Tag: women writers
Reflections on The Novice Author at Eighty, Now Eighty -One
One year ago, I wrote about the novice author becoming eighty. That novice author is me. Now as I approach a year to the day, I am eighty-one on the cusp of launching my new novel “Out of Place”. I posed a question to myself back then, in the words of Mary Oliver: Tell me […]
If Brevity is the Soul of Wit, Can I Ever Write a Funny Book?
By Audrey Burges My writing group’s conversation started, as it often does, with a question: can I write a funny novel? The topic started because I had been trying and failing to expand my satire writing into a full book. My most recent attempt to write a “lighthearted romantic comedy” took a hard left toward […]
HOW I KEPT GOING IN THE FACE OF REJECTION, AND HOW YOU CAN TOO
Elizabeth Breck It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. I had written a novel—a murder mystery. I had gotten a literary agent in less than two months, which is a superhuman feat as anyone who has attempted to get a literary agent will attest. We edited the novel, and then […]
How to be a Nose for Characters
Near my home, a world-class vineyard and winery nestles into a pastoral valley limned by blue mountains. Yes, Virginia, more than fifty award-winning vineyards make the central part of our state a destination for oenophiles. At Keswick Vineyards, there’s a popular annual competition in which wine club members are invited into the “sacred” cellars. There, […]
Tammy Euliano on writing Fatal Intent
Tammy Euliano on writing Fatal Intent Embarking on the writing of a novel is a truly novel (ha!) experience. As a physician, researcher and teacher, who wrote extensively throughout my career in academic medicine, including an introductory anesthesiology textbook with my mentor, I assumed the words would flow and a book would appear. I couldn’t […]
But what about Penelope?
I have read Homer’s The Odyssey; I have studied it; I have taught it, yet at the end of every reading of the epic story, I always find myself staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night asking myself the same question. But what about Penelope? Don’t get me wrong, in classical literature, […]
Heather Frese Interviews Evie Austin of The Baddest Girl on the Planet
“Frese debuts with an impressive examination of small-town island life in coastal North Carolina . . . dynamic structure and strong voice . . . Readers will find lots to love.” —Publishers Weekly Heather Frese Interviews Evie Austin of The Baddest Girl on the Planet Heather Frese: Hi, Evie. Let’s get started. Hatteras Island, North […]
On Writing What You Don’t Know By Sarah Penner
On Writing What You Don’t Know By Sarah Penner Of all the writing advice I’ve come across in recent years, here is the old adage I despise the most: write what you know. They tell us to “write what we know” for several reasons: the sense of authority that comes across on the page; the speed and […]
How I Found My Ideal Reader, My Agent
When I finished the final draft of the manuscript that became my debut novel If, Then (Random House, 2019), I had a lot of pie in the sky aspirations. I wanted a fantastic agent, a talented editor at an imprint I admired, and also something that felt crazy to even say out loud, readers. It […]
Humor Is Not an Official Literary Genre
Humor Is Not an Official Literary Genre by Vanessa A. Newman, M.S. Hogwash to that, I say emphatically! Can’t the written word engender laughter? Or would opponents argue that eliciting guffaws is simply a function of entertainment and thus not literary in nature. Psychology Today claims laughter is fundamental, but the setting is critical. In […]
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