Category: On Writing
A Book Is Born
Shortly after retiring, I decided that my children and grandchildren should know a bit more about my life, just in case they ever wondered how I came to make some of the choices that had affected it. I began by writing the love story I was still living with the man who had become my […]
Defending Chicklit
My name is Maxine Morrey and I write chicklit. There are those that may feel this should be stated whilst sat around in a circle with others who have the same words to utter, and upon each turn a welcome will be issued together with a polite round of applause for having the bravery to […]
Sick From Writing: The Side Effects Of Writing A Book
Author and journalist Carol Lee spent many years helping her god-daughter, Emma, in her battle with anorexia and bulimia. There’s much written about the effect of books on peoples’ lives, often inspirational, but these are the effects on readers. What about the effect on authors? When my god-daughter asked me to write about her struggle […]
Putting Descartes In His Place
I want to tell you about the book that almost wasn’t written. The book I nearly gave up on before a word had been placed on the page. That book, my first book, has since been published in seven territories and was recently shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2017. All of this has […]
Mary Quaile: Why Don’t We Know About Her?
I am from a working class Irish family in Manchester. My parents – like many who came over and settled here – brought with them an oral tradition, and when our extended family gathered together in our small living room, they told stories, sometimes sang and danced, and often argued!. When I started scribbling stories […]
Writing The Happy Kitchen
Ever since my last major depressive episode just over a decade ago, I’ve sought to embrace a holistic attitude to my own mental health. For me it’s been a case of both ‘push’ and ‘pull’. ‘Push’, in the sense that, like many others, I’ve experienced some of the debilitating side-effects of antidepressant medication. These include […]
Changing Publishers
I tend to abide by the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” motto. I’ve held the same job for almost twenty years, been wearing my hair in the same style (give or take the bangs) most of my adult life, and I don’t immediately purchase “the next best thing” if my current devices are […]
The Midwife as Story Teller
Call the Midwife, the British television series is seen world- wide and has become popular in the United States. People who’d barely heard of midwives or thought they were old ladies who came to your log cabin back in the 1700s have become interested, even fascinated by the subject. Most people don’t know that the […]
Preserving Her Stories
Originally years ago, all I wanted to do was write books. My design changed one day in the mid-1990s when I realized the extent of stereotyping that exists in the West regarding the Middle East in general and the women of that region in particular. I was on transit at Heathrow Airport, on my way […]
Treasuring Memories
However you define the term ‘historical novel’, there can be few things more daunting than being asked to write about events which you yourself don’t remember, but which other people do. This was the position I was put in when I was commissioned to write a series of novels set during the Second World War. […]
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