Category: On Writing
Why I wrote Shifting Shorelines
My upcoming book Shifting Shorelines: Messages from a Wiser Self is dedicated to my sister Nancy, who will never have a chance to read it. Still, I picture her clasping my book to her heart—not solely because I wrote it, but also because she would resonate with my ode to nature, the passage of time, […]
Can Fiction Fight Stigma?
Can Fiction Fight Stigma? My debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was about a woman with a marginalised identity. When I began writing it in 2008, many of those with that identity kept it hidden. We’ve become more familiar with that identity since that novel was published in 2015. Nevertheless, many readers still tell me my […]
Heather Frimmer: Interview
Heather Frimmer is a radiologist specializing in breast and emergency room imaging. Her first novel, Bedside Manners, was published in 2018 and has received several awards including National Indie Excellence, Readers’ Favorite and Independent Press awards. Heather Frimmer’s second novel, Better To Trust, tackles a world of secrets swirling around drug use and sexual identity—that must […]
Humans From Clay, and Other Authorial Pursuits
“Aruru washed her hands, she pinched off some clay, and threw it into the wilderness. In the wilderness she created the valiant Enkidu” — The Epic of Gilgamesh, stela 1 While writing The Original Glitch, I became incredibly preoccupied with the human obsession with creation. That is, the creation of life in the image of […]
Interview with Julie Scolnik
“Not every true story is like a good novel, but this one is. Not every memoir of first love has a satisfying ending, but this one does. The confluence of first love with becoming an artist makes this memoir special.” — John Irving PARIS, 1976: Twenty-year-old American student Julie Scolnik had just arrived in the […]
How My Strategic Communications Background Helped Me Finish my debut, AFTER PERFECT By Maan Gabriel
How My Strategic Communications Background Helped Me Finish my debut, AFTER PERFECT. By Maan Gabriel Story telling is in my blood. My mom swears she successfully taught me to read and tell my fairytales in front of an audience at three years old and that it was my favorite thing in the world. I didn’t […]
A “True” Story: What Inspired My Famous Brain
“Did you really know this person?” I think many fiction writers are asked that question in one form or another when they send a piece out into the world. It’s a great compliment. It means that the reader is so invested in your main character that she wants that character to have had an actual […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Tracy Shawn
Character Interview with Paloma Leary from Novel Floating Underwater by Tracy Shawn About FLOATING UNDERWATER Paloma Leary is devastated when her latest vision predicting a third miscarriage comes true. She falls into a mystifying world of increasingly bizarre phenomena, including an otherworldly connection with her mysterious neighbor, out-of-body experiences, and phantom visits from her dead […]
Why I Don’t Have a Period (and no, this is not About Menopause)
When I tell people I’m a historical novelist, or I write historical fiction, with few exceptions they say, “Oh? What’s your period?” The assumption, I think, is that in order to write with any authority, an author has to specialize in a certain era—or at the very least, a certain place. In fact, some historical […]
Developing a Writing Life By Evelyn Kohl LaTorre
My parents had five children in rapid succession within the space of nine years. Living in a house with so many youngsters meant unending chores and responsibility for all of us, but especially for me, the eldest. My mother expected me to help cook and clean—and adhere to the many rules of the Catholic church […]
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