Lily Iona MacKenzie's unbounded zest for life sings through the poems in this collection. A writer in her bones and a dreamer in her heart, she discovers the poetry in everything—travel, art, music, nature, past and present—her words and rhythms touch the soul and leave their treasures behind. “Listen closely to these poems’ quiet but insistent murmur.” (Kathleen McClung)
Lily Iona MacKenzie's unbounded zest for life sings through the poems in this collection. A writer in her bones and a dreamer in her heart, she discovers the poetry in everything—travel, art, music, nature, past and present—her words and rhythms touch the soul and leave their treasures behind. “Listen closely to these poems’ quiet but insistent murmur.” (Kathleen McClung)
Lily Iona MacKenzie's unbounded zest for life sings through the poems in this collection. A writer in her bones and a dreamer in her heart, she discovers the poetry in everything—travel, art, music, nature, past and present—her words and rhythms touch the soul and leave their treasures behind.
“Listen closely to these poems’ quiet but insistent murmur. ” - (Kathleen McClung)
Why do I write? Because if I don’t, I feel as if part of myself has checked out. It’s as important to me as food. Okay, it is food, the word like a communion wafer that melts on my tongue, nourishing body and soul. It’s also like having a lover that never loses his attractiveness, beckoning on the fringes of my days, waiting to embrace me. (more…)
For thirty years now one of my favorite teaching topics in memoir classes is showing characters.
This week in class, everyone created character studies for the people they’re writing about. I want to share some tips for how to do this yourself. (more…)
I’m not your garden variety Canadian. I don’t own a Hudson’s Bay blanket. I don’t go to hockey games anymore. I’ve stopped being nice. I’m no longer so polite. And I gave up my citizenship when I became an American many years ago. But I can’t seem to shake my country of origins, especially now that Trump has become so enamoured with making Canada the 51st state. It makes me want to give up my American citizenship and leave this country that he’s destroying. But at my age, such a move would be extremely difficult. I’ve lived in the America three times longer than I have in Canada. (more…)
I wish I could get excited about graphic novels. I looked at Maus many years ago and tried to get into it. I couldn’t. I didn’t like having prefab images put my own imagination on hold. I didn’t like the lack of complexity I enjoy so much in a literary novel (no graphics). It was like watching tv in print. Everything is oversimplified. Reduced to its lowest common denominator. (more…)
This is the second of a two part series on publishing before the Internet. You can read Part I here.
I first went to work in publishing five decades ago. It was a move I made consciously in order to understand the inner workings of what was then called Harper and Row (now HarperCollins) because I wanted them to publish my work. I started out as an editorial assistant in the department headed by the legendary Ursula Nordstrom who was a brilliant editor and an author herself. UN, as she was known in the office, took chances on unknown authors such as Maurice Sendak and risky ones like Shel Silverstein. A collection of her letters entitled Dear Genius, edited and annotated by the children’s book historian Leonard Marcus, is a book worth reading for a look back at the way an editor can honor a writer’s work while making suggestions that will improve it. UN knew better than anyone how to get the best work out of a writer.
I’ve just finished reading The Editor by Sara B. Franklin which details the remarkable life of Judith Jones who worked with writers as varied as Julia Childs, John Updike and Anne Tyler. Although her boss at the time did not acknowledge Jones’ discovery, she is finally credited with rescuing The Diary of Anne Frank from the rejection pile. Jones was what has now become a rare bird in book publishing… an editor, like UN, who read carefully, made suggestions for improvements to a manuscript while always acknowledging that the writer was the one who had the final say.
Publishing has changed dramatically since those days. Publishers have consolidated and many of the largest in the US are owned by companies in France, Germany and the UK. Amazon dominates the book selling market and introduced the concept of self-publishing so the number of books published every year has exploded. Authors are often called “content providers,” a chilling term to someone who has lived through the glory days of the industry.
Some examples. I used to get letters acknowledging receipt of my manuscript and written rejection letters when it was turned down.I always received copies of my reviews, both good and bad, from outlets large and small. Reviews were not written by ordinary readers logging on to a website (when I started back in the 1970s, the internet didn’t exist yet, at least for everyday citizens) but by critics in mainstream media outlets. If my book was picked up for a foreign edition or a book club, I got a phone call or at the very least, a letter and later, an email informing me of the rights sale and the terms of the license. When I published a novel, I often received one leather bound edition from the publisher as a present.
One of my publishers gave me the original jacket art from my best-selling children’s book
and another, with the blessing of the illustrator, two pieces of inside art from a picture book.
But the best present of all I found recently in a bureau drawer.
Everybody at Harper Junior Books knew of my affection for Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. (You can read about the influence that book had on my own writing in this essay I wrote for the 50th Anniversary edition of the novel.) So they gave me a small silver notebook of my own, a place to keep my secrets, the ones that would feed my stories.
They inscribed the back with the date of my departure and HJB for Harper Junior Books.
