I was talking to a friend who has taught English composition for 30 years about how I'd suddenly been gripped with the urge to write about barrenness instead of keeping on with my historical novel. She said something wise. She said "of course you do. You have to understand your main character, who she is, why she makes the choice she makes not to ( Read more... )

I took part in a virtual mythology conference a couple of weekends ago. The "chat" feature was in heavy use during each presentation, allowing us all to comment freely.

After a while I became aware that one commentator was filtering every talk, no matter what it was about, through her own fixation on "prenatal trauma" and childbirth as the root ( Read more... )

I'm starting to wonder if I should veer more into fiction with this book, make it "inspired by" my family story instead of "based on." Then I could go where I wanted with it. But there's really only one aspect of the story I would change. The rest of it is so beautifully apt for a novel. There's a hero, there's a heroine, there's plenty of conflict ( Read more... )

After decades of writing nonfiction books, I am venturing into the world of fiction. Historical fiction, to be precise, which blends nonfiction with fiction. I am finding that it takes an enormous amount of research! I'm not just setting my novel during real events, in a real town, but using real people as my characters. So I have to know ( Read more... )