Tag: featured
Strong Female Authors and Characters: They Can’t Ban Us All!
By Martha Engber If you follow my blog (MarthaEngber.com), you’ll know that when the Utah State Board of Education in the United States banned 13 books from all public schools (New York Times, Aug 6, 2024), I checked the list of books. All but one were written by strong female authors, and all involve strong […]
Turning Trauma into Fiction for Young Adults
In 2017, I published my young adult urban fantasy novel *The Great and the Small*, a story delving into themes of good and evil that had intrigued me since childhood. The first edition primarily followed Ananda, a troubled teenage girl, and Fin, a young tunnel rat who, as a loyal follower of his uncle, the […]
Overcoming Writer’s Block: Anne Abel
As part of a midlife career shift, I got an MFA in creative nonfiction and began working as a freelance writer. No matter what assignment an editor gave me, I could do it. Whether it required copious research or endless interviews, I did what was needed to send it in, meeting the word count and […]
Mixing Ideas and Ingredients: How Book Writing Is Like Baking a Cake
Just as a baker relies on a recipe, writers need an outline to guide their narrative. Both endeavors require a solid foundation, a perfect blend of elements, patience during the process, and the courage to present the final product to the world. When adding forty eggs to a cheesecake batter, one at a time, while […]
On Writing Oceansong by C.W. Rose
When I think about what inspired me to write Oceansong, the first thing that comes to mind is my love for the sea and all of her mysteries. After all, the sea is the least explored place on Earth. This fascination began when I saw Disney’s The Little Mermaid for the first time, and later, […]
How Celtic Ancestry Freed My Writing Voice
By L.A. McMurray Three days after my father’s passing, I received a comforting message that my dad was, and always will be, with me. Surprisingly, it was delivered by a hot-headed Irishman driving a Ford Mustang in a murder mystery movie from 1968. Luck of the Irish? Indeed. To begin with, my birthdate coincides with […]
NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR CAREER: Why Failure is Good, the Great Ones Play Hurt, and Other Hard Truths : EXCERPT
Erika Ayers Badan is a self-described career “nerd” who loves to work, and it shows. Badan was called a “token CEO” in the media—in reality, she is anything but: after marketing jobs at blue-chip companies like Microsoft and AOL, she became the first CEO of Barstool Sports, transforming a rough-and-tumble sports-and-betting brand and turning it […]
On and Off the Tweet by Jane Seskin
I’m a senior woman, a psychotherapist and author who still writes letters and sends Thank You notes. My cell phone and I have a custody agreement: 50% of the time I take it with me. For the other 50% it stays at home in its charger. When it goes somewhere with me, I tend to […]
TRANSFORMATION IS POSSIBLE: FROM UNSOLD MEMOIR TO A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTAL CHAPBOOKS
In June, I turned up at a friend’s house with a box of books from my publisher and a bag of props. We didn’t have a plan for my “unboxing video”, but we had three hours and a color story—hot pink, yellow, and black to match the covers. Improvising, we rushed through the house, trailed […]
Vermilion Harvest: Playtime at the Bagh by Reenita Hora: Excerpt
Reenita Hora is the unrivaled ‘Nora Ephron’ of South Asian storytelling, spinning yarns as eclectic as Mumbai’s iconic ‘Bhel Puri’ – a tantalizing concoction of flavors with an occasional bug for that extra crunch! Her stories star a motley crew of characters caught in the whirlwind of gloriously imperfect scenarios, all while stubbornly refusing to […]
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