I’m so honored to be with these debutante ball authors this year – terrific writers with stellar books coming out. Today is Kai’s launch day!!!!! K.A. Doore has written a page-turner of a novel: The Perfect Assassin. Happily for all of her readers, it’s the first of a trilogy — so we have a splendid continuation to look forward to. Book Two will be out in October! I’m not your…
In my novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues, I tried to capture the real world — the nonfiction world of the main character — from her earliest memories to the day she is shot by police and lays bleeding in her driveway. It’s a short novel. I tried to capture what she remembered, what she lived through — it was a pleasure to include such iconic moments as Woodstock…
If The Atlas of Reds and Blues were a major motion picture….Let’s see. (BTW, I love this:) Archie Punjabi as Mother with makeup to make her have a few wrinkles and graying hair, and, Brad Pitt as hero, in soft-focus to make him look a little younger. Shabana Azmi as as Mother’s mother. Glenn Close as Mother’s mother-in-law. Priyanka Chopra as the Baby Sister, with makeup to make her look…
Aloha! What I like about my debut novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues: it’s short. Also, I think it’s full of suspense. What I love about writing in general: I get to tell stories, I get to try out new writing techniques. I get to read books about craft. I get to write poems. I get to attend writing conferences and workshops, where I meet other writers and poets…
I want to go on record as saying that I have nothing to add to K.A. Doore’s perfect post yesterday. 🙂 Being part of a literary community is the best thing I writer could wish for. Writing itself is a solitary and lonely, and often isolating, endeavor. But if we’re really lucky writers, we learn some craft techniques and make friends along the way. Then you have people in your…
We are thrilled to have Rachel Howard as our guest author this week at The Debutante Ball! Rachel Howard’s novel THE RISK OF US, described by Jenny Offill as “an emotionally complex and amazingly suspenseful novel about love and fear,” will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on April 9th. Rachel earned her MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College and is the author of a memoir, The Lost Night….
I don’t have any magic formulas for the books I selected and used as comparable titles — except if you consider reading, as I do, as a superpower. A few years ago I wanted to start sending out my own book. I attempted to take stock of what I loved to read and re-read, the books I kept returning to for inspiration and solace: The House on Mango Street by…
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…
I have my eyes on so many books this year! Like my beloved colleagues at the Debutante Ball I came up with a list for #Debut19Chat last month, and today’s list is an expansion. I’m excited to delve into these rich and varied worlds! This list is still fluid, I’m certain I’ll be adding to it! In this field, an assortment of literary novels, memoir, YA, works in translation, essays…
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…
