Category: On Writing
Authors Interviewing Characters: Elizabeth Harlan
Becoming Carly Klein What if 15 year old Carly Klein could become a different person? What if instead of being a rebellious and unhappy student failing out of her uptight, private girls’ school in Manhattan, she could pose as a Barnard College sophomore and become the girlfriend of her psychiatrist mother’s blind patient, Daniel, a […]
How a Box Became a Novel
By Melora Fern I didn’t plan to write a novel. My immediate goal was to help my dad get the collections of stuff my mom had hauled from Hawaii cleaned out from under their bed. We had just moved her to assisted living now that her Alzheimer’s had advanced. In the six years since they […]
Amal Hdhili Interviews The Red Heels
Amal Hdhili interviews The Red Heels from the short story “Heaven and Heel” in *Whispers from the Wardrobe* *Whispers from the Wardrobe* is a collection of fictional stories whispered through fabric, where each garment or accessory carries the echoes of the woman who wore it. The wardrobe becomes a narrator—silent, patient, and always watching—observing the […]
The Inspiration for My Debut Novel and Its Connection to My Life Perspective
The Inspiration for My Debut Novel and Its Connection to My Life Perspective The inspiration for my debut novel, Out of the Crash, emerged from my sideline view of what happened in my hometown after a pair of tragic bicycle accidents. The facts surrounding each incident shared some similarities but essentially differed. The nuts and […]
The Factory of Maladies: Seven Days on a San Francisco Psych Ward
In my recently published memoir, The Factory of Maladies: Seven Days on a San Francisco Psych Ward, I explore the stigma around mental illness, complicated family dynamics, and the danger of cults. The memoir is an intense and visceral journey of my week-long institutionalization; it illustrates my confusion and disorientation when I first awake, the […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Marina Cramer
By Marina Cramer WINNERS AND LOSERS Lily knows what she wants. She wants to know the meaning of the postcards her absent father sends her – cryptic words and images that reveal nothing of his life or feelings. Once she makes up her fourteen-year-old mind, she doesn’t hesitate to leave her grandmother and travel cross-country […]
DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice: Excerpt
Adapted from DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice by Judy Karofsky On my mother’s first evening in her third assisted living facility, the main dining room was filled with music, visitors, and a western-themed buffet celebrating the facility’s third anniversary. I was certain we’d hit the motherload of abundant care. Besides […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Lisa F. Rosenberg
Fine, I’m a Terrible Person Fine, I’m a Terrible Person is a funny, heart wrenching adult mother daughter story. It begins when 73-year-old, worn out, former beauty, Aurora Hmans Feldenburg, a hapless, perpetually broke, eccentric, divorcee living in the wealthy enclave of Marin County in Northern California, is wakened by a phone call informing her […]
I Won’t Tell, Promise
A Magician’s Daughter Exposes her Father’s Stage Secrets. And Why not? By Katy Grabel In fourth grade, I asked my father to teach me his best card trick for Show and Tell. When the day came, I performed it for my class. That night when my father asked how it went, I told him the […]
From Darkness to Light: The Story Behind Confused Girl: Find Your Peace in the Chaos
By Giovanna Silvestre My journey of writing Confused Girl, Find Your Peace in the Chaos started a decade ago when I found myself in a deep, dark pit of despair. This wasn’t just a phase; it was a heavy depression that felt like a shadow I couldn’t shake off. As I navigated through this time, […]
Recent Comments