Category: How To and Tips
How My Vietnam Era Experiences led to my Novel
By Naomi E. Kennedy, Award Winning Author of “The Boy with the Best Laugh” After 13 years of writing and research, and one year of completing the editing and publication processes, I am finally here! The early years, (1966 – 1971). I watched friends go off to war never to see some of them again. […]
Collecting Facts for Daughter of Luharu
“I have been collecting facts for Daughter of Luharu for decades” – Monica Gupta Science says, cerebrum is made up of grey and white matter, comprising of cells and nerves, but mine I say is made of stories, events and characters – real and imagined. I am an introvert, a little marginalized in expressing emotions. […]
Writing Through Depression, Pushing Past Doubt: Inspiration for Discouraged Writers
Writing Through Depression, Pushing Past Doubt: Inspiration for Discouraged Writers by Tracy Shawn, M.A. No matter our profession, no matter our situation, a great many of us are dealing with depression. In fact, current research shows that the elevated rate of depression continues—and that it now affects one in every three American adults. But what […]
Why I Wanted to Write An Upside-Down Sky
Linda Dahl ‘s riveting travel novel invites readers to challenge assumptions, discover their true selves, and broaden their horizons… AN UPSIDE-DOWN SKY (April 19, She Writes Press) follows Lidia, a blocked artist in her 60s, who goes on a tour to Namyan (a fictional country partially based on Myanmar/Burma) once it opens after a long dictatorship. Not only does […]
Finding My Voice in Nineteenth-Century France
Finding My Voice in Nineteenth-Century France Laura Stanfill Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary, my debut novel, is forthcoming from Lanternfish Press in April 2022. I’ll be forty-six. It’s taken a long time to embrace my material and my voice; I probably needed these decades to acknowledge my neurodivergence and to recognize my way of […]
To Market, To Market! By Barbara Kennard
In what ways are you, as a writer, also a seller? This question might sound odd especially if you rely solely on others to market your book. Of course writers need publicists to help get our work out into the world; however, by promoting our books we realize that we market too! I taught English […]
Feast to Famine, and Famine to Feast, Writer Style
Five years ago, I was living what I will affectionately call “the writer high life.” I’d been in the business as a professional for a short time and felt like I was doing a good job of building my career and my backlist. With a decent helping of luck going my way, I saw no […]
On Growing Your Novel: Magical Gifts on Real-life Trees
The going always gets hard at some stage of writing a novel – at least, it always has for me. And then the main thing is not to give up. My new novel, The Red Children, out this April, is my seventeenth book and in a way the one I love best, partly because I’ve […]
Writing MUSE: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind art History’s Masterpieces
I remember the day vividly well. Due to Covid, we were all in a strict and first imposed lockdown in London. I was working in the upstairs bedroom when I saw the new email pop into my inbox. It came bearing neatly typed bad news from my publisher: with much regret, they were going to […]
The Magic Behind the Inspiration By Jody Hadlock
In Elizabeth Gilbert’s magnificent book, Big Magic: Creative Writing Beyond Fear, she writes about how the creative process is “both magical and magic,” that ideas are swirling all around us searching for a human partner to notice them and get to work creating. That’s how it happened with me. I studied journalism in college because […]
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