Tag: women writers
Writing About Online Bullying
In the summer of 2014, I was equally deep into freelance writing as mothering. This meant that my days started at the crack of dawn, coffee in hand, typing fingers at the ready. I kept my stature as still and as quiet as possible, not out of pristine habits, but out of fear of waking […]
Don’t Kill Your Darlings, Set Them Free
For writers, often the most frightening advice we receive is to “kill our darlings”¾to cut loose those Hope diamonds that, while gorgeous, are sinking the boat we’re trying to steer to shore¾the beautiful opening sentence that doesn’t tie in whatsoever with the opening paragraph (or the rest of the story), the intense supporting character who […]
How To Use Pinterest As A Writing Tool
At first blush, it may seem a little odd to consider a pictorial social media site like Pinterest a valid writing tool. After all, most users pin things like home decorating ideas, crafts, recipes, and vacation wish lists. But as an author, I also find it to be an invaluable research tool for characters, setting, […]
Look Away. You Don’t Want to See This.
He narrowed his eyes…with downcast eyes…her eyes darted to the window…she found him with her eyes…her eyes glistened with unshed tears…he blinked in surprise…she stared in amazement…he focused on the ground. Do you see the theme? These phrases are only a handful of the many I found in the rough draft of my work in […]
How My Probation Career Influenced My Writing
It’s always hard to know, isn’t it, which came first? The chicken or the egg. And that’s how I feel about my life as a crime writer, and my previous one as a probation officer. Let’s say my probation career was the chicken. I went into the job in my early twenties, burning with a […]
Writing Adventure Stories For Children
Writing for children, it has been said, is just like writing for adults, only much harder. So why would anyone attempt to write a novel for 8 – 12 year olds? I started by mistake. I’d loved the stories my Dad had told me, and being Irish, he spun some really good yarns. He had […]
How Writing a Book Taught Me the Pleasures of Cooking
For the first 27 years of my life I didn’t cook much. Once I got married, Søren, my husband, did most of the cooking at home. I could follow a recipe if I needed to, but I couldn’t just look in the fridge as my husband could and put a meal together. I was never […]
Finding Myself At A Writing Residency
It’s a warm day in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard where I am attending a two-week writing residency at Noepe Literary Arts Center. It’s an intelligent and generous group of writers and visual artists, and I am grateful to be around them in this creative space sharing disappointments and contentment. We share a bond that most people […]
5 Crime Fiction Blunders To Avoid
In addition to being an author, I am a big crime fiction, psychological thriller and mystery fan. Though I have always read this genre, I’ve spent the last year absolutely immersing myself in it, reading and reviewing everything I can. In addition, I’ve been discussing the genre with lots of other fans as part of […]
Historical fiction – Modern Themes
I like to think of my books as offering intelligent escapism. While I write about past times I try to do so in a way that people today can identify with – posing the kinds of dilemmas and problems, challenges and triumphs that are relevant today – even though the way we respond to them […]
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