Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Writing Black Comedy
Three years ago, I went on a ‘Work in Progress’ writing course to try and find a way to flesh out the bones of an idea I had for a novel. Part of the course was a one-to-one feedback session with the writing tutor. Each delegate had to submit a piece of sample writing and […]
“It’s not you, it’s me” Navigating the Waters of Rejection
Soon, I will hit the “send” button on an essay. This is the twelfth submission of this piece. After eleven rejections, my finger hovers over the “send” button– cautious, conflicted. A flood of emotions rushes over me. I am drowning here. I have put this sucker out there so many times that I am beginning […]
From Ghost to Flesh-and-Blood Novelist
My first career was in publishing: acquiring, commissioning and editing fiction and general non-fiction. Writing was what other people did and, as an editor, I tried to help them make what they wrote the best it could be and publish it in the most successful way possible. Even when I embarked on my second career […]
My Days As A White Collar Girl
With the publication of White Collar Girl, my third adult historical novel, I have to take a moment to reflect on how I got here. Looking back I can honestly say that my previous career as an advertising copywriter served as a great training ground for becoming a published author. Advertising taught me three important […]
Note to Self: What Does That Book Smell Like?
Every book is a portal to a different world. As a child, I especially loved stories about animals. One of my favorites was Charlotte’s Web, which made me long to be a girl named Fern with a pet pig named Wilbur, because of its vivid descriptions of everything from the busy farmyard to the noisy […]
Short Story: A Simple Mistake
The dome of an umbrella bobbed along the top of the fence, beneath the dripping horse chestnut branches. Pink, blue, white stripes. Childhood colours, an adult’s height. It had been raining for days, maybe weeks. Lots of umbrellas bobbed along her fence, but she recognised this one. It was him again. Cynthia wheeled herself into […]
Tackling New Writing Challenges
I’ve been writing contemporary series romance for Harlequin since 2004. I love writing family drama that revolves around a couple falling in love, but after a decade of writing shorter storylines I was growing antsy and wanted to try my hand at writing a “bigger” book. I spent a year working on a single title […]
On Writing Psychological Suspense
How to Make a Friend grew from my desire to explore what happens to unhappy and lonely children when they become adults. Having been in that situation myself I know that it is possible to lead a perfectly normal life, to make friends and build good relationships, but that it never leaves you completely. There […]
Amanda Prowse on Writing
I always find it hard trying to explain to non-writers, the need, the compulsion I have to put pen to paper, or more accurately, finger to keyboard! I’m never sure if it’s because I didn’t start writing, properly writing, until I was forty and am therefore playing catch up, or whether I have caught this […]
Q&A with Emily Liebert
Emily Liebert is the author of THOSE SECRETS WE KEEP, WHEN WE FALL, YOU KNEW ME WHEN, and the upcoming SOME WOMEN (April 5, 2016), all published by Penguin Random House. You may know her from…well, from everywhere. Emily was the editor-in-chief of The WAG, a luxury lifestyle magazine. Emily has appeared on the Today […]
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