Tag: women writers
Behind Every Great Man: The Forgotten Women Behind the World’s Famous and Infamous
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” Virginia Woolf The idea for Behind Every Great Man was the result of serendipity-and it arrived through the unlikely person of former First Lady Laura Bush. In a White House roast, she likened herself to a character from Desperate Housewives. “I am married to the president of […]
Historical Fiction: Making Research Invisible – And Ignoring The Aspidistra
Memory is a cruel thing. It lingers in dark trenches, whispering, or withholding, waiting to creep into the no-man’s-land of our dreams. It knows what we long to remember, and what we hope to forget. And it knows Hearsay and Imagination will cover any gaps… So begins my new novel, The Echo of Twilight. Set […]
The Year I Gave Up Submitting to Literary Magazines
At the end of every calendar year, I review my writing life to assess what I’ve accomplished and to see where my creative path is leading me. What’s working and what isn’t? What patterns are there, and what are they telling me? As 2015 drew to a close, I reviewed my submissions log and noted […]
Writing About Female Friendships In Novels
My phone vibrates and dings, the sound so frequent that it’s almost playing a tune. The rhythm is unsteady, yet familiar. A ding here, a ding there. Two dings back to back, and then one a few seconds later. I know exactly what I’ll see when I pick up my phone: messages filled with party […]
The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: Being an Author on Social Media
I’m not sure if it’s because I have a background in marketing or because social media can be hugely addictive, but I enjoy the social media side of being an author. Yes, it does take time that could be spent on writing, but the rewards are more than worth the investment of time. To explain […]
Finding the Pearl: Why I wrote Ghost Variations
Why do you start to write a book? Perhaps more than that, why do you finish it? There are enough books in the world already: why do you need to add yours? The reason I started Ghost Variations is not the same reason I finished it. I can’t count the number of times I nearly […]
Writing The Happy Kitchen
Ever since my last major depressive episode just over a decade ago, I’ve sought to embrace a holistic attitude to my own mental health. For me it’s been a case of both ‘push’ and ‘pull’. ‘Push’, in the sense that, like many others, I’ve experienced some of the debilitating side-effects of antidepressant medication. These include […]
Changing Publishers
I tend to abide by the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” motto. I’ve held the same job for almost twenty years, been wearing my hair in the same style (give or take the bangs) most of my adult life, and I don’t immediately purchase “the next best thing” if my current devices are […]
The Midwife as Story Teller
Call the Midwife, the British television series is seen world- wide and has become popular in the United States. People who’d barely heard of midwives or thought they were old ladies who came to your log cabin back in the 1700s have become interested, even fascinated by the subject. Most people don’t know that the […]
Q&A with Literary Agent Katie Kotchman of Don Congdon Associates
In non-fiction, Katie Kotchman specializes in business (all areas); narrative non-fiction such as popular science and books about social/cultural issues; self-help that focuses on success, motivation, and psychology; and pop culture. Katie is actively seeking new non-fiction clients with built-in platforms from whom she can learn something new. In fiction, she’s interested in representing […]
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