Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Writing From The Heart
As writers and poets, we leave a little piece of our heart wherever we go. In our stories. In our characters. In our book research. In the corners of our homes. In our tea. In our coffee. In our cells. In our pores. In our loved ones. In our rejections. In our writing nooks. Our […]
Writing Crime Close to Home
A disturbing true crime inspired pieces of my first novel, The Weight of Blood: in the small town where I attended high school, a teenage girl was held captive by a man and his wife for six years—a victim of human trafficking—and none of the handful of people who knew about it did anything to […]
Musings On Short Story Versus Novel Writing
Twenty-five years ago, on the train home from my teaching job in New York City, I found a way into the short story I was trying to write. I was lost, the story would start. This would be both a physical description of where Clare, the protagonist, was – lost with three friends on I-95, […]
Things I Finally Know About My Writing
I’m 72. When I was eight years old, I wrote my first story. It was a miniature comic book starring a budgie bird. Now, this was no accident, since we actually did have a budgie named Billy. However, my story’s budgie was different, since I turned him into a her. Yes: I wrote a feminist […]
Behind the Scenes of Daughters of the Night Sky
I begin the author’s note of Daughters of the Night Sky by admitting I am not a pilot, am not an expert on Russia, and had never really had more than the passing interest in World War Two than most history buffs share. Even with these challenges, it was a story I was compelled to […]
Inspiration Behind The Lydiard Chronicles
My first inspiration for writing The Lydiard Chronicles — a best-selling family saga — was Lucy Hutchinson. She was an extraordinary 17th Century woman; one of the first to be recognized as a writer and intellectual. Lucy was also my ancestress, and thus even more intriguing. After reading the book she wrote to clear her […]
Let’s Talk About Rape
If anybody told me a few years ago that one day I would be sharing my story, giving TV and radio interviews and writing a book I would never have believed it. But on 22nd September 2014, I decided to share my story publicly and it was posted on the website of The Forgiveness Project […]
Reaching New Audiences
Before I became a professional novelist and after I left my previous corporate law gig, I spent several years on the executive team of a start-up company, Hybrid Mom, helping mom entrepreneurs and designers tell their stories and market innovative new products. Originally a print magazine, Hybrid Mom moved into the e-commerce world in 2009 […]
Writer At Work: Do Not Disturb!
You wake. You want to write. You know you have to write. You’re on deadline. Your head is still on the pillow. You reach for the phone. You should’ve reached for the laptop. But… Let me just check my email, my messages, the weather, the news… Just for a minute… And suddenly its noon. You […]
A Former Lawyer’s Take On the Craft of Writing
I’m a former divorce lawyer who gave up the law to become a stay-at-home mum. I haven’t been on a creative writing course or studied language or literature at any level higher than school. I haven’t even opened a book on the subject! So I’m no expert on the ‘official’ rules of writing. But I […]
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