Category: On Writing
Lies, Shame And Social Media: The Inspiration For Shame On You
In my novel, Shame on You, a much-adored Instagram celebrity, Holly, is the victim of a sudden, violent and unprovoked attack. Her legion of followers are shocked. Holly is the dream they all aspire to: healthy, fit, and beautiful. Every post of a yoga pose or smoothie bowl inspires envy. But as the world delves […]
Persona: When the Voice Is Not Your Own
This whole process began with hearing voices. I was working in my journal one night when this voice began, with no prodding, no expectation. It was strong and sure, a woman’s voice, dictating lines, whole poems. The first scribbled line was, Well I guess this is the freak show. I was shaken, to tell the […]
How Do You Get From 0 to 1? From Dreaming to Writing, Writers Tell Their Stories
After I graduated from college, I wanted to write a novel. I’d had this dream ever since I could remember. But first there was the small matter of supporting myself. I didn’t look for a full-time job; I wanted a job that would earn me enough money to pay for rent and food while still […]
In Conversation With Ellen Langer, Mother Of Mindfulness
I came across Ellen Langer’s research online, in a NY Times article What if Age Was Nothing But A Mind Set? My first reaction to the headline was skeptisicm. But, as I often do when something makes me feel uncomfortable, I decided to read. The article described her landmark 1979 “counterclockwise” study in which elderly men lived for a […]
Why I Write: Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli
The earliest I can remember wanting to write was when I was around twelve. I had thoroughly enjoyed many of the books in Enid Blyton’s “Adventure” series featuring two sets of siblings: Phillip and Dinah, and Jack and Lucy-Ann, and Jack’s parrot Kiki. I had lived vicariously through them by reading The Island of Adventure, […]
What A Hazard A Letter Is: The Strange Destiny Of The Unsent Letter
I’ve always been fascinated by letters. Listening to Sylvia Plath’s being read on Radio 4 reminds me just how powerful they are, how swiftly they take us back into former lives – our own and other people’s. And for biographers, letters are like buried treasure. The American author and journalist Janet Malcolm describes them as […]
Class And Writing
Street Cat Blues is my debut novel and it was a long time coming. I guess it could be categorised as cosy crime but with a definite noir bite. I am the child of what I sometimes think of as a mixed marriage. By this I don’t mean mixed in terms of ethnic or religious […]
Her Mother’s Daughter: Writing and Inspiration
My book is not an easy read. I know that, because it was not an easy write. It is not a true story, but there are elements that were inspired by my childhood, and many of them I wasn’t even aware of at the time I was writing. Rather than having inspiration for this novel, […]
Looking from The Ground Up
Susan Cheever, daughter of the famous author, John Cheever, once said that fiction is not a competitive sport. Also a writer, living in the shadow of her father’s reputation and achievements can’t have been easy. I believe she made the remark to someone asking what she had published and where, and then saw him compare […]
The Power Of Never Giving Up
Time flies. We all know it. Whether you’re having fun or not. Whether the years are filled with sublime happiness or utter sadness, or, like most of us, with a combination of both. It simply goes, and sometimes, our dreams go with it. We turn around and ten or twenty years have whipped by and […]
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