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.
Respecting Authentic Female Experiences in Our Books By Suzanne Mattaboni
I recently put together a panel of five women writers who’ve taken on subjects that are often considered controversial—especially when they involve female characters. True crime. Dysfunction. Murder. Human trafficking. Stillbirth. Abortion. Incarceration. Suicide. You name it, one of us had touched on it in our work. And all of us have come upon issues […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Greta Kelly
THE THROW AWAYS Family loyalty, generational secrets, and three women who refuse to be underestimated: Greta Kelly’s THE THROWAWAYS (October 20, 2026, Sideways) is a darkly funny, high-stakes thriller about the complicated bonds between women, the legacies they inherit, and what happens when the past refuses to stay buried. “A well-written, twisty thriller with an […]
The Challenge That Turned into a Journey of Passion by Jane Little Botkin
I have long been fascinated by the West and, over time, by the human stories that bring its history to life. My interest began at age six in Mrs. Durham’s first-grade classroom in Hereford, Texas. She asked us to draw and color scenes from Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, where the renowned trail […]
How My Books Came to Being by Kwan Kew Lai
I have published four books; my fourth book, Finding Independence in America: An International Student’s Journey from Malaysia to Medical School, was released on October 8, 2026. It is wonderful that it is published on the semiquincentennial of America. I have often admired reading stories that transport me into another world. In secondary school, I […]
Mollie McNeil’s A-Z of Publishing a First Book: B IS FOR BOOKS
I became passionate about reading at age eleven, shortly after my mother died, and books, particularly coming of age novels, became my solace and entertainment, as well as a source of information. While all my friends had mothers, I found plenty of orphaned or motherless girls in fiction and devoured novels such as in Anne […]
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 […]
Persistence in Publishing by Teri Roche Drobnick
At a children’s literature writer’s conference many years ago, the author speaking informed the audience that it took her seven years to land an agent and get published. What? There’s no way I can hang in there that long! But that’s exactly how long it took me; and an incredible amount of patience and persistence. […]
On Writing by Jessica Clem
I grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, in a family of horror and thriller readers. I spent countless hours as a child exploring the natural world and building my own stories from the landscape and found objects on the farm. All these objects found their way into my imagination. Icicles became monstrous teeth, […]
How to Use Eno and Ono While Revising Stories by Alex Behr
While revising stories for Animal Kingdom, my second collection, I turned to Brian Eno and Yoko Ono as patron saints of risk and ingenuity. I’m blessed with untreated ADHD, discovered in adulthood. That means, for me, the first burst of a story or a poem can feel like a high: anticipation and adrenaline leading to […]
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