I recently read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer prize winner 2015. Though his book wasn’t a page turner, I didn’t want to stop reading once I’d…
Are Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels For Everyone?
Putting Spice In Your Brand
What kind of writer are you? Do you have a series with a protagonist that shows up in every book you write? Do you write in the same genre? Do…
Finding Graham Greene And The Mob In A Havana Hotel
The Hotel Mercure Sevilla, where we recently stayed, and where Hemingway wrote some of Farewell To Arms, is also known for Graham Greene, author of many prize-winning novels. Typically when I…
What’s A Time-Slip Novel?
The other day, I was asked on Goodreads’ Ask An Author, “Where did you get the designation “time slip? I’ve not seen that before.” I was reminded that I hadn’t…
Hemingway In Cuba
After two weeks in Havana, I have many stories about Ernest Hemingway in Cuba. There are tours to all of the Nobel prize-winning author’s haunts: the bars that he frequented,…
Pushing Boundaries
For writers and artists, pushing boundaries is a natural act. As creative spirits, we want to test how far we can go. Look at how the book Fifty Shades of Grey changed the publishing…
20 Genders And More, Really?
This morning—while taking a break from writing a novelette, one that shows sex in the 50s—a letter to the editor in a recent Maclean’s magazine caught my attention. The writer mentioned that…
What’s So Special About St. Patrick’s Day?
Ah, I love the Irish. I toured Ireland with my husband, Robert, in 2009 to visit my first cousins, who, prior to that, I hadn’t met. I fell in love…
Why Do Writers Write What They Write?
The question of why writers write what they write came up a while back, when I caught an interview that Stephen Colbert did with author, Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize…
The Hard Truth In Fiction
When I read a novel, I want to escape and get into someone else’s world for awhile. I want my imagination to run wild. I want to cheer for the…