February 22, 2017 | Filed under: Authors, Digital publishing and technology
Search Results by tag: personal essay
“How do you write?” is a question every writer is asked. The enquiry is entirely practical: “I mean, do you use a computer? A pen and paper?” I used to reply with a puff of ... Read More »
I read Alice Munro for the first time when I was living in a semi-abandoned cottage near an open-cast coal mine in Wales. We had no TV and no central heating and the nearest village ... Read More »
December 5, 2016 | Filed under: Authors
On the day I was diagnosed with cancer, I began a journal. Throughout my adult life, writing has been my touchstone and I knew that if I were to survive the upheaval that accompanies a ... Read More »
November 1, 2016 | Filed under: Authors, Writing life
When my husband, a management consultant, was transferred to Hong Kong in 2000, I placed my job as a psychiatric emergency-room nurse on hold and packed up the house. And moved. For two years. To ... Read More »
September 29, 2016 | Filed under: Authors, Opinion, Writing life
"You have to shed your academic personality,” the literary agent said. “Your manuscript is not suitable as a trade book. You have to imagine you’re writing for the man or woman on the street. Can ... Read More »
August 22, 2016 | Filed under: Authors
My first experience of the semantic headaches self-deception creates when working in a literary genre (creative non-fiction) that aims to capture the nuance and subtlety of life – the real “truth,” as it were – ... Read More »
In the beginning, it was quiet. I used to write once my daughter, Claire, then seven years old, went to bed. The entire first draft of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, my debut novel, was written ... Read More »
June 20, 2016 | Filed under: Authors
I can’t recall the exact incident. Perhaps it was the announcement of another all-white panel, literary event, or award shortlist in my social media feed. I do recall feeling frustrated and defeated – the same ... Read More »
When I was first diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, I didn’t want to talk about it to anybody. I grudgingly talked to doctors, but I didn’t want to go to support groups ... Read More »
March 29, 2016 | Filed under: Authors, People, Writing life
When asked about the genesis of my novel-in-stories, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, about a woman struggling with body-image issues, two seemingly incongruous memories most persistently come to mind: listening, as an ... Read More »
February 17, 2016 | Filed under: Authors