Tag: featured
Nuance vs. Propaganda
Most novels have a message of some kind, even it’s just “sometimes you have to break yourself out of a bad place to get to a better one.” We all want the stories we’re reading or watching to have some meaning. That’s why we started telling them to each other in the first place. But […]
What Inspired Me To Write The Perfect Dress
Auspicious maybe, but a comment I remember from my childhood was: ‘Louisa has very interesting dress sense’. According to my mother, I used to rock-up to primary school wearing jewellery made from tin foil, homemade shoes, and my favourite vest over the top of everything – very ahead of the underwear-as-outerwear trend. I can remember […]
On Being A Writer
I was sixteen years old when my first poem was published in The Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis. TN. The poem, titled “Souvenir” was about the Vietnam War. The year was 1969 and I was in the eleventh grade. I have been writing ever since. I was blessed to have a high school English […]
Woman, Man, or Both?
Garbo portrayed you in Queen Christina, beautiful, when you, in fact, were not. These days you’re celebrated as an early feminist, although you, of course, would have sneered. And to be fair, some still call you a traitor, even to yourself. Once, at a dinner party in Sweden, my host showed me a fragment of […]
When You Plant A Seed…
When a tiny seed is planted it’s always a miracle to me how it germinates and finds its way into the world. That little shoot that forces its way through the often unyielding earth to reach for the sky. It was a bit like that for me when I attended a ten-week creative writing course […]
What A Time To Be Alive
‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ So begins The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, one of my very favourite novels. Although the book is set in the swooning heat of high summer, it’s a line that always gives me goosebumps, and renews my frustration that time machines haven’t yet been invented […]
The Trick to Getting Published
By Ruby Speechley Disclaimer: There is no trick, no magic formula. But there’s always a way. Early influences At three years old, before I could even read, my parents bought me a stack of hardback books by Enid Blyton. The brightly coloured characters on the covers were so enticing! I can still recall my deep […]
Essential Writing and Editing Tips By Sheila O’Flanagan
Whenever I’m asked for my number one tip on writing, my response is always the same. Sit down in front of your computer, open whatever WP program you want to use, and start. This may sound glaringly obvious, but the truth is that until you have words on a page in front of you, there […]
Philosophy And Writing
Art is one of the most important game changers and is a reflection of our creativity in human life. In my own life, Salvador Dali is the artist who made me wonder more about ourselves and the World we live in. The first time I saw his paintings, I was so young. I can still […]
TO NATURE (AND NURTURE) YOUR WRITING by Savannah Hendricks
Last year, I had the opportunity to take a road trip to California and attend the Wrightwood Literary Festival. Never having been to the Wrightwood area I was excited about the adventure. I had no idea what to expect. Yet, it’s in California, right outside of the city, how different could it be? The flyer […]
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