Category: On Writing
Appalachia: Blessed and Cursed by Khristeena Lute
What makes a culture something to be proud of versus something to overcome? I grew up in southeastern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky—the foothills of Appalachia. As I progressed through high school and college as a first-generation college student, I heard the usual advice oft-given to young Appalachians: get rid of the accent. Clip it. Hit […]
10 Facts About Aloha Wanderwell by Laurel Corona
I first stumbled across Aloha Wanderwell in a thin book about interesting women in Vancouver Island history. Leafing through, I stopped on the name “Aloha Wanderwell,” because with a singular name like that, who wouldn’t? I was intrigued by the story of a fearless teenager who set out to conquer the world by car long […]
On Writing Once We Forget by Elise Geither
The day it really hit me was a sunny spring day. My parents had just called me to say “Happy Birthday” and sing to me. As they laughed and Mom sang, she got to the part of the song that goes: Happy Birthday dear (name). And…silence. My mother had forgotten my name. My name is […]
4 Janes: A Novel by Marian Yee: Excerpt
4 Janes Through time, space, and the transcendence of maternal love, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is reimagined in the parallel lives of one soul searching for meaning, connection, and a place to belong. Jane Eyre is a missionary’s wife. A bookseller in Vietnam. A time traveler. A hero in a modern gothic tale. What if Jane’s story […]
Two Writers. Two Debut Novels. One Game-Changing Partnership
THE NOVEL LADIES At similar stages of editing and submission, clocking approximately 100 agent rejections each, authors Brenda Haas and Susan Poole credit their critique partnership as a major reason they eventually published their award-winning debut novels (2025). The pair first met after a bit of online sleuthing. From Lakeside, Ohio, Brenda registered for the […]
No One is You, and that’s Your Superpower
by Debra Borchert Recently, I attended a Zoom meeting, starring Kara Infante, podcaster-extraordinaire and host of Bookish Flights Podcast, in which she said, “No One is you, and that’s your superpower.” I thought about how most of us have experienced anxiety or nervousness at least once, and how those bouts can affect our self-confidence. As […]
Habla Español? No, But I Narrated my Audiobook Anyway
Long before I had a finished draft of my debut A Little Piece of Cuba: A Journey to Become Cubana-Americana, I knew I would narrate the audiobook myself. I am not alone in believing strongly that all memoirists should read their own work and narrate their own audiobooks, but I also know that it comes […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Micki Pierce
The Route 66 Detective in Missouri: The Route 66 Mystery Series One man. Two wheels. A thousand miles of trouble. Mac McCarty has spent his life dodging death. First in the dogfights over Europe, then on the lethal wooden planks of the motorcycle racing circuit. Now, he’s a private investigator with a simple beat: the […]
Recommended Reads July
THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, Jennifer Sklias-Gahan In The House in the Middle of the Street, Jennifer Sklias-Gahan conjures a haunting modern fairy tale of inheritance, secrets, and the creatures we invite into our lives. When Rebecca and her husband inherit a stately old home, they imagine it as the perfect place to […]
Writing a Travel Memoir: All You Need is Flights
When I was dumped by my boyfriend of two years on my 35th birthday, on a sponsored cruise where I was working as a content creator and he was my plus one, the same day my Facebook was hacked, I had just one thought: You can’t make this stuff up. I knew, then, that I […]
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