It’s already September! The new school year may be starting, but I am still clinging to the last vestiges of summer. Last month was a great reading month for me, despite a beach vacation where I didn’t actually get much reading done. That’s all right though. I had a great time and can’t wait to… Read more »
What is it about a book that compels readers to stay up far later than they should on a weeknight? What makes a story a so-called page turner? Unputdownable. Why is it we have trouble getting to the end of one book, yet we fly through another? The answers have a lot to do with… Read more »
On an old Curly Girl greeting card taped above my desk, a woman’s red-fingernailed hand wraps around a vintage microphone. Artist Leigh Standley’s caption sprawls above the illustration: “Find Your Voice.” Find. Your. Voice. Weaned on this advice, we fiction writers know that when an otherwise well-built narrative lies comatose on the page, only a… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Marissa Levien. Marissa is a writer and artist who hails from Washington State and now lives in New York with a kindly journalist and their two cats. The World Gives Way is her first novel. In this episode Marissa and I discuss: How current and recent events influenced… Read more »
You know that feeling of flow when the burden of time lifts from your shoulders and something comes not from you, but through you? This flying-flow-feeling is as close as I’ve ever gotten to understanding why I’m here and who I am. I will do whatever it takes to get back into that flow and… Read more »
In this column, Life of a Writer, every 8 weeks or so I will share the next episode in my journey as a middle-aged woman who finally gets serious about her dream of becoming a published author. In Episode 2 of this column, I wrote about how I completed the manuscript of my first novel… Read more »
I was first introduced to Salman Rushdie in a college literature class where we read Midnight’s Children. His novels usually combine historical fiction and magical realism to explore heavy personal, political, and cultural themes. While Rushdie’s writing is not an easy read, he’s become one of my favorite writers. After reading his memoir, Joseph Anton,… Read more »
The clinical definition of intergenerational trauma, also sometimes referred to as multigenerational trauma, is trauma that is “passed down from the generation that experienced the trauma to subsequent generations.” These traumas exist in many forms—they are the aftermaths of war, sexual and physical abuse, drug abuse, and suicides. Other family traumas, such as family secrets,… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rajani LaRocca. Rajani was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning novels and picture books. She has always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels, picture… Read more »
For my first two columns, I wrote about young adult comics, partially because young people need fun, feminist stuff to read. But what about us adults? What about sex, drugs, and rock n roll? Well, do I have the comic for you: The Wicked + The Divine. This is the comic I recommend the most,… Read more »
