Category: Contemporary Women Writers
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 […]
How to Find Your Publishing Path
By Camille Pagán On a recent group coaching call, one of my clients asked if there was a particular trait most successful novelists shared. I didn’t blink before answering: “Flexibility.” Like nearly all things in life, publishing changes. Algorithms, publishers, agents, editors, readers, and marketing methods aren’t static. To stay in this business—which is how […]
Nineteen: A Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery by Leslie Johansen Nack: Excerpt
For fans of Stephanie Thornton-Plymale’s American Daughter and Cea Sunrise Person’s North of Normal comes Leslie Johansen Nack’s emotional follow-up memoir about her battle with addiction following a traumatic childhood—and her inspiring journey toward healing and happiness. In the mid-1970s, Leslie Nack’s family returned from sailing to French Polynesia and began the integration process into American life again, which […]
On Writing Always Hungry
Always Hungry was the book that I had to write. No longer could I be silent about my own lived experience in a larger body because (at the risk of making a bad dad joke) I realised that this story was bigger than me. Mine is a story of reclaiming my health, of discrimination, of […]
The Baby’s Cry, the Blank Page, and the Myth of the Writing Mother
By Caroline Lea I once tried to revise a sex scene while cooking dinner for my family. Reader, it was a disaster: the chicken was burned and had to be binned; the characters lost interest in each other. Everyone cried. In an ideal world, the mythical figure of the writing mother would also be an […]
Bridging the Past and Present: Writing Romance Rooted in History
By Shanna Hatfield Books have been a wonderful source of adventure for as long as I can remember. My mother shared her love of books with me, reading to me most every night as a young child. When I was old enough to read the books myself, my favorite stories were those that brought the […]
Song Over The Bones: Silence As Reclamation
By Melissa Meszaros Internet dating should not exist without a relationship jail. If you fail to comply with who you say you are, there should be consequences, a fraudulent misrepresentation suit, maybe. Technology upgrades, but lies stay the same. I work in public relations, a polishing job. I can take anyone’s half-formed thought and spin […]
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