Category: On Writing
Should I Edit an Anthology?
By Cindy Eastman As a writer, I often look for and submit to anthologies as a way to get my work out there and add a publishing credit to my portfolio. It was probably only natural, then, for the idea to create and edit my own anthology to form. Here’s my advice for those mulling […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Kimberly Belle
THE EXPAT AFFAIR An American expat‘s startling discovery plunges her into the glamorous but deadly world of Amsterdam’s diamond industry. Following a nasty divorce, Rayna Dumont came to Amsterdam for a fresh start. She’s never been the type for a one-night stand, but this move is all about adventure, and Xander is handsome and successful […]
The Inspiration For The Very Best Of Care
The Very Best of Care started as a tiny seed of a thought twenty years ago. I was working as a nurse practitioner in a forty-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The 1990’s were years of higher than usual birth rates, including preterm births. Often, our forty-bed unit would swell to accommodate closer to fifty, […]
The Lost Book of First Loves, by RaeAnne Thayne: EXCERPT
THE LOST BOOK OF FIRST LOVES From New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne comes a brand-new story about two women, a family secret and a lost manuscript that changes everything… Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Alison Wells always felt loved, even though her mother died when she was a teen. But when she […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Terri Lewis
Today I’ll be interviewing Maurelle, a spying maid who snuck into my debut novel, Behold the Bird in Flight, when I wasn’t looking. The story tells of Isabelle, King John’s second wife. A romantic headstrong girl who caught King John’s eye. He married her, took her to England, and made her queen where she grew […]
Authors interviewing Characters: Sam Davey interviews the Lady Igraine
About The Chosen Queen Igraine, destined mother of King Arthur, takes centre stage for a powerful, feminist retelling of Camelot. The stories of Camelot do not begin with the sword in the stone—but rather with a twisted chain of murder, magic, and deceit. Igraine is happily married to Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, even though his […]
On Writing SweetSpot: Now and Then, by Marla Miller
By Marla Miller When women talk about sex, some blush. Some don’t. In ‘SweetSpot: Now and Then, my protagonist blushes. Set in 1999, Darlene Robinson’s story ends one year later, bookended by a writer’s conference she attends in the spring of that year and returns to the following spring. We meet her in midlife. Mostly […]
Getting Ideas from Real Life, Kiefer Sutherland, and My Overactive Imagination
Getting ideas can be difficult if you’re lacking inspiration, but the good news is, they’re everywhere. The advice to write what you know might seem limiting, but it can be a great launchpad for getting ideas flowing, then the only limit is your imagination. For example, my current novel is about a woman who forms […]
Writing Through Grief: The Journey of Higher Love
In November 2021, I embarked on my fourth novel, Higher Love, during the whirlwind of NaNoWriMo, fueled by the ambition to release it by early 2023. That dream, however, was deferred by life’s relentless challenges—relocation, loss, and profound grief. After a long, difficult road, Higher Love finally met readers on May 12, 2025. The delays […]
The Afterlife is Real: What I discovered while writing Dear Bobby: My Grief Journey and The Married Widow: My Journey with Bob Zappa
By Diane Papalia Zappa My husband Bob Zappa and I rarely spoke about an afterlife. He believed life on earth was the end, so there really wasn’t much to talk about. As for me, I wasn’t sure. I was open to the possibility, but wasn’t counting on it. Shortly after Bob passed away late in […]
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