Afterwards, when I got home, I added the one line I will always remember from Harriet the Spy.
As Harriet’s nanny Ole Golly, tells her young charge: “Gone is gone. Don’t try to hold on to people or lie down in your memories. Make stories from them.”
Sadly, I tell myself the same about the good old days of publishing. Gone is gone.
But I am still making stories.
Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop (www.elizabethwinthropalsop.com) is the author of over 50 works of fiction for adults and children under the pen name Elizabeth Winthrop. These include the award-winning fantasy series, The Castle in the Attic and The Battle for the Castle as well as the short story, The Golden Darters, read on the nationwide radio program, Selected Shorts,and included in Best American Short Story anthology, and Island Justice and In My Mother’s House, two novels now available as eBooks. She is the daughter of the acclaimed journalist, Stewart Alsop. Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies, a family history about her parents’ love affair during World War II and their marriage lived in the spotlight of Washington during the 1950s was published by Regal House, October 25, 2022.
Follow her newsletters on Substack.
Story Structures for Memoir
American films tend to follow a three-act story structure with a key turning point at the end of the first and second acts. Memoir has no single formula like that for its structure, though it’s not a free-for-all. There are options to choose from.
When I started writing a memoir a few years ago, for the first draft I used a standard narrative structure, telling the story chronologically from the start and end points I chose. That format fit well for me in what I call the discovery draft. I needed clean lines in the structure. (more…)
During my life, I’ve spent considerable time in therapy, psychoanalysis, and self-reflection, examining dreams, my relationships with people in the external world and with the “little people of the psyche.” (more…)
A writing friend of mine has papered her bathroom with rejection slips. Viewed in that context, they become less weighty and are put into perspective. As writers, we tend to think of rejections from publishers as negative. But rejections also can be gifts in disguise, offering us a way to make lemonade out of lemons. (more…)
After I recently published a guest post by Suzanne Sherman on my blog, I responded to her challenge to write nonstop for 10 minutes about why I write. What happened for me confirmed her discovery that “writing lets us dig deeper and find out what we really think about something.” (more…)
California, even in January, still has spring-like qualities, though April always makes me a little nervous. All that new green showing itself. Flowers. Plants. Reveling in an ecstasy of self-indulgence. For a Canadian, such excess seems suspect. But California, northern California that is, doesn’t care. It just keeps making these spring-like gestures, warming up one day. Cooling the next.
Am I complaining? No. It’s a stunning place to live. I have no complaints. Only compliments. (more…)
At a New Year’s Eve party, someone asked if I’m writing lately. I said yes, I’m always writing. The next day, I decided to sit down for 10 minutes to explore the reason for my answer. Writing nonstop for 10 minutes on the topic turned out to be another good example of how writing lets us dig deeper and find out what we really think about something.
I share that writing here with you, writer to writer. I hope it inspires you to write for 10 minutes on the topic and give words to the reasons YOU write. (more…)
Bruno Schulz, the Polish writer, has become my new muse. I’ve been reading his first book, The Street of Crocodiles, and I’m fully captivated. His words and images have such energy that they practically levitate above the page: “A tidy thicket of grasses, weeds, and thistles crackled in the fire of the afternoon. The sleeping garden was resonant with flies. The golden field of stubble shouted in the sun like a tawny cloud of locusts; in the thick rain of fire the crickets screamed; seedpods exploded softly like grasshoppers.” (more…)
 |
Writing a novel is like riding an emotional roller coaster. So many ups and downs. In the beginning, you’re simply trying to create a world that a reader can enter. That means you need to develop believable characters, be they heros or villains, you need to set them in place and time so securely that your reader knows where she stands, and then you need to let those imagined creatures lead you forward. At least, as I’ve written before, that’s the way I do it. In the beginning, as I’ve told students, it’s as if you’re making a snowball that will eventually become the base of a snowman.
 |
Once it begins to form and hold together, you start to push that frozen ball up a snowy hill where every turn of the packed base makes it larger, heavier and more unwieldy, but it’s growing. At some point, you reach the top of the hill. Stop there and take a breath because, if all is going as it should, that’s where the story takes on a life of its own and soon you’ll be chasing it down the other side, writing as fast as you can to keep up with your fully developed characters and all they have to tell you.
One day, you realize you’re done. You’ve written, you’ve revised and if you’re like me, nobody’s read it but yourself.
 |
Here I take another pause. I’ve spent lots of time in this world I’ve created. These characters have kept me company over weeks, months, years so this is my first stage of mourning. I miss my characters and the daily structure they’ve given me. I wander about aimlessly, pretending that the sweater I’m knitting or the photos I’m taking are fulfilling my creative urges. And then when what I call my “creative anxiety” builds to an unsustainable pitch, I send the manuscript out to my editors/readers.
No matter how many books I’ve written, I always imagine and hope that the one I’ve just finished is finally the perfect one, the book that doesn’t need one word changed. