Category: On Writing
On Writing Theophano: Witch or Saint? A Byzantine Historical Novel by Olga Athanasiadou
We all know that the official history of the world’s various regions is always written by the victors. Yet, certain quiet souls contribute to shaping it-souls whose radiance illuminates an entire region, reaching the very places where ordinary people feel forgotten by everyone and everything. Before I reveal the process I followed to write the […]
Remembering 9/11 By Caroline Bock, Author of The Other Beautiful People
This year, tomorrow, 9/11, falls on a Friday. For me, 9/11 will always be a Tuesday. Twenty-five years ago, I woke up early after a sleepless night. I had a big day. Bravo cable network was holding a press conference at a swanky hotel downtown for our first reality series – The It Factor, and […]
The Book My Mother Was Supposed to Write by Alicia Duncan
On October 29, 2021, my mother was released from an involuntary psychiatric hold in British Columbia. Four hours later, she died through Canada’s assisted-dying program, officially known as Medical Assistance in Dying. She was sixty-one, she was not terminally ill, and three days earlier, she had attempted suicide. In the years since, I have returned […]
I Set Myself a Deadline of my Own Menopause…
…when I set out to write a book on aging and menopause in Japan. So, every time I got my period I felt like I got an extension. After finishing the book, I missed my periods for several months in a row, and thought I had just easily transitioned into menopause. Not quite. About 6 […]
Building with Memories: How Writing Down My Father’s Stories Became a Bridge to History by Donna Hills Patrick
For much of my professional life I worked in construction and space management. My work was about understanding how pieces fit together—to how take an idea, develop a plan, solve problems, and bring it all together into something that could stand on its own. I learned that building anything worthwhile takes time, and it takes […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Melissa Payne
IN THIS LIFE OR ANOTHER On the brink of death, a man comes to terms with the life he lived versus the one he never pursued in an emotionally rich novel of parallel lives, redemption, and finding purpose. On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, mechanic Rusty Wilson takes a bullet to save the patrons […]
Calling All Lumberjills: How I Found the Women Who Inspired My Novels by Joanna Foat
At seventeen, Eileen Worsell left her job in a glass bottle factory in the hustle and bustle of Hackney, London, and volunteered for war work. She was sent to a Women’s Timber Corps training camp in a quiet, rural village in Suffolk. She began learning a job that few people in the 1940s believed a […]
From Family Silence to Storytelling: Huey Choi on Loss, Identity, Food, and Who Stole My Pork Belly?
Every family has a story, and sometimes, telling that story means confronting the parts of the past that have remained unspoken. In Who Stole My Pork Belly?, author Huey Choi opens the door to a deeply personal journey shaped by family, loss, identity, resilience, and healing. Rooted in Choi’s Korean heritage, food becomes more than […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Chital Mehta
Have You Seen Romit? When twenty-five-year-old Romit, Usha’s adopted son, doesn’t respond to her calls, she has a sinking feeling in her stomach. Her husband, Om, who has never accepted their adopted son, tries to convince her to move on. With time, though, it’s clear Usha is right: Romit has gone missing. When the police […]
My Book, My Teenager by Megan Williams
(Some answers to the question of what it is like to have a book out in the world). “It must be incredible to have One Bad Mother published,” people say. “What an accomplishment.” “Mmmm.” I want to tell them that it much like having teenagers. And that I don’t always love it. In many of […]
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