Category: On Writing
Getting Creative With the Truth: Writing Blue Life By Mundy McLaughlin
“He is creative with the truth” was a phrase my father used to describe a nephew who, from the age of five, told incredible fictions about his adventures. One involved going deep down into the sea in a submersible when he had really been on a conventional beach vacation with his family. Blue Life, while […]
Declining a Generational Inheritance: The Quiet Identity Work Behind Liberation from the Diet Prison By Regina Oswald
The Weight Was Never My Body The stone fit perfectly in my palm — smooth, cool, heavier than it looked. I was walking through a labyrinth in Vista, California, August 2021, speaking into that stone as the circles grew tighter and the center drew closer. Naming everything I wanted to release. Everything that had become […]
Election Antics & Historical Fiction by Maureen Brady
When researching my historical novel, Tessa’s Landing, I came across a piece about a New York City election that happened when my protagonist, sixteen-year-old Tessa, was still a greenhorn. She arrived in America toward the end of 1846, at the height of the potato famine. I was surprised to learn that election day then was […]
10 Things We Know About Enheduanna, the World’s First Named Author
Moments after stumbling across her name, I wanted to write about Enheduanna. I first encountered her while reading an article on Sargon the Great, her father and the world’s first emperor. Then, among Sargon’s five children, I saw her name: his daughter, Enheduanna, born a princess who became a high priestess and the world’s first […]
How an Anthology of Angry Witches Came to Be by Jamie Ryu and M.B. Thurman
When we first conceptualized our vision for Curses, Charms & Other Enchantments: Bewitching Stories of “Hysterical” Women, there was one thing we agreed on immediately: this would not be a light-hearted witchy romp. Of course, there is a place for those kinds of stories, and we love to escape into new realities, but this isn’t […]
The Process of Writing I Am Rare
I Am Rare began with my intent. From there, the story unfolded. After my son was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition, I knew there would come a time when he would ask why he was different. I knew I needed the words to help him understand himself through a positive lens. I also knew […]
Carrying the Stories Home: Becoming a First-Time Author By Sierra Biidaaban Nadeau, Anishinaabe storyteller
There is a strange loneliness that comes with writing a first book. Before there are readers, before there are reviews, before anyone knows the story exists, it belongs only to the writer. It lives in the quiet hours before sunrise, in the glow of a computer screen long after midnight, and in the constant tug-of-war […]
The Legacy, with Medusa by Sharon Linnéa
If only Bob was here. I looked at the brown box sitting on the kitchen table, on a yellow and blue tablecloth decked with sunflowers. If only he could see this. I used a steak knife to slice the packing tape. Inside sat a stack of beautiful books, topped by a medallion of a Medusa […]
My Road Curved at Age 71 by Marianne Lonsdale
My debut novel, When The Road Curves, was published in June 2026, the same month as my 71st birthday. I’d somewhat given up on having a book published, so having a launch party felt dreamy and on track with being as big a day for me as my wedding. When The Road Curves follows thirty-six-year-old […]
The Mystery Writer Who Can’t Murder by Claudia Hagadus Long
As many of my long-term readers know, I can write a sex scene with wild abandon. I can craft a fight scene with brio. I can plot with the intricacy of an aerospace engineer, and explore family dynamics like a psychologist on crack. But I have a really hard time killing anyone. For a normal […]
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