Category: Contemporary Women Writers
From a Haunted Graveyard to a Historical Novel
Nancy Hayes Kilgore My daughter looks puzzled. “I thought we came to see a prison,” she says. The soft yellow stone and harmonious planes of the Greyfriars Kirk, surrounded by a shady park and weathered gravestones, with no prison in sight, feels like a serene oasis in the middle of Edinburgh. But we have come […]
10 Indie Summer Must-Reads
10 Indie Summer Must-Reads Summer isn’t over just yet, and neither is our summer reading binge! Just in case you’ve already burned through your summer TBR pile (burning books not encouraged), we’ve decided to put together 10 of the hottest new indie releases on the shelves right now for you to sink your teeth into […]
How Do You Create A Book?
You could hunt for a needle in a haystack—or you could write a book Penny Haw How do you create a book? It’s a question authors are asked and, when I first encountered it, I responded at length and in detail. I described ideas and inspiration, and spoke of credible characters, conflict, tension, and the […]
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, […]
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