Tag: featured
A Case For Destiny
Cinda K. Swalley This is a story about destiny—how life led me down a road that inspired my book. It’s the prequel to my debut novel, The Golden Hearts Club. Was it possible that the journey and all the accidental occurrences were arranged in my path well before imagining I would, or could, write a […]
I Picked the Best and Worst Time to Write a Book
When I first woke with the vision for this book, it felt like someone had slipped a film reel into my head and started the projector. I could see the places, hear the music that follows my main character when she time-travels through the woods, and feel the small, stubborn hope that kept knitting the […]
Seven Spooky Facts About Laura Clarke Walker, Author of Coldharbour
By Laura Clarke Walker Now that my first fantasy thriller, Coldharbour, has been published, people have begun to ask me how I come up with my ideas. After all, there are ghosts, demons, witches, and much more in my speculative fiction series. Well, I haven’t had to look too far for inspiration, because every day […]
On Writing Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them
By Mara Casey Tieken I spent thirteen years working on Educated Out. That’s longer than my daughter has been alive. Longer than I’ve been married. Longer than my Subaru lasted. The book started with getting approval from my college’s Institutional Review Board—a very unexciting way to begin a book, but, because it was a research […]
Why I Write Mysteries: A Dance of Shadows and Laughter
By Wendy Gee Writing mysteries is not just a subjective genre choice for writers like me; it’s a calling (much like how cats are irresistibly drawn to knocking things off tables). The allure of the unknown, the thrill of piecing together clues, and the satisfaction of unveiling hidden truths simply captivate my imagination in ways […]
The Inspiration for Writing ‘The Sure Thing’
By Elana Auerbach Flushed and satisfied, I swung my legs off the bed, slowly stood up, and took a couple of steps. I stopped suddenly and turned toward Bill, still lounging in bed. “This is so miraculous, I think I’m going to have to write a book about it,” I said, awestruck. “Yep, I think […]
Toni Shiloh: On Writing
You know that excitement you get when you’ve just purchased a brand-new book? When you finally have a moment to yourself and you open the pages of a read from your favorite author? That perfectly sums up my childhood and feelings toward books. I grew up reading as much as I could and read series […]
The Writing Process for Forbidden Orphanage Outside the Forbidden City
Forbidden Orphanage Outside the Forbidden City Laura Richards was a shy American nurse who moved to a remote North China village in 1929 to take in castaway babies. Through 22 years of famines, bandit invasions and wars, she lived in the same poor conditions as the Chinese peasants, while managing to save the lives of […]
Second-Chance Stories
by Lindsey Goldstein I became a reader at the age of four. Books accompanied me everywhere—to the dinner table, into the bath, to my bed with a flashlight under the covers, and in the car when I accompanied my mother on her many errands. But I never considered myself a writer. In college, I willed […]
February Recommended Reads
BIANCA’S CURE, Gigi Berardi For fans of Lessons in Chemistry, a based-in-fact novel imagining young Renaissance noblewoman Bianca Capello’s experiences as she pursues a cure for malaria in the Medicis’ Florence. Florence, 1563. Forbidden from practicing her herbal cures in Venice, the young noblewoman Bianca Capello flees to Florence, where the ruling Medici family practices alchemy. There, […]
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