Tag: featured
Negotiating the Swamp: When Am I a “Writer?”
In this world of the gainfully employed, the corporates who climb ladders and meet glass ceilings, and the professions that mean something because of the degree certificates it took to acquire them, swimming in this swamp is the full-time writer.I only appreciated the gravity of this title when I tried to fill in an application […]
The Importance of Diversity in YA Fiction
In the three years since I started writing my novel, a lot has changed. The issue of diversity in fiction has come to the forefront and it seems that it is here to stay. A few years ago I was looking for a book for my daughter who had become very interested in mythology thanks […]
What Do You Mean I Have to Market My Writing?
We all start with different decks. Some with no cards. Some with no money. Some not even at the table. It’s not fair. There’s nothing fair about it. Maybe it will never be fair. But if you want to play, if I want to play, whatever odds I was given, them’s the odds I got. […]
How many Beta Readers do you need?
Someone in my writing group recently sent his first chapters to five different people … and got five very different responses. The result: he’s more confused than ever. Beta readers—those readers you trust your manuscript to before sending it out to an agent, editor, or publishing house—can give valuable feedback. They read with more distance […]
5 Ways to Spot and Avoid Sketchy Editors and Publications
I still remember that summer afternoon when my mother came upstairs to find me weeping into my pillow. I was 20 years old, and I had just discovered that my boyfriend had been cheating on me. Of course, I told my mother the edited, sanitized version of the story, omitting that part about walking into […]
Dear Me on a Bad Publishing Day…
Dear Me on a Bad Publishing Day, Rejection is part of this. You’ve known that for a long, long time. It wouldn’t be quite right to say you’re fine with it, but you’ve made peace with it as part of the process. You’re a pretty glass-half-full, I’ve got this sort of gal. Every now and […]
When a “spicy” Indian storyteller goes looking for inspiration…
Earlier this year, my writer friend, Leah Zibulsky, invited me to one of her creative nonfiction readings on the lower east side. There were four, smart, sassy storytellers presenting that evening. As I heard Leah and her comrades share their dating stories at Dixon Place in NYC, I whispered to the woman on my left, […]
Recovering from Depression: My Writing Journey
Two years ago almost to the date I told my mother that I wanted to kill myself. That I cried every day and that I needed help. I was twenty-seven, a year out of university and working as a EFL and Business English teacher in various companies around town. I never quite earned enough money […]
The Insanity Defense
It’s the subject of constant debate and since the beginning of the written word, authors and artists have been asked the question: “Where did it all go wrong?” If anyone has asked you this question, you may in fact have an advantage over other writers or creative folks. It implies that you can spin a […]
How Courageous Are You?
Since publishing my own story a year ago, and gathering the stories of women who wished to share their truths in a collaborative anthology, I have been reminded just how difficult it can be to put our truths out into the world. Sharing our stories makes us vulnerable to criticism and judgment. Yet our life […]
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