The End of All Things – Character and Plot by Tara Sim
One of my favorite parts of writing a book is developing the characters who inhabit it. The flaws, the relationships, the triumphant overcoming of obstacles and/or getting beaten down by…
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Unschooled: Writing without an MFA by Celia Pérez
When I was in college, I stumbled across a book in the library titled The Teenage Liberation Handbook. It was written by a woman named Grace Llewellyn, and it introduced…
The joy and power of writing from your life experience, in all its messy, beautiful, complicated glory by Mayra Cuevas
My debut novel comes out in March. And anyone who knows my history will immediately recognize parts of my life in the story. They will see glimpses of my parents’…
Endings and beginnings: A journey from surviving to thriving by shannon messenger
I found out I was getting divorced November 5, 2018—the night before FLASHBACK (the seventh book in my Keeper of the Lost Cities series) released. I was zipping up my…
Me, My Divorce, and My Pretend Boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal by Caroline Tung Richmond
In 2007, I was twenty-four years old and newly married. I was also an aspiring writer. After collecting a lot of rejection letters, I finally got to see my name…
Fear and Revision by Elsie Chapman
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started, deleted, and restarted this post about revision. Because how can I possibly have something insightful to add when I believe…
This AND That: Being a Hybrid Writer by Alexandra Villasante
My abuela lived in Uruguay and was a curandera—a wise woman, healer or, depending on who you asked, a witch. Her name was Herosilda, but everyone called her Yuyú for…
The spiritual side of reading & writing, and the guilt of not doing enough of either by Brittney Morris
My debut novel SLAY—a book about a Black teen game developer who creates a Wakanda-inspired VR game with duel cards based on Black culture and Black history—comes out September 24th.…
