Category: On Writing
Why I Wrote MIA’S JOURNEY
Why I Wrote MIA’S JOURNEY My latest novel, MIA’S JOURNEY, is about an astronaut who, just before her first space launch, is hit by a car and can’t go to space, ever. She refuses to believe what her boss and her doctors tell her, so she embarks on a mission to find a way to […]
On Writing EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT WIDOWHOOD I LEARNED FROM JESSICA FLETCHER
TYPING THROUGH TEARS By Christina Hamlett “So do you think you’ll keep writing?” There are a lot of mind-numbingly weird things people say when they are discomfited about expressing condolences to a widow. I learned this firsthand when my husband passed away from Stage 4 cancer last year. Along with “How does it feel to […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Van Hoang
About THE MONSTROUS MISSES MAI A determined young woman in 1950s Los Angeles walks a darker city than she ever imagined in a spellbinding novel about the power to make dreams come true―whatever the sacrifice. Los Angeles brims with opportunity in 1959―though not for aspiring fashion designer Cordelia Mai Yin, the first-generation child of Vietnamese […]
Wise Words: Quotes to Help the Writer
Wise Words: Quotes to Help the Writer For me, one of the hardest parts of the writing life is the fact that one does it on one’s own. I can discuss plot with friends or family: I can meet fellow writers and share thoughts on characters or dialogue or structure. But neither lessens the fact […]
EXCERPT from Farm Family: A Solo Mom’s Memoir of Finding Home, Happiness and Alpacas
Farm Family: A Solo Mom’s Memoir of Finding Home, Happiness, and Alpacas The story of a single mom’s pursuit of a dream to start an alpaca farm in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. At thirty-seven, Jane Lee Rankin receives news that upends her life: she’s pregnant. Lee is a cancer survivor eighteen months in […]
Natural Healing
Natural Healing November 1974. Formal instruction in Transcendental Meditation. I breathed deeply and absorbed the pungent incense and the dusky wood smoke from a recent fire. Quiet breaths and the vibration of my mantra. Thoughts came and went. My newborn son swaddled in white cotton. . .The endless stream of tears. . .Swirling the pastel […]
On Writing Elizabeth’s Mountain
Emotion-heavy women’s fiction is the genre that captures me the most. It is the one that stays with me long after I have finished a book, which is why I write in the genre I most like to read. Living all those experiences of longing, pain, or misfortune, the characters who overcome difficulties and hardships […]
The Lost Words of Helen Lowe-Porter, Thomas Mann’s Translator
The Lost Words of Helen Lowe-Porter, Thomas Mann’s Translator By Jo Salas, author Mrs. Lowe-Porter, available now In 1942 the German novelist Thomas Mann wrote to his long-time translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter: “Your story which I return to you with sincere thanks is a very lovable, heartwarming piece of work of a delicate cello sound […]
Authors Interviewing characters: JN Welsh
Authors Interviewing characters: JN Welsh About IN TUNE A tour manager determined to revitalize her career. The client she can’t stop thinking about. Workplace romance hits the road in this enemies-to-lovers romance from JN Welsh. Luke Anderson needs a manager—fast. His last one quit, leaving his tour and his future in jeopardy. Now instead of […]
JUST WRITE by Deborah Driggs
JUST WRITE Writing has changed my life. It is not an easy task: it requires me to be vulnerable, open, and honest and to share my journey in the hopes it might provide help for someone out there going through a similar challenge. Sometimes I write just to have a good laugh about something I […]
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