Category: Contemporary Women Writers
On Writing A Deux, or How to Co-Author in a Cross-Country Friendship
by Carol Kerr and Linda Edelstein, co-authors of Not The Trip We Planned In the early 1980s, Linda Edelstein and I made a vow we would someday write a mystery together because it would be so much more fun than our dissertations. We were plowing through a psychology doctoral program at Northwestern. She was a […]
The Process is the Art…
By Diane Wheaton Writing is art. And to start my process, I make coffee, drip of course, and black. I then enter my sage green study, lined with bookcases, as I’m an avid reader and it seems, a book collector as well. I settle into a comfortable position in my high-back chair at my beloved, […]
Why Are We Afraid To Talk About Death?
Death is a constant presence, an inherent part of life, a fact of humanity. Yet in much of western culture, we pretend this isn’t the case. We are afraid to talk about death, or acknowledge it in any way. We avert our eyes, lower our voices, and avoid bringing up our own or others’ losses, […]
Gavin O’Malley DiMasi, Main Character in the First Book of the DiMasi Family Trilogy, Insisted on Interviewing the Author, Leslie Kain
By Leslie Kain GOD: Leslie, what inspired you to write your first book, ‘Secrets In The Mirror’? LK: I know someone whose two daughters were very close during childhood, then became estranged when the older one began manipulating and gaslighting the younger one in their early adulthood, asserting her superiority and the younger one’s inferiority. […]
Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul by Deborah Rudell: EXCERPT
Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul “Engaging and informative, with moments of great excitement—but also disturbing and weighted with angst.” —Kirkus Reviews Deborah Rudell’s world unravels when the leaders of her spiritual commune are exposed, arrested, and imprisoned for bioterrorism and attempted murder. Crushed and adrift, she moves her family […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Janice Deal
THE BLUE DOOR How much responsibility and guilt can a mother bear for a child who has done wrong? This is the question that haunts Flo when her daughter Teddy plans to visit after a long separation. The prospect of seeing Teddy brings back painful memories of Teddy’s troubled past–a young teen imprisoned for committing […]
Why was Agatha Christie almost expelled from the Detection Club?
By Kelly Oliver My new mystery series set in the late 1920’s and1930’s features the original London Detection Club, including founding members Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Gilbert Chesterton. The first in the series, The Case of the Christie Conspiracy just came out. The Detection Club is the stuff of literary legend—a gathering of the […]
One Step, One Story Leads to Another
By Julie Ryan McGue At age 48, I was sent for a breast biopsy. That singular event has been life-altering. First, it led to a five-year search for my birth parents, and then to a late-in-life writing career, one comprised of publishing nonfiction books, essays, blogs, and a regular column. Such is life. One step […]
The Perfect Rom-Com, by Melissa Ferguson, Excerpt
THE PERFECT ROM-COM, Melissa Ferguson “Melissa Ferguson delivers yet another sparkling, laugh-out-loud romance!” –RaeAnne Thayne, New York Times bestselling author She’s written dozens of smash-hit romance novels. Too bad no one knows it. Aspiring author Bryony Page attends her first writers conference bursting with optimism and ready to sell her manuscript with long-shot dreams of raising awareness for […]
Writing Female-Centric Thrillers: Helping Women Feel Seen in Commercial Crime Fiction
As a female author of commercial thrillers my main aim is for my stories to entertain. Yet it’s also important to me that they’re relatable and an honest reflection of society and the world seen through the eyes of women today. So how do you create a story that resonates emotionally with female readers, while […]
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