Category: On Writing
Authors Interviewing Characters: Stella Fosse
Character Interview with Vivienne Vivienne Underwood began life as a medieval swordswoman and vampire. She is the protagonist in the 2026 novel, The Sword of Vivienne, Book One of the Blood Sisters Chronicles. Stella: You were born in 1398. Vivienne: So they tell me. I don’t remember being born. Stella: What do you remember? What’s […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Mara Williams
The Other Side of Starting Over Bygones on Main, an antique store in the California mountain town of Suncrest, has been in the Bell Family for three generations. It attracts collectors and tourists alike and sells one-of-a-kind treasures and kitschy knickknacks in an expansive, labyrinthine storefront on Main Street. The longtime shopkeepers, Paul and Linea […]
November Recommended Reads
Engineering a Love Story, Kathleen Reidy At the height of the boom, ambition is easy —love is the real gamble It’s the year 2000—dot-coms, Bush v. Gore, and sky-high San Francisco rents. But while the country swoons with irrational exuberance, Chelsea Lefevre’s life is deflating faster than a tech bubble. She’d had everything she thought she […]
UNDER AN INDIANA SKY by Lynne Hugo: Excerpt
Under an Indiana Sky Denise has never trusted her sister Angie’s boyfriend, Brock—not only because Angie pulls away from caring for their disabled mother, but because something about him doesn’t add up. Brock’s mother, Nora, has doubts of her own, even as she tries to begin a new chapter in her life. Meanwhile, Mercedes, a […]
On Writing Wild Pivot: Notes from a Political Life Rewritten by Jen Thompson
In Wild Pivot: Notes from a Political Life Rewritten (She Writes Press; September 22, 2026), Jen Thompson shares her profound journey from being a celebrated Republican strategist in Washington, D.C., to abruptly abandoning her career in search of authenticity and deeper meaning. Drawing on her years as a top congressional lawyer and campaign manager for […]
Restoration Not Theft: Writing Other People’s Stories By Denise Derya Brandt
My Turkish mother once ran away from an arranged marriage. I shared this information about her often, proud of her courage at such a young age. Her father wanted her to marry a relative who was like an older brother to her. She didn’t want to, so she ran away to Istanbul, where she met […]
On writing Rose Knox: How One Woman Mixed Kitchen and Boardroom to Remold an American Business by Rachel Greenfield
For the first-time, historian Rachel Greenfield recovers the facinating story of Rose Knox; one of America’s most famous 20th century business woman who pioneered gelatine as a cooking staple, including the iconic mid-century salad gelatin craze! In 1908, after her husband’s death, Rose secretly took control of his struggling gelatine company and went on to […]
The Book That Took Twenty-One Years to Write by Jennifer Gay Summers
If someone had told me it would take twenty-one years to write a book, I would have told them that they were crazy. But that’s exactly what it took. It all started at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (SBWC) in 2005, when I came up with the seeds of what would become my memoir. I […]
Seeds & Roots of A Hidden Fate By Carol Efron
The seed of my novel arrived unbidden, wafted toward me in a dream ten years ago, carrying with it a compulsion to help it grow into a tree. I hadn’t gone looking for a writing project; the story somehow had found its way to me. Now that my tree is waving its branches, asking for […]
My Alternative to an MFA as a Debut Writer by Robin Rosenbluth
When I decided to write a memoir about the transformative year I spent in Northern Kenya, living with the semi-nomadic Samburu and Rendille tribes, I had little experience writing creative nonfiction. After almost 10 years, I completed my first draft of Living with Strangers, which covered my childhood and teenage years in foster care, as […]
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