Category: On Writing
AUTHORS INTERVIEWING CHARACTERS: Denny S. Bryce Interviews Lil Hardin Armstrong
Jazz-age Chicago comes to vibrant life in Denny S. Bryce’s evocative novel that links the stories of an ambitious chorus girl and a modern-day film student, both coming to grips with loss, forgiveness, and the limitations—and surprises—of love. 1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world, and the Dreamland Café is the ritziest black-and-tan club […]
Writing Fragile Monsters
In one sense, Fragile Monsters took two years to write. In another, it took three generations. Fragile Monsters is the story of an Indian-Malaysian family living through the Japanese invasion of Malaya in WW2 and the subsequent Malayan Emergency. It explores this traumatic and politically turbulent time through the fractured relationship between a granddaughter and […]
Valentine by George Sand: A Review
It was not until the fall of 2015 when I had my first encounter with the great figure of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, better known as George Sand, only thanks to my obsession with Chopin and with classical music. The curse of entrapment in a man’s name seemed to have found new ways to haunt […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Constance Sayers
Authors Interviewing Characters: Constance Sayers The Ladies of the Secret Circus is a magical story spanning from Jazz Age Paris to modern-day America full of family secrets, sacrifice, and lost love set against the backdrop of a mysterious circus. Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder—a world where women […]
Character Interview: The Vines by Shelley Nolden
About THE VINES In the shadows of New York City lies the abandoned, forbidden North Brother Island, where the remains of a shuttered hospital hide the haunting memories of quarantines and human experiments. The ruins conceal the scarred and beautiful Cora, imprisoned there by contagions and the doctors who torment her. When Finn, a young […]
WRITING LEMONS IN THE GARDEN: NOT FAMOUS ENOUGH
Forty years ago, I had a dream in which Blanche Ames told me to write her autobiography. I’d read about Blanche while I was working on a team to write a massive women’s history reference book, and of course her name caught my attention. Then I learned that Blanche was my grandmother’s aunt. How was […]
Writing Sin Child
I spent my childhood and much of my adult life hiding behind a dark curtain of fear. Fear of what would happen on a daily basis. Fear of all those who judged me and sought revenge based on the doings of my family. Fear of falling asleep at night, not knowing who would be coming […]
The Shelf in the Corner
By Teresa J. Rhyne I write about dogs. There. I said it. Did you scoff? Did you think “she is not a serious writer”? Did the word “cute” pop into your head? No? So, it’s just me. I didn’t plan on writing dog books, or dog-oirs as I call them (memoir meets dog book). I […]
NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE: AMY SOLOMON INTERVIEW
Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women was a groundbreaking collection of essays, comics, and ephemera by the leading female comedians of the 1970s that included the likes of Gilda Radner, Candice Bergen, and Phyllis Diller. It pains us to report that there hasn’t been a similar collection of contemporary funny women published since […]
MY TWICE-TOLD TALE: WHY I WROTE GOOD NEIGHBORS, BAD TIMES REVISITED
By Mimi Schwartz When I was growing up Jewish in Queens, New York after World War II, I was taught that America was a Melting Pot. And if I jumped right in, I could be like everyone else—even if my parents, who were refugees from Hitler’s Germany, said ‘moder’ and ‘fader’ instead of ‘mother’ and […]
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