Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Why Do Female Protagonists Have to be Likable?
Why Do Female Protagonists Have to be Likable? Karina Cortés, the protagonist of my debut novel, ONE TOUGH COOKIE, has been called unlikable by many who’ve read the book. This was something I was aware of as I wrote, something I wanted her to be. Through all the rewrites, I kept her core personality intact, […]
A Daring Performance: Caitlin Hicks
Caitlin Hicks is an international playwright, acclaimed performer and prize-winning author in British Columbia, Canada. In this piece, she shares what happened when she performed her play SIX PALM TREES in front of her family. Everyone was there including my mother’s sister, Aunt Cecile, who hadn’t died yet. All my siblings and a number of […]
Are We There Yet? By Thelma Adams
Are We There Yet? By Thelma Adams I have a day job and a night job and sometimes they intertwine. My day job is as a film critic and entertainment journalist; you know what I do “at night.” Write novels. Last month I interviewed X-Files superstar David Duchovny, 62, about Bucky F**king Dent, the film […]
My Writing Journey by Nancy Thayer
By Nancy Thayer My first novel, Stepping, was published by Doubleday in 1980. What a long time ago! We were living in a fourth-floor walk-up apartment in Kulosaari, a suburb of Helsinki, Finland. I wrote the first six chapters by hand in a small notebook while my two children, two and four, were “taking naps […]
Author to Author: Faye Rapoport DesPres interviews Joan Schweighardt
Faye Rapoport DesPres interviews Joan Schweighardt about her new novel, Under the Blue Moon UNDER THE BLUE MOON An automobile accident in front of a homeless shelter causes Lola, a dog trainer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to renew her battle with grief. Ben, formerly an architect in the same city, has been abandoned by his family […]
THE LANGUAGE OF KIN: EXCERPT
THE LANGUAGE OF KIN, Lynne Hugo From the award-winning author of A Matter of Mercy and The Testament of Harold’s Wife, comes a beautifully written exploration of how the language of healing can transcend seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Eve, a chimpanzee orphaned by poachers and used for experiments in a medical lab, can finally lead a new life. When […]
Passion/Obsession: A Metaphor for Writing?
Passion/Obsession: A Metaphor for Writing? T.M. Dunn I often tell my students, “If you’re not passionate about your story, don’t write it.” This doesn’t mean at 2 AM, on umpteenth revision, you give up. In the case of the late night, early morning, writer’s blues, don’t give up, go to bed. As any Law and […]
Jumping Through Social Media Hoops (and Why I’d Rather Not)
Jumping Through Social Media Hoops (and Why I’d Rather Not) On the day that I’m writing this article, the final copies of my third novel arrived at my front door. Or, more accurately I suppose I should say at my parents’ front door (I live in an apartment building, so to avoid the possibility that […]
Six Things I’ve Learned After Publishing My First Book
Six Things I’ve Learned After Publishing My First Book by Laura Whitfield I participated in my first literary festival last weekend as part of a panel about finding fun and taking risks. During the event the moderator asked, “What was fun about writing your book?” “I can’t say that writing my book was fun,” I […]
The Alchemy of Fiction
The alchemy of writing fiction. By Victoria Costello Joan Didion said we tell ourselves stories in order to live. I wonder if we also change our stories in order to heal. It was my go-to trauma. Seven-year-old me finding my father passed out drunk on the floor of our flooding basement, with an empty booze […]
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