Tag: women writers
On Writing SweetSpot: Now and Then, by Marla Miller
By Marla Miller When women talk about sex, some blush. Some don’t. In ‘SweetSpot: Now and Then, my protagonist blushes. Set in 1999, Darlene Robinson’s story ends one year later, bookended by a writer’s conference she attends in the spring of that year and returns to the following spring. We meet her in midlife. Mostly […]
Getting Ideas from Real Life, Kiefer Sutherland, and My Overactive Imagination
Getting ideas can be difficult if you’re lacking inspiration, but the good news is, they’re everywhere. The advice to write what you know might seem limiting, but it can be a great launchpad for getting ideas flowing, then the only limit is your imagination. For example, my current novel is about a woman who forms […]
Writing Through Grief: The Journey of Higher Love
In November 2021, I embarked on my fourth novel, Higher Love, during the whirlwind of NaNoWriMo, fueled by the ambition to release it by early 2023. That dream, however, was deferred by life’s relentless challenges—relocation, loss, and profound grief. After a long, difficult road, Higher Love finally met readers on May 12, 2025. The delays […]
The Afterlife is Real: What I discovered while writing Dear Bobby: My Grief Journey and The Married Widow: My Journey with Bob Zappa
By Diane Papalia Zappa My husband Bob Zappa and I rarely spoke about an afterlife. He believed life on earth was the end, so there really wasn’t much to talk about. As for me, I wasn’t sure. I was open to the possibility, but wasn’t counting on it. Shortly after Bob passed away late in […]
The Unknown Soldier
I wish I had found this image of a confident young Confederate cavalryman before I had written a word of Measure of Devotion. In truth, though, the book was nearly finished and I was actually looking for something else when I encountered him in a huge sheaf of old family photos. The photo you see […]
Leslie Gray Streeter: On Writing
By Leslie Gray Streeter The story of Dawn Roberts, the writer heart of FAMILY & OTHER CALAMITIES, goes back more than three decades and several major plot changes. She’s been everything from a college student in a garage band finding her voice, the former back-up singer in a 90s R&B group who is getting back […]
May: Reading With Rochelle Weinstein
Hello Readers & Friends, April showers bring May flowers. Was that true in your neck of the words? We didn’t have much rain here in Miami, but the heat is on. Full blast. And as I sit at my writing desk preparing this column, surrounded by my hydrangea and stacks of books, I can’t help […]
The N8 Self: You are more than your Mind, Body, & Emotions, by Jules Kuroda: Excerpt
The N8 Self: You are more than your Mind, Body, & Emotions Loneliness is a situation that we create. The N8 Self invites the reader into holistic connection beyond just the mind, body, and heart and into the aspect of self we don’t talk much about, the human spirit. This powerful part of our human experience […]
Running Took me Far -but Poetry Took me Back to Myself
In September 2024, I was approaching Creswell Crags on foot. I was 45 miles into my first 100-mile ultramarathon, and I felt defeated, alone, and scared. I just wanted to go home. Up until that point, the longest distance I had run was 42 miles. I felt strong until I passed that threshold. But the […]
What Triggers Stories?
By Laura Treacy Bentley Irish poet, Michael Longley, said: “I don’t know where poems come from, but I want to go there.” I, too, want to find this magical place, and I feel the inspiration for stories as well as poetry is all around us. We just need to look for it. My trips to […]
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