Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Random Nuggets for Writerly Wranglings
I’m still a newish author, with much to learn, but I’ve picked up a few things in the last six years and four books, random nuggets for writers wherever they’re at in their writerly wranglings. Let me share! For the newbie writer– It’s great to have a fantastic scenario for your story, but your characters […]
How Today’s Savvy Schemers Are Scamming New Authors
ARE THE STARS OUT TONIGHT…OR JUST IN WRITERS’ EYES? By Christina Hamlett Less than 72 hours after my latest UK cozy mystery went on the market, an effusive greeting popped up in my email: “A LITTLE REVENGE IN ROBIN HOOD’S BAY is the best of the best in literary gems with its irresistible mix of […]
Cowboys, Rodeos, and a Stray Dog
By Nan Reinhardt I have to confess that I panicked when my publisher Jane Porter asked me to move from River’s Edge, my little town on the Ohio River to Marietta, Montana. I mean, holy schnikeys! Frankly, I’d never been to the West before and I knew nothing about cowboys. Oh, I’d spent lots of […]
Inspired By, Not About
By Barbara Viniar “…She opened the bag of chocolate kisses her mother had insisted on buying her…and somehow life did feel a little easier.” That must be where I get it from, I thought as I wrote yet another scene in which Fannie indulges her sweet tooth. And then I had to laugh at myself. […]
Meditations from a Walmart Parking Lot
By Sarah May I wake to the sound of an engine revving, bass thumping. Groggy light streams in around the shades from the window at the foot of the bed. The jostling of shopping carts comes next, metal scraping against metal. Just another morning at a Walmart parking lot. After I make my coffee and […]
On Writing Scabmuggers
By Yvonne Martinez “Someday Mija, you’ll learn the difference between a whore and a working woman.” The words my sex worker grandmother told me that shaped my life. It was 1950’s Salt Lake, I was seven years old, and she had just come back from organizing a labor action. Salt Lake tavern owners brought in […]
Choose Adventure over Convention. Then Write about It
By Alex Poppe Hanging onto the Land Cruiser’s roof rack with my left hand, I let go with my right, twisting to take photos of the stampede of children chasing us. Riding the back bumper evoked the exhilarated invincibility of youth. This is why I came here, I thought. This is wh—the humanitarian aid truck […]
The Pest Complex: A Cautionary Tale For The Author Who’s Afraid To Ask
By Rachel Stone As far back as I recall, I’ve suffered from what I call the Pest Complex: a paralyzing fear of being a bother, asking for too much (or anything, ever), or taking someone else’s precious time. And friends, I have it bad. Server gets my order wrong? I say nothing. It’s good to try new […]
They Said What? Reader Reactions to The Marriage Debt
By Christina Consolino When I first began writing my latest novel, The Marriage Debt, I had women readers in mind. After all, the main topic—menopause—is a “normal” part of aging that affects many women. As I fleshed out Nika and her husband, Ethan, their relationship, Nika’s relationship with others, and how prevalent perimenopausal and menopausal […]
Murdered for a Dress: A Kashmiri Daughter’s Story
By Huma Sheikh It is the night of July 13, 2003. My last living image of my father, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, a famous Kashmiri singer and producer with Radio Kashmir, stays with me. He sits cross-legged across from me on the bottom bunk of the train. His right hand, holding a dripping mutton cube wrapped […]
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