writers

Interview with Lisa Barr, Author of The Unbreakables PLUS BOOK GIVEAWAY

Saturday, September 14, 2019
2 comments

  Lisa Barr is the author of The Unbreakables (HarperCollins) a delicious, sharp novel about a Chicago woman who jets off to France after her “perfect” marriage collapses, putting the broken pieces of herself back together while rediscovering her own joie de vivre—a lust for life, art, and passion. Artful, feminist, and emotionally gripping, The Unbreakables is a remarkable tribute to a woman’s strength in the face of heartbreak and adversity.        What’s one book that made…

Read More >>

When The Muse Calls With Inspiration — You Listen

Friday, September 13, 2019
0 comment

You always hear people talking about muses whispering in their ear, as if in a trance, or their “characters” speaking to them. Well, I’m not a novelist so I don’t have characters to take over the heavy lifting of writing, but I will say that it feels like someone else wrote up my book proposal. I had been working for a while on a memoir about my infertility, based on…

Read More >>

What, Me, a Book?

Friday, September 6, 2019
1 comment

It’s interesting that it’s Labor Day weekend — because this is when I actually finished my book. Yes, I did submit the behomoth on Memorial Day, almost a year since I’d started it, under contract. “Aren’t you excited?” everyone asked. (Well, I posted on FB that I submitted, so it was my fault.) Yes, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The night that I’d finished — Thursday before Memorial Day weekend,…

Read More >>

Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Chopping block

Tuesday, July 9, 2019
0 comment

Aloha! This week we are supposed to address “what we cut from our books and why:” Well, technically I had almost everything deleted from my debut novel, The Atlas Of Reds and Blues. On May 17, 2010, the Georgia state police raided my home at gunpoint and confiscated, among other things, my laptop. Even though a state judge in Georgia dismissed all of the charges against my husband back in…

Read More >>

Just Write and Other Groups

Friday, June 14, 2019
0 comment

    I’ve moved around a lot in the past decade, and I’ve had to cull my writing friends from a number of different sources. The first time I joined an actual writing group was when I moved to the outskirts of Philadelphia and found one through Meetup that was only a few minutes from my children’s school. In many ways, Just Write changed my life. I had started a…

Read More >>

Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Stocking Up for Summer

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
0 comment

Aloha! I’ve been celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this month, albeit intermittently. Each week, I’ve posted a stack of books by authors (and friends!) whose work I love and admire. And I thought I’d end the month with a visual guide to a stack of really great books that you should check out this summer — some are upcoming titles, such as Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok…

Read More >>

Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Indie Love

Tuesday, April 23, 2019
0 comment

Aloha. K.A. Doore wrote an essay yesterday about the reader’s buying power and how the support of an independent bookstore helps save jobs and sustain a vibrant literary community. I have nothing to add to her excellent work – she said it so eloquently. I want to say that I’m so deeply grateful I have the love and support of Counterpoint Press. This amazing independent press was brave to embrace…

Read More >>

Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: The Dream Peddler…is captivating

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
0 comment

As a Deb this year, I’ve had the enormous privilege of working with four amazing, super-talented writers. And I’m so pleased to be able to finally sing the praises of Martine Fournier Watson’s debut novel, The Dream Peddler. I love this novel so much! It is dreamy, spooky, suspenseful. A sleepy town awakens when a young boy goes missing and the Dream Peddler arrives. The intertwining stories between the townspeople…

Read More >>

Interview with Barbara Ridley + WHEN IT’S OVER giveaway

Saturday, January 12, 2019
0 comment

We are so excited to welcome Barbara Ridley to the Debutante Ball this week! Barbara was born in England but has lived in California for more than 35 years. After a successful career as a nurse practitioner, which included publication of academic articles in peer-reviewed journals, she is now focused on creative writing. Her work has appeared in journals such as Writers Workshop Review, ArsMedica, The Copperfield Review, Blood and Thunder and Stoneboat.  WHEN IT’S…

Read More >>

Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Resolutions and Resolve

Tuesday, January 1, 2019
0 comment

Happy 2019. I could get very specific and that may actually help in the long run. But I think I’m going to play it fast and loose in 2019 — well, more free than in years past. I’ve been working for several decades now, and I’ve been disappointed in myself a lot of those years. I always have good intentions. And I always set good intentions. But my expectations get…

Read More >>