Category: US American Women Writers
What Do You Mean I Have to Market My Writing?
We all start with different decks. Some with no cards. Some with no money. Some not even at the table. It’s not fair. There’s nothing fair about it. Maybe it will never be fair. But if you want to play, if I want to play, whatever odds I was given, them’s the odds I got. […]
How Courageous Are You?
Since publishing my own story a year ago, and gathering the stories of women who wished to share their truths in a collaborative anthology, I have been reminded just how difficult it can be to put our truths out into the world. Sharing our stories makes us vulnerable to criticism and judgment. Yet our life […]
Am I Good Enough?
Am I any good? Is this poem, piece, painting, any good? It takes guts, major guts, to even expose oneself to this question. Do you realize how far you have come, how much work you have done, what courage it takes to open yourself to even your own judgment? Most of us who are engaged […]
Reviewing Memoirs: Do You Cross the Line?
“Stick to the writing!” In workshops as we respond to a memoir piece someone has just read, I remind myself and others that there’s a dangerous line we cross when we don’t stick to the writing. Hearing a personal story written candidly, spontaneously, with no attempts at camouflage, it’s easy to respond with empathy, “oh, you […]
All in a (Writer’s) Day
You know the feeling. You’re out for a walk, in the shower, or in the car. You can’t grab a pen or put your fingers on your keyboard. That’s when the ideas come. You come home, or dry off, and run for the computer. You start typing. It’s a great idea, and the words are […]
Seven Reasons You’re Publishing Too Soon
If you’re like many of us, the chance to publish a book of our own writing is like arriving in the promised land. It is the holy grail, an elixir, a blissful intoxication. Seeing our work in print can’t come soon enough! I’ve felt that way. (Still do every time a new edition of When […]
I Am Subject: We Write What We Need to Learn
Meet US Author Diane DeBella. She’s is our Site Sponsor through early June 2014. Her book “I Am Subject” is highly relevant to each of us as women, and as women writers. It is about being subject of our own lives, not objects, not adjuncts to the lives of others. Stay a while. Linger here and […]
Failure First, Success Second
I failed at getting my first novel published and I stopped writing. I wrote a young adult science fiction novel while also playing Division I college basketball at the University of Richmond. Writing helped me cope with the various pressures and expectations in athletics and academics. Working on that story allowed me to escape when […]
A Treasure of Letters
Years ago, I discovered a trove of letters in my backyard. I had just become the owner of an old house and when I went to clear out the weed-choked yard, I found, hidden in a broken-down shed, a steamer trunk. The trunk was sagging with rot but still tightly closed and sealed. When […]
Book Review: Elaine Neil Orr – A Different Sun
A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr “Overseer say whippin’ wasn’t enough.” “Enough for what?” “To make an impression.” The word sounded like something that bears down and changes you forever. “It’s good you cry,” Uncle Eli said. Do you remember Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? Author Elaine Neil Orr’s A Different Sun is a […]
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