Category: On Writing
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 […]
Sex, Lies & Scotch Tape: Exposing Secrets & Healing Wounds WITH Your Characters’ Help
Successful albeit intensely secretive husband wires all of your money out of the country, forges your name, abandons you and your two young children, leaving you with less than $1 in your bank account, and then he vanishes—never to be seen nor heard from again. It’s as though he never existed … A page-turner, right? […]
Symmetry and Picasso: What I’ve Learned From My Third Grade Art Students About Writing
Every year I present a week-long program at my kids’ elementary school called “Art Goes to School.” It’s a wonderful idea sponsored by the local art institute. I meet with volunteers weekly throughout the fall to study a portfolio (which changes annually) of about 20 reproductions of pieces located in art museums throughout the world. […]
Pieces Of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters
“You should be glad you didn’t get your girls back yet,” a friend told me while we were in line at a coffee shop. “Your book will be that much better.” It was 1995, and I had just returned to Alaska from Greece after my first failed attempt to rescue my kidnapped daughters, taken by […]
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