My daughters and I enjoy reading together and this post is one in a series about the books we’ve read and what we thought about them. Here are links to the other Mother-Daughter Book Club posts— The Mother-Daughter Book Club #1: The Fifth Child; After Dark; This is How You Lose the Time WarThe Mother-Daughter…
I’ve always loved spooky books. I recently re-read one of Ruth Chew’s magical chapter books and was transported back—young Kim reading in a corner of my third-grade classroom, the steamy windows decorated with tissue paper bats and jack-o’-lanterns, the smell of chili and cinnamon rolls wafting in from the gymnasium lunchroom. When fall arrives I…
The topic of truth in memoir is one that comes up often in my classes. We talk about how the story in memoir isn’t about what happened in our lives, but what we make of what happened in our lives. This principle is essential in guiding our stories. But right away, as we begin to…
[This article is reposted with permission from author Joan Fernandez. Joan’s debut novel, Saving Vincent, A Novel of Jo van Gogh, will publish on April 15, 2025 with She Writes Press and is based on a true story. In the early twentieth century, a timid widow—and sister-in-law of the famed painter—Jo van Gogh takes on…
Lots of people who are writing books do not set daily word count targets. There are various reasons for this—they feel stifled by it, they need to let their writing go where it goes (or not), they want to feel okay whether they write many words or few, or they just do not need it….
I like to change up my reading vibe according to the seasons. Spooky reads in fall, snowy reads in winter, etc. Christmas deserves its own category, and if you’re in the mood for some Christmas literature, I’ve got a few recs. for you. I’m skipping over Little Women and A Christmas Carol, because you already…
There’s an online writing activity I like about as much as having someone else floss my teeth—posting the first line of a story in internet forums to receive critique from whoever’s willing to help. This practice is common on Reddit; I’ve also seen these threads in Facebook groups that are otherwise valuable places for writers…