Guest blog by Juliet Cutler When Grace was a child, she would cast shy sideways smiles at me covering her mouth, slouching her shoulders, and looking away. When she spoke at all, I would have to lean in to hear her. Now, in her adolescence, there’s a steadiness about Grace—a [...]

Guest blog by Elizabeth Anne Wood The very act of sharing our experiences with one another has the power to transform lives. Sharing stories gives listeners/readers the comfort that they are not alone and offers them new information or perspectives with which to approach their own challenges. Sharing stories spreads [...]

Guest Blog by Cheryl Campbell When people learn I am a writer, their first question is usually: “What do you write?” My answer: “Science fiction and fantasy novels.” The next question is: “What’s the difference?” The answer lies in genre conventions. A romance novel will have a love story. If [...]

Examining Sexual Assault in YA Novels Guest blog by Heather Cumiskey Remember the cringeworthy scene in the movie Sixteen Candles when Caroline, the ever-popular high school senior, wakes up after a night of drinking to discover that while passed out, she’s had sex with Ted, the freshman geek and former [...]

Guest blog by Maren Cooper When this post is published, I’ll be just two months out from my pub date for A Better Next, my debut novel. Writing is the fourth or fifth chapter in my own life’s book, and is an adventure I didn’t anticipate. One of the themes [...]

Guest blog by Deborah Burns My other-worldly beautiful mother seemed perfect. A chiseled work of art, she evoked the eternal female ideal, standing tall as a distant goddess on a pedestal that only-child me devotedly danced around. Paying homage and idealizing her in all ways was my default. How could [...]

Guest Blog by Barbara Stark-Nemon Nearly a year ago, my nephew and his husband welcomed their first child into the world.  Five years after legally marrying, they established their careers, bought a home, and researched a number of ways to create the family they both wanted. They chose surrogacy as [...]

Guest blog by Mary K. Jensen   The first time it happened I was not prepared. I was sitting atop a high stool, reading to a roomful of women who smiled and laughed as they enjoyed excerpts from “Rudy’s Rules for Travel,” the story of our marriage of opposites meeting [...]

Guest blog by Betsy Graziani Fasbinder More than a decade ago I attended a workshop offered by one of my favorite authors, Pam Houston. Houston offered many nuggets of wisdom that have served me well, but one thing she said has informed my writing and coaching in a profound way: [...]

Guest blog by Bonnie Monte What is it about cozy murder mysteries that devotees of the genre love? Surely it’s not the murder itself. In my experience, cozy lovers are some of the least violent (and brainiest) people I know. What engages their sharp little minds is the puzzle, the [...]