Category: Contemporary Women Writers
The Idea of North: Writing and Recovery By Tanya Marquardt
I wrote the first draft of my book Stray: Memoir of a Runaway drunk. Like blind, staggering drunk. In 2010 that’s what I did best. I had gotten into a prestigious MFA Program, moved from Canada to New York after my mother co-signed a loan from the bank, and had two years to spend my […]
My Journey To Publication: Charlotte Duckworth
I was 6 or 7 when I wrote my first ‘book’. In hindsight it was a shameless Spot the Dog rip-off, created especially for my baby sister. I don’t have any conscious idea of when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I just always loved books, reading and making up stories. Throughout my […]
Writing and Other Jobs
Towards the end of 2014, I found myself in the position I had long dreamed of: I was able to give up my day job and dedicate myself to writing. It had been a whirlwind few months since winning the Bath Novel Award in June, meeting my wonderful agent Juliet Mushens and signing a two-book […]
Where to Hide the Body: Setting in Murder Mysteries
At the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center—also known as the Body Farm—you’ll find corpses in various conditions and stages of decay. There might be one locked in the trunk of a car or another entangled in the roots of a tree. The goal, as you might guess, is not to scare neighbors on the […]
Bringing History To Life
The task of the historical fiction author is to transport the reader swiftly and believably into the period in which the novel is set. This means accurate description of costume, manners, and food and drink. When it comes to voice and actions, too, the characters must behave themselves, keeping to the language, habits, and beliefs […]
Dads And Their Daughters
When a gunman opened fire on tourists sunbathing on the beach in Tunisia on 26th June 2015, one girl fled with her boyfriend into their hotel reception – and then she called her dad back in the UK to ask him what she should do. It was a poignant detail of that awful tragedy that […]
It’s All in The Moments: Capturing Inspiration
It’s been said that life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. The grand gesture, the big finish, the lightning bolt epiphany, the gut searing regret—it’s these moments that define us, change us, reveal our character, good and bad. All tell our story. […]
Body Image as Theme
My great-aunt Helena was fat. Or so my mother said. She also graduated from medical school in 1925, was the first woman to earn tenure in the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Medicine, and was the first to hold a senior professorship in neuropathology. She wrote books and articles on her specialty, mentored her […]
Writing Became The New Love Of My Life
Life has a way of bringing you to places you would never have expected or planned for. It could be a new home, in a different state or country, a new friend, experience or a new career. I had two careers when I started writing, and didn’t even dream at that time that I would […]
My Publishing Journey: Judge Marylin E. Atkins
FAMILY & FRIENDS INSPIRE COURAGE & DESIRE TO EMBARK ON MY PUBLISHING JOURNEY Before they even know the most painful parts of my story… For the last ten years, my daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, had been urging me to write my life story. “Marylin, you should write a book!” people declared for decades upon hearing about […]
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