Tag: featured
A Writer in LibraryLand by Kathy Anderson
By Kathy Anderson Today I’m the author of a novel, The New Town Librarian (NineStar Press, 2023). But once upon a time, I was a new town librarian in real life. Fresh out of graduate school with my Master of Library Science degree, I was hired as the director of a small-town public library in […]
The End: More Than Just Two Words
By Linda Rosen “The End,” the two treasured words authors adore typing. But is it really the end? It might be several months since you began your manuscript or, if you’re like me, several years. You’ve workshopped the story in a critique group, chapter by chapter, had a writing partner sitting shotgun along the way, […]
Writing Unforgettable Characters
By Tammy L. Grace As a reader, I am always drawn to characters in books. I remember characters from books I read decades ago, like Scout and Atticus Finch, Anne Shirley, Jean Valjean, and Hercule Poirot. As a young reader, I dreamed of becoming a novelist, crafting characters as unforgettable as those I still admire. […]
Creating Space for Stories, Self-Care, and Second Acts – Henlit Central
By Carolyn Clarke When I launched Henlit Central, I had one core mission: to create a vibrant, authentic space where women over 40 could connect through stories that reflect who we are at this beautiful and often overlooked stage of life. “Henlit,” short for “hen lit,” may sound cheeky, but it represents a powerful shift. […]
A Writer’s Life is a Roller Coaster. How Best to Avoid Whiplash
By Lorraine Devon Wilke When I was in grade school, my class participated in a special pullout session to watch an interesting documentary about noted anthropologist Louis Leakey. I was mesmerized throughout, so when we were assigned to write an essay immediately afterwards, I jumped in, flush with enthusiasm. Imagine, then, the blow of getting […]
Do Women Grieve Differently from Men? An Author’s Perspective
By Lisa C. Taylor When I worked in the field of counseling, I encountered both parents and children who were grieving. During the eight years it took me to complete The Shape of What Remains, I immersed myself in research about the grieving process. I do not claim to be an expert but what I […]
Writing Multicultural Stories by Patsy C. Robertson
by Patsy C. Robertson When I embarked on my writing journey, I had a clear vision of the types of stories I wanted to write. I wanted modern stories that displayed current and historical connections between Native Americans, African Americans, Africans, and the African diaspora throughout the Caribbean, South America, Central America, and Mexico. For […]
Fictional hope is still hope: The power of uplifting stories
By Ginny Kubitz Moyer Over the twenty-six years that I taught high school English, many students noticed an unfortunate pattern among our assigned texts. “We always have to read such depressing books in our English classes,” they would complain. “Aren’t any of the classics happy?” It was a valid point, because our department curriculum—like that […]
A Memoir from a Grieving Therapist by Sally McQuillen
by Sally McQuillen I began writing to my son Christopher twenty-one days after he died at the age of twenty-one in an accident. I wrote to connect with him. I wrote to let him know how I was feeling after he left his beautiful body and went somewhere I wasn’t yet sure existed. Most of […]
Searching for Clarity in a Puzzling Gray Space
By Kathleen Somers For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to write and had often fantasized about writing a book, though I never expected that I would one day do it. I have a drawer full of binders with children’s stories I had started over the years, bits and pieces of potential novels, […]
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