Category: On Writing
Two Writers. Two Debut Novels. One Game-Changing Partnership
THE NOVEL LADIES At similar stages of editing and submission, clocking approximately 100 agent rejections each, authors Brenda Haas and Susan Poole credit their critique partnership as a major reason they eventually published their award-winning debut novels (2025). The pair first met after a bit of online sleuthing. From Lakeside, Ohio, Brenda registered for the […]
No One is You, and that’s Your Superpower
by Debra Borchert Recently, I attended a Zoom meeting, starring Kara Infante, podcaster-extraordinaire and host of Bookish Flights Podcast, in which she said, “No One is you, and that’s your superpower.” I thought about how most of us have experienced anxiety or nervousness at least once, and how those bouts can affect our self-confidence. As […]
The Process of Writing A Dream Life by Wendy Swift
Over twenty years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who wrote children’s books reviews for Publisher’s Weekly. I told her I would like to write a memoir. She quickly said, no one is interested in reading a memoir unless it is about a celebrity. That may have been true then, or maybe that […]
Habla Español? No, But I Narrated my Audiobook Anyway
Long before I had a finished draft of my debut A Little Piece of Cuba: A Journey to Become Cubana-Americana, I knew I would narrate the audiobook myself. I am not alone in believing strongly that all memoirists should read their own work and narrate their own audiobooks, but I also know that it comes […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Micki Pierce
The Route 66 Detective in Missouri: The Route 66 Mystery Series One man. Two wheels. A thousand miles of trouble. Mac McCarty has spent his life dodging death. First in the dogfights over Europe, then on the lethal wooden planks of the motorcycle racing circuit. Now, he’s a private investigator with a simple beat: the […]
Recommended Reads July
THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, Jennifer Sklias-Gahan In The House in the Middle of the Street, Jennifer Sklias-Gahan conjures a haunting modern fairy tale of inheritance, secrets, and the creatures we invite into our lives. When Rebecca and her husband inherit a stately old home, they imagine it as the perfect place to […]
Writing a Travel Memoir: All You Need is Flights
When I was dumped by my boyfriend of two years on my 35th birthday, on a sponsored cruise where I was working as a content creator and he was my plus one, the same day my Facebook was hacked, I had just one thought: You can’t make this stuff up. I knew, then, that I […]
Safe by Claudia Hinz
I began writing SAFEKEEPING before the pandemic. The first draft of the novel had a different title. There were different characters. A different plot. The novel worked on many levels. It was polished enough to go out on submission to publishers, and the response was largely enthusiastic. But I knew something was missing. Someone was […]
The Story Behind The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom by Talya Jankovits
My first publication was a poem about the post-partum female body, specifically my post-partum body. My second publication was an essay exploring the side effects I faced while undergoing fertility treatments. Writing about motherhood, the female body, and infertility has since become synonymous with much of my work because the hard truth is that for […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: S.E. McPherson
S.E. McPherson Interviews Characters Logan Cardot technically doesn’t exist. According to the Black Lapels—the soldiers who run his country—and their Swordsman church, he should never have been born. In Wanted Boys, the first book in the same-named adult queer dystopian series by S.E. McPherson, Logan is kidnapped by the Black Lapels who imprisoned his parents, […]
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