Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo 2014?
It’s that time of year again. Writers around the world are gearing up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and taking on the challenge to write 50,000-word the manuscript during the month of November. Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But if you break it down over the 30 days, it actually means committing yourself to writing under…
Read MoreHappily ever after – writing the perfect book endings
The wonderful writing blog Writers in the storm tackled a topic very close to writers’ hearts in ‘Six ways to know you’ve written the perfect ending”. It seems many authors are concentrated on the exciting beginning. Apparently our attention spans are so short today that a book has to reach out, grab you by the…
Read MoreGreetings from Matera!
As this goes out, I’m enjoying myself at the annual Matera Women’s Fiction Festival. I’m probably having a brilliant time exploring the picturesque cave district of this unique southern Italian town, chatting about books and reading with fellow participants, learning all about the changing publishing industry from the panels of experts, and enjoying the creative…
Read MoreMy stories will be published in Digital Papercut
I heard the nice news that two of my short stories have been accepted for publication in the online literary journal Digital Papercut. I have been putting together a series of short stories of Italian women and expatriate women living in Italy, which I would eventually like to compile in a collection. In the meantime,…
Read MoreIl rientro…la rentrée
September is well underway, and even if the weather is still beautiful in my part of the world, those crisp evenings provide us with a hint of what’s to come. Summer is almost over. The kids are back to school, and we’re back to work. Holidays are fading into pleasant, but distant memories. This is…
Read MoreWhat’s your writing inspiration this summer?
Summer days are great for lots of things – getting out and enjoying your city or town, meeting up with friends, spending more time with family, taking holidays and slipping out of the rhythms of the daily grind. For writers, it can also be a time for inspiration. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a period…
Read MoreSeven essential elements of a bestselling novel
The ever-helpful Writer’s Digest fuels the imagination of aspiring authors with their handy checklist: Seven essential elements of a bestselling novel. Some – like readability and reasons to care – are obvious. Others, like seeking out controversy are interesting suggestions. The example provided uses as an example Scarlett O’Hara of Gone with the Wind. By any…
Read MoreYoung adult adventure in belle Paris: Author interview with Evelyne Holingue
I’m extremely happy to have talented author Evelyne Holingue on my blog today. I met Evelyne through her fabulous blog. I was bound to love Evelyne’s blog and her writing. Evelyne is from France (alongside Italy, my favorite country in the world), where she grew up in beautiful Normandy and studied in Paris. As an…
Read MoreTwo countries separated by a common language
…or so says the famous line attributed to George Bernard Shaw (except, of course, it seems it may never have been written by the great playwright.) Nevertheless, it’s still a killer line, and one that often springs to mind when I create a non-American fictional character and need to be careful about dialogue. I thought…
Read MoreHow do you know when to give up on a project?
This question was posed in a post over at the fabulous Nathan Bransford blog. Bransford was asking readers when they decide it’s time to lay a current project to rest. It’s an interesting question for writers. After all the effort- and blood, sweat, and tears-writers put into their work, is there a moment when you…
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