Tag: featured
An Author’s Search for Place from Mali to Italy
‘You crawl over. You are in Hong Kong. Outside, everything is fumy with light.’ From an early age I knew I would leave my country. Like many authors, I was bookish and removed, and a childhood tragedy made me determined to leave pain behind and head to Europe. At 21 I was a skinny shoplifter […]
Can Adventure Be Your Muse?
One author’s true story of exploring Cuba, living in Hawaii, and walking the Camino de Santiago In writing as in life, there are countless hurdles, hiccups, and roadblocks. There is no secret sauce for preventing the life stuff. Let’s face it, shit happens. However, many of the hurdles that happen in writing, whether typical writer’s […]
How To Publish And Sell A Book That You Are Told No-One Will Want To Buy
“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” Toni Morrison. We knew that this book was needed. So many women were approaching us with the same questions: why has my career stalled? How do I get it back on […]
Bringing Back a Favorite Character
My second book, Our Love Could Light The World, is a collection of linked stories about the Dugan family in the fictional town of Dunston, New York. The Dugans are made up of the parents, Potter and Lavinia, and their five children. Potter drinks and can’t hold down a job. Lavinia works like mad to […]
My Book Club Made Me An Author
My book group formed seven years ago. A dozen busy, smart, book-obsessed women in Portland, Oregon, we’re probably not that different from most neighborhood book clubs. We struggle to make time for reading, there’s always someone who confesses that she hasn’t had time to finish the book, and there’s usually another who clearly didn’t finish, […]
Is Seasoned Romance a Real Thing?
So what’s up with the world of romance novels? Why is it that if you’re a woman of a certain age, then nobody wants to read about your love life? All of us fifty- and sixty-somethings and beyond are still falling in love, rediscovering love, renewing love, and by golly, we’re still having sex, and […]
Optical Research
“Of course it wasn’t a romantic getaway,” I said in 2015, after spending Valentine’s Weekend in Paris. “It was optical research!” And after tramping the Paris streets searching for wartime locations for my second book, The English Agent, I had the blisters on my feet and scribbles in my notebook to prove it (although I’ll […]
Women Inspired My Novel
All authors get asked, “What was your inspiration for writing your novel?” For me, it wasn’t so much “what,” but “who” is my inspiration. Without a doubt my answer is women. I have had the greatest honor of raising four daughters—a dream come true that mirrored a treasured Louisa May Alcott story, Little Women. Each […]
Discovering Fiction Readers Preferences, Habits and Attitudes ~~ by M.K. Tod
Readers and writers – a symbiotic relationship. Ideas spark writers to create stories and build worlds and characters for readers’ consumption. Readers add imagination and thought to interpret those stories, deriving meaning and enjoyment in the process. A story is incomplete without both reader and writer. What then do readers want? What constitutes a compelling […]
Read. Write. Reflect. : Excerpt
Monica Bhide is an internationally renowned writer known for sharing food, culture, love, and life with a lyrical voice and universal appeal. Her tenth book, READ. WRITE. REFLECT: Inspiration for Creative Minds”, is now available in digital and paperback. READ — FOCUS A few years ago, I found myself in a difficult spot. I was […]
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