Tag: women writers
To Be or Not To Be a Writer
I always assumed that authors came from a very special mould. They were the kind of people who spent their childhood scribbling down stories whereas I was a bit of a geek. I had one of the first home computers, a Sinclair ZX81 so I was busy writing computer programs while those budding authors were […]
Writers and Self-Censorship
Writers should not be censored. I think everyone can agree on that. The whole idea of censorship conjures an image of stern political enforcers, combing through every line of poetry and prose with an eye to deleting or destroying anything that works against the current regime and its often hypocritical ideology. Who can create art […]
The Cinderella Complex – Waiting For Mr. Write
How many of us have secretly hoped that we will be ‘discovered’ by some hot new literary agent or plucked from writer obscurity by a medium to large publishing house who will alter the course of our writing careers F-O-R-E-V-E-R? Go on, admit it. We’ve all day-dreamed about being the writing world’s equivalent to Kate […]
Writing About Sex (and the older woman)
Many years ago, as an experiment, and I admit a bit of a joke, I submitted the first three chapters of an erotic book to the publishers Black Lace. I read their guidelines carefully and made sure I ‘hit the ground running’; and although I must also have submitted some kind of synopsis I really […]
Unforgiven: A Conversation with Marin Thomas
What does it mean to forgive in a town so hard and dry that it’s called Unforgiven? Ruby Baxter, the protagonist of Marin Thomas’ latest novel, The Promise of Forgiveness , arrives on the bus with little more than a suitcase and her daughter’s anger. As the two find Ruby’s biological father and the handsome, […]
Fairytales
Once upon a time…how comforting is this timeless beginning, immediately sending us back to our childhoods, tucked up in bed and listening to a story. Narrative is part of the human psyche, the way we explain the world to ourselves and each other. It’s perhaps no surprise that recent research, published in the Royal Society […]
A Lost Literary Foremother: Constance Fenimore Woolson
About the time I was trying to decide if I could be a writer I started to wonder, when did women first have the nerve to commit themselves to careers as serious authors and to say, despite few female role models to follow, I can succeed at this as well as men? I wondered because, […]
Why I Decided To Write About Mental Health
I decided to write a memoir about my own experience of debilitating depression because I felt that I had something to say that might help someone. Although I was desperately ill, had suffered two major depressive episodes and been hospitalised, I did recover. I now consider myself well, and wanted to share what I had […]
How To Create Tension
It’s all a bit tense… You might think of tension in a novel as being obvious ‘edge of your seat action’: the FBI agent running down the rabid serial killer, the guy dangling by his fingernails off a window ledge. In fact, all great novels are powered by tension of some kind or another. It […]
Writing Through Grief
Two weeks ago, my wonderful mother died. Suddenly, unexpectedly, she passed away in my arms. One final slow exhalation and she was limp. Gone. Grief has bowled me over, set me totally off course. It was the week of publication for THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER and I was bouleversée, as the French say. Devastated. Nevertheless, I […]
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