Category: On Writing
Judge a Book By Its Cover
Never judge a book by a cover. It’s great advice – except when it’s applied to a book. We all judge books by their covers, and people who write, design and market books know this. We make decisions in an instant based on the look of a book; whether or not we’ll even pick the […]
Blindness, Art Theft And Creation Of A Story
A few months ago, I received a letter from an old acquaintance. While reading about the masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum, she recalled another art theft near Boston, in the 1970s and googled my ex husband. Finding nothing, she googled me and discovered the novel I’d written about our relationship. I called him Angus, […]
When Historical Fiction Meets Political Turmoil… A Ladies’ Tearoom And The Road To Downing Street.
It has been a very strange experience these last few weeks, putting the final touches to a novel about women’s long, hard struggle to achieve the vote, while watching the political rollercoaster here in the UK – one that has led to a female Prime Minister, and Home Secretary, something almost unthinkable not so long […]
Speaking Up for Those Who Can’t Answer Back
Some of my most prominent memories of grammar school days relate to my sister, Lou, even though she attended the special school across the other side of town. After a swimming lesson in the early nineties, for example, an older boy referred to Lou as a ‘spaz’. I still remember the sudden strength I acquired when […]
Women In Crime Fiction
Women in early crime fiction are often placed in the role of helpless ‘damsel in distress’. This is not inevitably the case. Apart from his nemesis Moriarty, the one person who succeeds in outwitting Sherlock Holmes through sheer strength of character and intelligence is a woman, Irene Adler. But she is perceived as outside the […]
The New Thirst For Words
The rise of ‘text speak’ and ‘twitter talk’ appears to have triggered a desire for more challenging and imaginative vocabularies – something writers should welcome and embrace. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a depleted language (Newspeak) is used by a totalitarian government as the ultimate means of control and repression. Each year the government reduces the […]
Why We Write About Paris
What is it about Paris that makes it such a glorious setting for a book? From novels to memoir to cookbooks, Paris has been the setting for countless literary creations over the years. In every genre and style, the City of Light has made an appearance. I’ve contributed to that, writing novel Paris, Rue des […]
Writing My Way to Self-Care
“This book grew out of a desperate plea to myself to figure out a way to take care of me, as I felt I was literally gasping for breath while being swallowed up in the sea of motherhood.” –The Self-Care Solution Most authors embark on their writing journey with a similar mission—to create something that […]
Q&A with Karma Brown
As if being a National Magazine Award winning freelance journalist, foodie columnist (check out these recipes. Yum! Blueberry clafoutis anyone? Sesame-ginger noodle salad?), all-around cool runner/sister/wife/mother, and cancer survivor weren’t enough, Karma Brown became an international bestselling author with her debut novel. COME AWAY WITH ME is a heartbreaking and emotional story of one woman’s […]
Paintings in Novels
Everyone knows the image of The Girl with a Pearl Earring. The woman’s face turned half towards the viewer, the blue and yellow turban over her hair, the golden robe, and, at the centre of the image, the outsized earring itself. The original hangs in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. But that original is […]
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