The Writing Life – The Debutante Ball

Interview with Suzanne Nugent, author of Brunch and Other Obligations

Saturday, May 9, 2020

I am excited to introduce our guest author for this week, Suzanne Nugent! Suzanne Nugent is a writer committed to exploring women’s lives and relationships through poignant comedy and drama. She holds a dual degree in journalism and film from UMass Amherst and studied screenwriting at UCLA. She was shortlisted for the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and has received accolades from the Denver Film Festival and the San…

Interview and Book Giveaway: Martina Reaves, Author of I’m Still Here

Saturday, April 25, 2020

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I am pleased to introduce Martina Reaves to the Debutante Ball this week! Martina Reaves grew up in a Navy family and lived in thirty-four places before she finally settled in her current home in Berkeley. She became a mediator in 1986 and in 2007, she dropped writing legal documents and began writing fiction and memoir. She loves creating serenity in her home with her wife, Tanya, and their son,…

What Inspires me to write, even in a pandemic

Thursday, April 2, 2020

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Recently, I read a post on someone who found out that not everyone has a running inner dialogue in their minds. I was as shocked as the original poster at this discovery. My mind has always been a chatterbox; I just assumed it was the same for everyone! My inner world is constantly questioning, observing, judging, apologizing, and taking stock. I’m like a ringmaster, struggling to bring peace to a…

My Favorite Types of Scenes to Write and Why

Monday, March 9, 2020

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I have a love-hate relationship with scenes that establish setting of the story. I find these scenes the hardest to write, but also the most rewarding. When I write them well, my readers tell me that they feel as if they are there, perched somewhere in the scene itself, having a bird-eye view of the action. They can visualize the scene, experience it along with the characters. Setting is the…

If The Goddess Twins was made into a movie…

Thursday, February 13, 2020

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Oooh, I love this game! If they made The Goddess Twins into a film, here’s my dream for who would work well with casting, directing and rating: Director – Ava DuVernay – I loved what she did with A Wrinkle in Time, and I feel confident she could reflect the goddess dynasty vibes from behind the lens through to the big screens. Rating – PG13 (it is YA after all!)…

On developing your personal brand…

Thursday, January 30, 2020

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I’ll be honest, friends, the concept of personal branding used to genuinely frighten me. I related branding to ‘the aim to sell something to an audience’, so personal branding sounded like selling myself to the world. I, of the natural introvert clan, do not seek to sell myself to others. That sounded exhausting and false. And so, I was shut down to the concept for quite a while. But a…

Most challenging parts of being a writer

Thursday, January 9, 2020

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There are definite challenges to the path of being a creative writer. A lot of them are so widely agreed as horrible, that most humans are against the entire profession because of them! I love when I’ll meet a new human and I tell them I’m a writer, and they’ll immediately tell me how the have an idea for a screenplay or a novel and any day now it might…

My Great Writing Resolution…

Friday, January 3, 2020

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Every year, I start a new journal. I love the clean page, writing Jan 1 (although not the creeping years slowly). I think I started my first journal more than two decades ago. Let’s just say it was not in this millennium. “A new year! New Resolutions!” I would state, even though they were usually the same resolutions. Write a book. Lose Weight Well, this year I don’t have…

I Got the Best Writing Advice from My Mother

Monday, December 2, 2019

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When I look back at my elementary school years, some of my fondest memories were the days when the box arrived from the Weekly Reader Book Club. The teacher would open it in front of the class and distribute what we had ordered weeks before. It was like having Christmas and my birthday rolled together month after month. I’d bring my books home and binge on Nancy Drew mysteries—The…

Interview with Kristin Harmel, Author of The Winemaker’s Wife

Saturday, November 16, 2019

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I am so excited to welcome Kristin Harmel to The Debutante Ball. Kristin’s latest novel is The Winemaker’s Wife, an instant #1 bestseller from The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. It’s a story of forbidden love, shocking secrets, and devastating betrayal, set amid the champagne vineyards of northern France during the darkest days of World War II. Kristin Harmel is the #1 international bestselling author of The Winemaker’s…

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