Tag: featured
Q&A with Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell is an award-winning journalist and the author of LIBERTY’S TORCH: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty, published by Grove Atlantic. She also wrote THREE STRIDES BEFORE THE WIRE: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing (Hyperion), which The Washington Post selected as one of the best nonfiction books of […]
Writing Retreats – what can they do for us?
Writers all work in different ways. I started writing when my children were young so I was soon expert at grabbing small pieces of time whenever I could. I was forever scribbling ideas and scraps of dialogue or thoughts in a notebook – whether I was in a doctor’s surgery waiting room with the children […]
Q&A with Susan Meissner
Susan Meissner is the prolific author of thirteen novels. Her most recent, STARS OVER SUNSET BOULEVARD (Penguin/NAL) is the story of two women working on the movie set of Gone With the Wind during Hollywood’s Golden Age who discover the joy and heartbreak of true friendship. Her novel THE SHAPE OF MERCY, in which a […]
A Room of One’s Own – it’s the Place in One’s Head
You’re a woman and you write, so no doubt you have a dedicated writing space and a private income? No, me neither. It’s quite a while since Virginia Woolf stated that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. When Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own […]
Short Fiction: A New Year’s Friendship
Elaine Walsh Barrington revs up her white BMW and reverses the car out of the double garage behind the house. “I really don’t mind getting a taxi to the station again,” Lorna, her younger sister, says from the passenger seat. “You didn’t have to leave your New Years Day open house like this.” The clenched […]
Writing About Life With Epilepsy
Like many of us, I have long thought I had a story worth sharing. As a physician with epilepsy, I felt that my own illness gave me a unique perspective on caring for those with chronic illness. As a mom and doctor with seizures, I hoped that sharing my story may help others also dealing […]
How I Turned My Blog Into A Book
While I was lecturing on the creative writing programme at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, a couple of students asked me if I realised I couldn’t get through a seminar without mentioning food or drink. Really? I mean, really??!! But they were right. And I began to notice how I might describe a bruise […]
Dear Writers of All of the Stories I Read in 2015
Dear Writers of All of the Stories I Read in 2015 (An Open Letter From a Fan.) Dear You, I am a HUGE fan. Maybe your biggest fan. No really. (Ok, maybe your Mom ranks slightly higher than me. But only just slightly.) I’ve seen the way you make magic. Real magic. Not the sleight […]
Fanfaronade
You wouldn’t think one word I wrote in my debut novel, Annie’s Story, Book 1 of The Voyagers Trilogy, would cause a discussion between two mature men, would you? It was six months before my husband James actually asked to read my debut novel, Annie’s Story, published in April. I was quite surprised as I […]
Mental Health and Writing
Last night I watched, ‘Amy’, a poignant biopic of the young, troubled jazz singer who died at 27. As I watched I found myself becoming angry with her parents who saw the signs so early of her mental distress and chose to ignore it. And then I remembered that my parents had done something very […]
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