Where do you develop your ideas for stories?

I love to read author interviews or talk about writing habits with other writers. What I find most fascinating is that there’s no one blueprint for writing a novel or short story. Everyone seems to have a different method for developing a story: hearing an idea in something said by an acquaintance, the kernel of…

Read More

Context reading

You know the term context drinking, don’t you? Ever noticed how that bottle of wine you share on a sun-drenched table perched on the cobblestone square of a charming little town in Tuscany or Provence tastes ever so much better than the same bottle you bring back home to drink in Peoria? True, isn’t it?…

Read More

It takes a village to write a book

Yes, yes, we all know the old mantra that writing is a lonely profession. But is reviewing and editing lonely, too? Does it have to be? I’m pretty new to this, and I was slogging along on my own, but I recently joined a writing group in my city. I had seen an announcement for…

Read More

Matera Women’s Fiction Festival

This past September, I signed up for my first writer’s conference. It was the easiest decision to make once I discovered the destination – the beautiful city of Matera, in Italy’s southern region of Basilicata. I had been to Matera over a decade ago, with my Italian husband who looked at me oddly when I…

Read More