Category: On Writing
How Bruce Springsteen, Adele and Magic Help Me To Write…
Every time I sit down to write I am mystified as to where ideas come from. In 2016 I was lucky enough to get an agent and a two-book deal with Corvus Atlantic Books and around that time I started to think about what that ‘magic ingredient’ is in a novel that makes it hang […]
Me and My Agent: Christina McDonald and Carly Watters
A few days ago I did an interview and one of the questions was did I think having an agent was crucial in this business. The answer for me was a huge, resounding yes. My agent is Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agency, and I literally wouldn’t be where I am now without her patient […]
Braver Than the Average “Girl”
Decades before there was a month dedicated to women’s history and long before the words “Nevertheless, she persisted” become a cultural touchpoint and rallying cry, there were groups of American women that that were daring to make history in extraordinary ways. Some of these women still have yet to receive recognition they deserve. One such […]
Rice-A-Roni and French Fries: Fear and the Juxtaposition of Art and Life
‘Life imitates art,’ or so the old cliché goes. I wonder, though, if it isn’t the other way around. After all, another cliché tells us to ‘write what you know.’ So, does art imitate life? This question ran in a continuous loop in my mind as I wrote Flygirl, the story about Tris Miles, a […]
Musicals And Writing
When I agreed to write a piece for this fabulous website about how musical theater influences my writing, my first thought was: “How long am I allowed to ramble?” My second was: “How do musicals NOT influence my writing?” Full disclosure, though you can probably tell from the [Title of Show] reference in the title, […]
Writing And Belonging, Daisy McNally
I came to live in a city five years ago and felt foreign and uneasy for the first twelve months and the best part of the next. Of course, cities are busy places and that was not unexpected. It just seemed that all the all the busy-ness was connected; whether those I came across were […]
How Fire Led To Writing
In March 2017, a fire ripped through my home, burning off the roof and destroying most of the interior. Thankfully nobody was injured but I was in the house alone when the fire took hold. The feeling of helplessness, as I stood outside and watched the flames and smoke billow from my house, is something […]
The Inspiration Behind Blood For Blood
‘Where do you get the ideas for your books?’ is one of the questions many writers I know dread. Afterall, how do you explain the apparently illogical flashes of inspiration that seem to come out of nowhere? The follow-up to BLOOD FOR BLOOD (NOTHING TO LOSE, coming out at the end of March) popped into […]
Love_Is_Love: Anthology For LGBTQIA+ teens
Love_Is_Love is a collection of poems, short stories, and visual art for LGBTQIA+ teens, edited by Emma Eden Ramos. We are delighted to share one of the collection’s poems and two of the artworks. Shapeshifter By Robin Anna Smith I exist somewhere between ` a match and a flame, a tear and the sea, a […]
Writing a Novel on Ballet in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
Historical fiction allows us to time travel; we step into the past with a sense of wonder and awe, and the famous names become more than a list of people we learned about in textbooks and school history classes. They become people. The idea for my historical fiction novel was sparked by a single sentence. […]
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