Category: Women and Friendships
Losing the Artist, Saving Her Art (Part 2)
Continued from Losing the Artist, Saving her Art Part 1. Eugenia’s physicians finally allowed her to travel with considerable misgivings, as she was 84 and had a metallic heart valve. Transatlantic travel is stressful one way or the other, but there was no holding her back. She wanted to experience the place that her daughter had loved [...]
Farewell From Assistant Editor Victoria Shockley
“When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we’re capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I’m trying for that.” – Maya Angelou Roughly five months ago, I had a conversation with Anora McGaha, founder [...]
Domestic Abuse and Isolation in Relationships
For Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we are featuring a number of blog posts by women writers on the topic. Sexual assault, addiction, and suicide are unsolved social problems that carry stigmas. The stigmas cast a code of silence that do not solve problems. The result of not speaking about the crime of sexual assault is too often [...]
Interview with Canadian Writer Bolaji Williams
We met Bolaji Williams on Twitter. She responded to one of our tweets. We read a recent blog post and loved the clarity of her writing and topic, so we invited her to do something with us. Voila, an interview with writer Bolaji Williams. When did you first know you loved to write? To be completely honest, [...]
Literary Festivals: From Jaipur to Beijing
Two countries, two civilizations, and two literary festivals. As a writer I had the pleasure of participating in this year’s Jaipur International Literature Festival in India. Six weeks later, I discarded my summer tops in India for woollen sweaters in snowy China to attend Beijing’s Bookworm International Literature Festival. I combined the festivals with a [...]
Losing the Artist, Saving Her Art (Part 1)
Jovi’s photo titled “Agamemnon’s Agony” Losing a friend or loved one suddenly is always a shock. The greater the vitality, creativity and ingenuity of the individual, the harder it is to accept the fact that you will only be seeing them in your memories. Jovanka (aka Jovi or Niobe) was dynamic, multi-faceted, and multi-talented. She had [...]
Challenging Typecasting as an Author
“You’ve co-written a YA novel about transitioning gender! But I thought you only wrote nice children’s picture books like ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’?” I’m seen as a mainstream, Australian children’s author, especially as I’m now a grandmother. I have been typecast as a children’s picture book writer, and my regular readers [...]
Having it all: Life as a Working Mother and Author
From the perspective of a single mother, it seems that we have to wear all the pants, hats, shoes, and everything in between to take care of our business, right? While this may sound simple enough, I assure you it is not! As a matter of fact, it is extremely difficult to keep the smiles [...]
You’re Never Too Old to Write a Book
“Big deal,” I hear you saying. Of course you’re never too old to write a book! These days, anyone can become an author. It is so easy; by using “Publishing on Demand” and publishing on the internet, anyone can get a book out there. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact [...]
Friendships with Women: Getting by with a Little Help from Friends
“Better than any book, [ ] is the communion that happens when you meet someone and have great rapport; someone whose existence makes your life better in myriad ways.” Susie Maguire I thought I would choose an entirely different topic until I read Susie Maguire’s excellent June 11 post on Women Writers. These last few [...]
