Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Ditch the Basic Business Bio and Write Your Whyography Instead
By Chris Olsen What do you do? This is quite possibly the most commonly asked question at networking events and dinner parties and on blind dates. In each of these settings, it leads to responses that include job titles: I’m a bookkeeper. I’m a floral designer. I’m a writer. And an answer like that leads […]
Hard Work – But Glorious: Stories from the Herefordshire Suffrage Campaign
I always thought that when I did get round to writing a book, it would be a novel. I had no idea what it was going to be about, but it was going to be a satisfying retirement project to fill the winter days when I wasn’t gardening, preserve making or visiting historic properties. How […]
My Journey to Publication: Emily Freud
Like most people who end up writing a book, I always wanted to write a book. As a teenager I grappled with quite debilitating social anxiety, so books and TV were my escape. I was indoctrinated through series like Sweet Valley High and Point Horror in my early adolescence, and then devoured all the ‘chick-lit’ […]
Esme Addison interviews Alex Sobieski, the amateur sleuth featured in A Hex For Danger!
A HEX FOR DANGER by Esme Addison (July 13, Crooked Lane Books) is the second sunny-yet-sinister release in the Enchanted Bay Mystery series, perfect for fans of Heather Blake and Bailey Cates. Kirkus Reviews said: “Magical mysteries, romance, and a Harry Potter–like storyline add up to an enchanting read.” Filled with fantasy, Polish American culture and tradition, mermaids and mythology. Helping run her family herbal apothecary while keeping her supernatural secret hidden is no easy feat for […]
Writing About Strong Women
I write books about strong women who are confronted with physical abuse or psychological pressure but nevertheless survive. I wrote my first novel, Searching for Pilar, which was published in 2018, as a result of learning about the terrible crime of sex trafficking and finding out that the city I lived in was the largest […]
Five Things I Learned From My 1-Year Social Media Hiatus
At the end of May 2020, I did what many of my author friends warned me was career suicide. I closed my social media accounts. All of them. Not just left them dormant with “taking a break” messaging, but actually closed/deleted them. The “why” is difficult for me to explain, because I’m not entirely sure […]
Inside Fictional Minds
As a clinical psychologist who fell into writing fiction by accident, it took a long while for me to stop and reflect on the impact of my profession on characterisation. As a writer, you may find that elements of the story seem to write themselves or attributes of a character appear to come from nowhere, […]
Becoming a Writer: Calibrating the Work Against the Pleasure
I met Jacomena van Huizen Maybeck when I was thirty-three and she was seventy-seven. I’d hoped to rent her cottage, and found her tarring the roof, dressed in a halter top and shorts. I’d never met anyone like her. She knew how to throw a pot, wield an ax or a sickle, and make plum […]
Love and Loss By Habiba Zaman
Love and loss are our greatest teachers in life. We learn what it means to care and act on that love as well as learning the extent to which we have cared by the intensity of the grief when the object of that love is lost. From childhood, we cling to comfort, shared experience, laughter, […]
WILDFLOWER SEASON: Excerpt
WILDFLOWER SEASON She always followed the path of least resistance…until it leads her to a small town where she can follow her dreams. When Emma Cantrell’s marriage imploded, she learned a fast and painful lesson about trusting her heart. Then, on a visit to Magnolia, North Carolina, to see her brother, an elegant, if dilapidated, mansion […]
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