Category: How To and Tips
An Interview with Rachel Lorimer, a pivotal character in The Patient Man, by Joy Ellis
An Interview with Rachel Lorimer, a pivotal character in The Patient Man, by Joy Ellis The Patient Man is the sixth in the popular Jackman & Evans series, where detectives DI Rowan Jackman and DS Marie Evans are pitted against their arch nemesis, psychopath Alistair Ashcroft in a lethal game of cat-and-mouse. But are the […]
Nancy Allen: On Writing and Researching Grace
How does a woman carry this searing, painful memory? First kisses, the first boyfriend, and sex the first time were all good memories for Catherine. What if all that was erased by the violence, this loss of control over her body? Nancy Allen: On Writing and Researching Grace When I first started writing, Grace was Catherine’s story. […]
Discovering Nuggests Of Wisdom
By Carole Bumpus While finishing the manuscript for my latest book, A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table, I stumbled over a precious gem within one of my interviews—an interview conducted twenty years prior. My initial goal for writing a culinary/travel memoir series was to bring readers a sense of […]
Real Life & Fiction by Hilary Hauck
When I was writing my debut historical novel, From Ashes to Song, I was intentional about borrowing from real life to create fiction. The deeper I went into the process, the more fascinated I became by the symbiotic relationship between fiction and real life. Though I have less (or no) control over what happens when […]
Review Envy: How Many Amazon Reviews Do You Have?
Densie Webb All published authors experience some degree of author envy. Any author who says “not me!” is either covering up their real feelings or they’re in serious denial. The topic of author envy has been written about confessionally by any number of authors—even accomplished authors who would seem to have no reason to be […]
Identity and Readership: The Feminism Problem of Erebus Dawning
By AJ Super I have Women Who Write Women in Science Fiction Problems. It’s well known in sci-fi circles that women who write sci-fi get the short end when it comes to readership. Namely, a certain demographic of certain male readers is a gas-lighting, mansplaining, mess of wannabe critics. And it doesn’t matter if you […]
A Love Affair with Peru: The Lure and Power of Place in Writing
A Love Affair with Peru: The Lure and Power of Place in Writing By Claire Ibarra I was trekking the Inca trail, and the narrow, dirt path followed alongside the torrential Apurímac River. The switchbacks were jagged, cutting through wild grasses, boulders, and twisted trees. The Salkantay mountain range loomed nearby, and snow-capped peaks and […]
Writing KIDS AND COCKTAILS DON’T MIX
KIDS AND COCKTAILS DON’T MIX: A MEMOIR started with a balustrade that my cousin, Jonathan, salvaged from my family home. He’d gotten wind that the buyer of Mom’s house was going to raze the old colonial and dashed over to 127 Fremont Place looking for tangible evidence of where we came from—an actual “thing,” he […]
Bringing The Workplace Alive In Fiction
Bringing the workplace alive in fiction As a reader, do you feel short-changed when a fictional character is an author? While it can be an avenue for exploring the creative process, it sometimes feels like a store-cupboard staple, the tinned tomatoes of a character generation tool. It sometimes reads as if the author’s never had […]
Coming Out of the Dark: Reentering My Community As A Published Author
On January 10, 1991, Gloria Estefan of The Miami Sound Machine released a song in tribute to the horrific accident she sustained in March 1990 when her tour bus was struck by an 18-wheeler. The near-fatal incident was traumatic, and yet Gloria insisted on not garnering any pity. “After my accident, I couldn’t imagine going […]
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