Tag: women writers
How To Be Patient, or “Why Hasn’t Your Book Been Made Into A Movie?”
Since becoming a writer, I slightly dread family gatherings. In many ways, “How’s the book going?” is a perfectly normal question to ask, but it isn’t an easy one to answer. I reply with variations of “great, thanks”, but I’m really thinking, which book? The one I’m drafting, the one I’m copy-editing, the one just […]
Why I Wrote The Burn Zone
I wrote The Burn Zone as a catharsis; I had to get the story out of me. Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I believe she is right. The story was consuming me. It was tearing me apart from within. I was filled with […]
Humoring the Muse
My muse, a.k.a. the voice in my head, is a wonderful, fickle, and demanding soul. She’s opinionated, diverse, and relentless. If I weren’t an author I might consider handing her over to the care of a mental health practitioner. But alas, as she’s my bread and butter, we’ve worked out a compromise. I write what […]
Deborah Batterman Interview
Deborah Batterman is the author of Just Like February (a novel), Shoes Hair Nails (short stories), and Because my name is mother (essays). She is a Pushcart nominee, and her award-winning stories and essays have appeared in anthologies as well as print and online literary journals. A native New Yorker, she has worked over the years as a writer, editor, and teaching artist. […]
Switching From Literary To Historical Fiction
When I set out to write my historical novel, the research shelf on my bookcase overflowed onto the floor. I approached the story with the eye of the scholar, the young woman I was when I developed my doctoral thesis all those years ago. It was the day of card files in the library and […]
Bundle of Joy
My husband and I both have high-pressure jobs. We both have two children at home who are under the age of eight. We both have a house to pay for and maintain. We both need sleep, food, haircuts, a social life, and downtime. And we both need to find time for the new season of […]
Humor and History
If you’re trying to write somewhat humorous fiction for kids about historical characters, it helps if the historical characters are quirky. So, keeping that principle in mind, it was easier to wring some humor out of John Adams than it was with George Washington. I’m writing a series of middle grade novels that feature regular […]
Drawing Novel Ideas from the Dust
Novelists are often asked how they find ideas. Frankly, the ideas usually often find us. That’s the short, smart-alecky answer nobody wants to hear, but it’s hard to provide more detail to such a broad question. Since the release of my second historical novel, Peculiar Savage Beauty, many readers have asked specifically how the idea […]
Tell Your Stories—Now More Than Ever!
Christine Blasey-Ford had memories, opinions, facts, and rights. One of her rights was to be heard. So she told her story about a 36-year-old high school encounter with 2 drunken seniors who attacked her body to prove their dominance. Or maybe for a laugh. Or because they could. She told it to her husband before […]
From Writing Blogs to Books and Beyond
Once, when I pitched my Filipino food cookbook idea to an editor of a big-time publishing company, he curtly cut me off and arrogantly said “You’re a niche market. Ethnic food is a hard sell.” I felt awful and humiliated. I felt unworthy and unsure of myself. It hurt like hell to be rejected. But […]
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