Tag: featured
Painful to remember, too important to forget
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of Northern Ireland’s violent past. Victims are haunted by it. Politicians stalked by it. Peace initiatives stymied by it. Some observers argue that we should draw a line under it and move on. Given its sensitivity, I agonised over the ‘right’ thing to do when I unexpectedly […]
5 Stories about Publishing that are No Longer True (and maybe never were)
Maybe all professions like to scare young hopefuls — to weed the flock, so to speak — and the publishing industry, notorious for its gloom and doom predictions, is no exception. As a graduate student in a Creative Writing department, I heard all sorts of stories from teachers and other students that made it seem […]
The Impact of Yoga on Writing
Wet Silence was a book I wrote before I lost my mother or did a yoga teacher training. Wet Silence was a book I wrote at a time when I would show up to yoga classes during times when I needed clarity with my writing, career, or life in general. But, my world shook and changed after my […]
The Adventure of Writing
When you see the word adventure, you probably think of action, travel, and the outdoors. You don’t naturally think of writing. However, I beg to differ. I define adventure as something new, challenging, and perhaps frightening. In almost all cases, it’s all consuming. Deciding to do it and then executing it despite the fear is […]
Writing as a Woman War Veteran
I’ve heard that it takes twenty years before a veteran can write about war. It took me twenty-five. This year marks the twenty-five anniversary of the first Persian Gulf War, Desert Storm. I was one of the 40,000 women who deployed, an enlisted soldier in the Army. At the time, I’d also already been writing […]
Writer in Prison
It was my first day in prison and I had a big to-do list: Put your belt kit and key pouch on. Empty your pockets and purse of money, ID, anything that might hold an address or personal details, because information can be used against you Bring nothing inside that can be used as a […]
Letter to My Pre-publication Self
It’s now 8 months since the book was first published, so I decided to invent time travel (patent pending) to give you a preview of what will happen and what you will learn during this crazy, baffling, exciting, scary time. You can thank me later. 1. Writing the book is not job done. It’s just […]
Critique Partners – Writing Together
Writing can sometimes feel like you are shouting into the void, especially when you are unpublished and need feedback, cheerleading, and deadlines. One of the best ways to give you this structure is find yourself a critique partner. Finding a critique partner can be a bit like dating. You can try also sorts of ways […]
Short Story: The Keepers
Short story about friendship between lighthouse keepers by Melissa Bailey, whose novel Beyond the Sea came out earlier this year. Ten miles from shore, perched on the low black rock, the lighthouse was a hazy smudge of white in the gloaming. Isolated, indistinct, hovering somewhere between sea and sky, an as-yet unlit beacon of hope […]
Being a Writing Coach
The way I approach being a writing coach owes a debt to the genial baseball coaches you find on American sitcoms. My favourite was, of course, the eponymous ‘Coach’ on Cheers, which I watched at an impressionable age. Caring, warm, and very pragmatic, you could imagine Coach sympathising with the troubled-yet-talented player, all the while […]
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