Category: On Writing
Blending History Into Fiction
Research can make your story accurate, but you have to dig deeper to give it life. The last major revision of my new novel THE TASTE OF AIR (Red Adept Publishing, Sept. 2016) changed the points of view to focus on the three women at the center of this story. Sisters Nell and Bridget were […]
Viewpoint: Gender Bias In The Literary World
In a recent interview with the critically acclaimed Irish author John Banville, he was quoted in The Irish Times as saying “I have not been a good father. No writer is.” Granted, it may be a bit unfair to quote people out of context, but the twitter-storm blew a fury nonetheless. I was heartened to […]
Who’s Your “Writing Bestie?”
Writing every day can be treacherous and tiring, harrowing and heartbreaking or, on those fabulous days, like one big party. Creativity guru, Julia Cameron, says the role of an artist is to show up and let the work move through them. But what about those days when you show up and nothing moves? No sentences […]
A Woman Fakes Her Death on 9/11: The Story Behind the Story
They say you need to be able to summarize your novel with one, solid sentence. I’ve always had a hard time with that. I feel the need to go into paragraphs of description, with lots of “First this happens and then this happens…” Then, in 2009, I stumbled upon the kind of idea that has an […]
Why The Publishing World Is Not Closed To You
Several months ago, I had the opportunity to hear a famous author speak at a live event near my hometown. I had just finished reading her most recent best-selling novel, and I was awestruck. To me, she was a Writer with a capital “W.” Her writing was beautiful, thought-provoking, luminous. I arrived ready to absorb […]
Writing About Secrets
Several years ago, thinking up the plot of a novel, I wrote a paragraph about a man walking through a gate into a convent garden. His name was Liam, it was 1963. I knew the mood of that scene, he was grief-stricken, in mourning and couldn’t express it. I wanted to know why, and wanted […]
Music And Manuscripts: Why I Couldn’t Have Written My Bestseller Without A Soundtrack
“Music thudded through Amy’s body and seized her heart,” My debut novel Try Not to Breathe begins. “Music so loud that her eardrums pounded in frenzy and her baby bird ribs rattled. Music was everything. Well, almost everything.” The word music appears three times in the first 30 words, and with good reason. It’s at […]
Writing An Unsympathetic Heroine
Like Jane Austen with Emma, I set out for one of my heroines of The White Camellia to be decidedly unsympathetic. She had to be. You see, because while the younger heroine, Bea, has obstacles to overcome, when her family is ruined, and their beautiful Cornish home of Tressillion House lost, the older heroine, Sybil, […]
Controlling The Crazies
The daunting, never-ending path to publication can push writers to eat a pan of brownies in one sitting. Or buy three purses in a day. Because any writer trudging through the trenches on their way to publishing will attest that the journey can make you question your sanity. Every time we think we’ve lined up […]
How I Fell Into Writing
People often ask me ‘when did you know you wanted to be a writer?’ And to be honest, I didn’t. Writing novels seemed like a job for people who lived “Overseas”, not for people who lived in Zimbabwe. I was, however, a great reader. I often got told off for reading when I was supposed […]
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