder with every document that could prove our existence, my parents and I stood at San Francisco airport waiting for our turn. The words, “Welcome to the United States of America,” dazzled above the immigration officer. It seemed like hours had passed since we got off our flight from India. The lines […]
Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Patricia Harman
Patricia Harman spent over thirty years caring for women as a midwife, first as a lay-midwife, delivering babies in cabins and on communal farms in West Virginia, and later as a nurse-midwife in teaching hospitals and in a community hospital birthing center. Though she loved caring for women and infants, she recently retired to write […]
How To Sell Books: My Marketing Journey
I thought my romcom writing career would last forever. I didn’t make much money on my first book, She Sins at Midnight, during its debut year. But I knew going in that would probably be the case. Sales wouldn’t go gangbusters until my second book, The Reinvention of Mimi Finnegan. Which is exactly what happened. […]
Silence, Mostly, And A Trickling Of Form Rejections
There were nine children sitting down to eat at our table that day. Six of them were moaning: I don’t like broccoli; I don’t like potatoes; I don’t like quiche. One of the babies picked up a carrot and squeezed it so that lumps of the orange vegetable fell all over the high chair and […]
Ellen’s Advice for Authors: Twelve Important Rules of English that Shouldn’t be Forgotten
Ellen’s Advice for Authors: Twelve Important Rules of English that Shouldn’t be Forgotten With thanks to creator Frank L. Visco If you ask me, there are never enough rules to follow when writing. Frankly, a dozen of them barely scratch the surface. If I had my way, a yearly reading of Strunk and White’s The […]
What Lurks Behind Your Identity As A Writer?
On the surface, our identity as writers is straightforward, isn’t it? A writer is someone who writes, and we write from a burning desire to express ourselves, or a sense that we’re incomplete if we don’t. When the biggest challenge most writers face is claiming a space for that passion amid myriad competing demands and […]
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