Author Archive: Women Writers Women Books
Dutch by birth and serial emigrant, Barbara currently lives with her husband and daughter in a tiny village in Galicia, Spain, as basic and simple as can be. W Barbara's website.

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 […]

The Unknown Soldier
I wish I had found this image of a confident young Confederate cavalryman before I had written a word of Measure of Devotion. In truth, though, the book was nearly finished and I was actually looking for something else when I encountered him in a huge sheaf of old family photos. The photo you see […]

Leslie Gray Streeter: On Writing
By Leslie Gray Streeter The story of Dawn Roberts, the writer heart of FAMILY & OTHER CALAMITIES, goes back more than three decades and several major plot changes. She’s been everything from a college student in a garage band finding her voice, the former back-up singer in a 90s R&B group who is getting back […]

May: Reading With Rochelle Weinstein
Hello Readers & Friends, April showers bring May flowers. Was that true in your neck of the words? We didn’t have much rain here in Miami, but the heat is on. Full blast. And as I sit at my writing desk preparing this column, surrounded by my hydrangea and stacks of books, I can’t help […]
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