Category: On Writing
Hands-On Research: How a Story of Hidden Loss Became The Trumpet Lesson
It started with Pamela Fischer, a candid and confident young black woman who came to me one morning during a free write. From the moment Pamela appeared, I knew she would be the perfect foil to my protagonist, shy and quiet Callie Quinn, who hides the loss of the bi-racial baby she gave up for […]
Channelling Marilynne: Translation as Possession, Envy and Belonging
By Gwen Davies, translator of The Jeweller by Caryl Lewis ‘I get it!’ my author announced. ‘You may not be on my side but you definitely want the best for my work.’ She’d just been at the brutal end of my red pen as we came towards the end of several proofs with me as […]
From Ex-Satanist to Daydreams: My Writing Journey
The inspiration for PIVOT came from multiple areas of my life, the most prominent being that a friend of mine in high school who was – at least at that time – a Lutheran, invited me to come to a special event her church was having, where an “ex-Satanist” came and spoke about her experiences […]
The Process—Wind Beneath My Wings
I have been like a bird gathering twigs and oddities for her nest since I was eleven years old. Nothing told me that I was beginning the process of writing a book. Nothing told me to do it, and nothing tipped me off that one day I would be an author, but as I stood […]
Online Writing Classes: She Writes University
WHAT IS SHE WRITES UNIVERSITY? She Writes University is the only online, live webinar-based writing program featuring online educational webinars by bestselling and award-winning authors, backed by a community of nearly 33,000 female writers. Attend these classes live online, or view the recordings whenever you can. The Fall 2019 semester features an exciting lineup of female […]
For Women Only?
I recently served on a panel to discuss the topic, “For Women Only,” at the Killer Nashville writers’ conference. It gave me a chance to think about how things have and haven’t changed for women writers in general, and women mystery writers, specifically. We’ve come a long way from the day when Mary Ann Evans […]
About Spinoffs—or Just Call Me Shirley by Liz Flaherty
About Spinoffs—or Just Call Me Shirley by Liz Flaherty I’m deep into promotion for The Healing Summer, my…I don’t know…severaleth book, and a question I’m asked on every review site and in every interview is Is this book part of a series? I’m embarrassed to admit I’m not sure I’ve mastered its answer. So I […]
Nevertheless, She Persisted
A gluttonous reader since childhood, I have always wanted to write. The first time I dropped out of school I took a typewriter to a Caribbean island to write the great American novel. I didn’t do it, but I read Middlemarch, Tristram Shandy, and Moby Dick. I wrote a few short stories as my son […]
I am a Writer When I am Writing
“Accept being unimportant.” Lao Tsu, Tao te Ching As a musician, writer, wife and mother, it matters to me that these labels are just that—merely labels. Descriptors or definers but never confiners. If I am slapping bumper stickers on my car such as “I’d Rather Be Writing” or “Without Music Life Would Bb” I’m telling you […]
Writing With Illness
My life took two distinct turns in 1998—make that three. It was the year I had to take over the management of my husband’s mortgage company, which coincided with a frenzied refinance boom. I had been plucked away from making mosaic furniture, cutting marble, granite and Murano glass on my tile saw. Tactile, creative work, […]
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