Category: On Writing
Live Intentionally to Write Purposefully
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “What is your writing process?” closely followed by, “How do you make time for your writing?” Although I’m prepared for these questions, I dread them. Not because they’re bad questions; rather, it’s because my response is often a long-winded diatribe to cover up the real […]
My Birth Father’s Double Life
Growing up adopted, I often fantasised about my back story. The scant information the social worker gave my parents, shortly before they took six-week old me home, provided only the barest of bones: My birth mother was ‘creative’; her mother, my biological grandmother, was uncommonly supportive. My birth parents wanted to marry and keep me […]
Oh, You Write Fiction? What Kind?
Someone asked me the question again last night. “Oh, you write fiction? What kind?” I sighed. I’ve had six novels published, but I still don’t know how to answer this question. I usually start out by saying what the publisher calls my books on the contracts. “I write women’s fiction,” I say. The trouble is […]
Putting My Hobby Onto The Page
They say (whoever, “they” is, with their infinite wisdom) to write what you know. Well, I’m a bit of a dork. What I know is math and reading. I know Star Wars and Star Trek (both old and new), I know Joss Whedon’s entire oeuvre. You know what doesn’t make a great book? A […]
From Publisher To Writer
It was a long held dream of mine to write a novel. In fact I attempted it several times before finally realising my dream. The problem was I never truly believed my writing was of any merit thus resulting in many unfinished manuscripts, which were unceremoniously consigned to a drawer that was rarely opened. […]
Finding Inspiration: Why I Write In The Kitchen
A room of one’s own? It’s the dream of every writer. I have such a place. I spent years designing it, and it is perfect. Let me show you around. It’s up a flight of stairs. Mind the pile of books on the landing. They’re waiting for me to put them in neat rows on […]
Kindness of Strangers
I love the kindness of strangers. I don’t mean the grand gestures we read about on popular social media sites, I mean sure – we’d all love to pay for a family’s meal out of the goodness of our bank balance, or donate a large sum of money to a struggling person for something […]
The Inspiration Behind Sweet Lake
The inspiration behind a book—the impishly persistent idea that darts through my head demanding center stage—never arrives in quite the same way. For Sweet Lake, the frothy potion of the perfect “What if?” mixed with irresistible characters I couldn’t wait to bring to life came about quite by accident. During a busy November, I received a surprising […]
Scientist Turned Women’s Fiction Writer: How My Environmental Science Background Helped Me Find My Writing Voice
I’ve worked most of my twenty-five career, not as a writer, but as an environmental scientist. One of my first memories at age four is of the magnolia tree outside the shabby apartment complex on the outskirts of New Orleans where my family lived at the time. I can still feel the rough bark against […]
The City and the Island
Like most book ideas, Mussolini’s Island came to me by chance. I read an article on the BBC website which recounted a visit, in June 2013, of a group of LGBT activists to the tiny island of San Domino in the Adriatic Sea. They were there to commemorate and raise awareness of a moment in […]
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