Tag: women writers
Give Yourself Permission To Slack Off
We, women are too hard on ourselves, especially those of us who are moved to create. In order to tap into our creativity, the world must be shut away, at least for a space of time. Easier said than done when we have so many competing priorities. When we do manage to carve out a […]
Let’s Hear It for Book Clubs!
As an author, I love visiting with book clubs. Do you? As a reader, I love being part of a book club for all sorts of reasons you will see below. Recently there seems to have been a marked upswing in book clubs inviting authors to visit both in person or online. IMHO, nothing beats […]
Difficult Desire
I’ve taught English for more years than I’ve written books, but if I drew a Venn diagram of my two professions’ aims, in the overlapped area, first off, I’d jot, “Pique readers’ interest.” I love helping students find the “perfect” books. Whenever my matchmaking pays off and a tough nut of a teenager—a self-professed hater […]
Interview with Diane C. McPhail, author of THE ABOLITIONIST’S DAUGHTER
Based on true events and rooted in family history, Diane C. McPhail’s debut novel upends stereotypes of the Civil War South with a rare depiction of Southern Abolitionism and the experiences of three astonishing women. We are delighted to feature this interview with her! Q: Tell us a little about the background of THE ABOLITIONIST’S […]
Fourteen Book Covers for Four Books: A Cautionary Tale about Nudity, Flailing, and Copyright
Years ago, I worked as an acquisitions editor and marketing manager in professional and educational publishing. I approved covers, and I tried to wheedle better covers out of busy and/or stubborn design departments, and I defended covers to a lot of disappointed authors. Most I considered unreasonably disappointed, though at least one was absolutely right […]
Independently Minded: One Woman’s Journey from Traditional to Self-Publishing by Anna Campbell
I spent most of my life wanting to be a published writer. By the time it happened, in my 40s, I was convinced I’d never achieve my ambitions. I sold Claiming the Courtesan to Avon HarperCollins New York at auction in April 2006 as part of a 3-book deal. Cue “dreams come true” music. Suddenly, […]
Books Instead Of Babies
I always wanted to have children. I babysat for neighbors’ kids, am a devoted auntie and godmother, and have great relationships with my friends’ children. But it never happened for me. The reasons were not physical but psychological. I was a mess in my twenties and thirties: low self-esteem led to a variety of self-destructive […]
Sharing Our Stories—Shining a Light
Hendrika de Vries: When A Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew… From the time that I was a little girl curled up on my father’s lap, enchanted by his bedtime stories of fairy-tale heroes and heroines, and mythic far-away places where magical gods and goddesses could morph into animal shapes at […]
Making the Past Present: From Journalism To Historical Fiction
During the summer of 1968 I had the opportunity to work as a reporter for the daily newspaper in Red Wing, Minnesota. Writing up obituaries and descriptions of weddings while seated at my manual typewriter was okay for a week or two but soon I became hungry to get out on assignment to do interviews […]
Under Grandma’s Table
UNDER GRANDMA’S TABLE It was summertime 1926—a hot steamy night in western Kansas. Peering out from under the table, she looked around her grandmother’s kitchen. Seeing only the bottom half of things—the pie cupboard with the tiny bird-designs tapped into the tin front, the squat legs of the cast-iron stove, the open back door sending […]
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