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Taking the Mystery out of Writing History Step I: Start with STORY I love teaching. Best of all, I love teaching writers. As a writer myself, I’m drawn to historical fiction. I’m still learning about how to master its techniques, but I love passing along what I’ve learned so far. Here goes: The first and most important thing about writing captivating historical fiction is found...

  Eventually a novelist will be asked, “Is your novel autobiographical?” The answer – for me – is “yes” and “no.” But I understand the curiosity. People are curious about the lives of others. And people are curious about the connection between life and art. In my case, my novels spring from fragments of my own experience. Just as your...

BrIDGES, NOT FENCES. wHY i wROTE SPITE FENCES. I must confess: I am a questioner. All of my novels are a struggle to answer the most difficult questions about our lives as human beings. I never entirely succeed, of course. But I never stop trying. In the case of SPITE FENCES, the question is, "Why do we try to wall each other out by building fences? Why don't we build bridges across our divides...

We used to be the can-do nation. Now, at least at the national level, we seem to be the can’t-do nation. We can’t do universal health care. We can’t do gun control. We can’t do infrastructure improvements. But when you look right under your feet at the place where you live, the can-do spirit is alive and well. There’s the father who built a two-winged chair so he...

When someone dies, we say we have “lost” them. And yet the legacy of a life is not what is lost: it is what still lives on. Toni Morrison has died, and yet she still lives on – in me. I first discovered Toni Morrison when I was book reviewer for our local newspaper. I remember reviewing Sula and The Bluest Eye, but the heart-stopping moment for me was when I finished Song of...

They say that history repeats itself. Actually, they’re not exactly sure who said it. It could have been Karl Marx, George Santayana, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, or any number of likely candidates. But it hardly matters. Because it’s true. History does repeat itself. So if history repeats itself, why can’t I? It’s been about 25 years since my award-winning novels for...

Compassionate Marketing: One Simple Tip for Helping Yourself and Other Writers Compassionate Marketing: It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Right up there with those jumbo shrimp and original copies? Although we are currently in a time of turmoil in which everything about writing is changing for everyone, there was never anything compassionate about publishing and its handmaiden, marketing...

Some may consider it a dubious honor, but I consider it a great privilege that my first novel, Spite Fences, has been banned in many schools. In fact, on a list compiled by the National Council of Teachers of English, it is sandwiched between Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (my very favorite among her books) and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (my all-time favorite book ever written in the...

Coming to a Website Near You! The Book Trailer Hits the Marketplace Ahhhh, the good old days. Once upon a time, writers like me were treated royally by their publishers. My children and I were once swept off to California to receive the International Reading Association prize (Spite Fences). We were feted at an American Library Association Award event at the Rainbow Room in New York City...

Thank you, Nancy Pinard, for the invitation to participate in MY WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR. MY WRITING PROCESS I am currently working on the final proof pages of my very first biography,Fanny Seward: A Life. It will be published in December 2014 by Syracuse University Press.             It differs from other biographies in the genre in that Fanny Seward is a little-known historical figure. Most...