Category: On Writing
An Open Letter to Writers at Every Stage of Publishing
Dear Writer, Isn’t it amazing how we wake in the pre-dawn hours, or stay up well past midnight to write? We sit alone at our desks with our words, letting them flow as a plot unfolds. In time, a story transpires, a manuscript is finished, and a book published. Writing is a lonely, isolated road […]
Creating A Family Through Fiction
I read recently about a woman who had no family photographs of her early life so collected pictures of people she didn’t know. For years, she trawled junk shops for old family portraits and strangers’ photo albums to invent a family history. Only as a new mum did she stop buying other people’s pasts and […]
The Good Wife Guide
Asparagus has its own breaking point, a place at which it will naturally snap when bent in half. Once this green spear breaks and rids itself of its unsavory bottom wonderful things are possible, roasted asparagus, grilled asparagus salad, asparagus frittatas . . .you get the idea. When one hits her own personal “bottom” they […]
Shelley Day: Why I write
Oh, the irony, the irony, of being asked to write a piece on Why I Write, when I’m not actually writing at all, and haven’t done for months. I say ‘not writing,’ but I don’t actually mean Not Writing. Because I have been writing. I couldn’t not be writing. Only what I’ve been writing is […]
Why Fiction Matters
Imagine a world without stories. What a terrible place that would be! Stories hold up a mirror to the world; at its best, fiction has the power to be the “hammer with which to shape the universe.” If all the world is a stage, then fiction writers have many parts to play on it. They […]
Women: Missing Voices In Science Fiction
My name is Jo Zebedee and I write science fiction. That’s Jo, not Joe. And, yes, I get the odd comment about why I’d want to write something like that, and how on Earth I got into such a genre (thankfully, less as time goes on.) To answer. I got into this crazy genre without […]
A Story is a Gift
Writing fiction is an emotional investment and a labor of love. The process of storytelling forges bonds between readers and writers across borders and across time. Storytelling is a process, a relationship, and a journey. The book as product, though a recent phenomenon, is now widely accepted because authors write to sell books and publishers […]
Stepmother: Reflections on Writing a Memoir
It happened one night. Totally unplanned. We were standing in the comfortably furnished living room, nuts on the table and chips next to the dip. The four couples stood casually, holding our drinks and chatting politely as you do when you meet people for the first time. The conversation was predictable. “Wasn’t it a beautiful […]
Representing Refugees
One of the things I’ve noticed on returning from any big trip is that most people aren’t that interested in hearing about what’s happened. They don’t want a half-hour diatribe on all the stuff I’ve done and seen nor even hear stories that moved me. There’s no time for all that. When I said I […]
Stargazing Into Your Mind
An appreciation of stars shining across the cosmos is not just for astronomy or science fiction fans, sometimes a centerfold across Cosmopolitan magazine will do. On a dreary, disappointing day, many of us are tempted to wonder what it would be like to live the life of someone else, especially someone rich, powerful, physically fit, […]
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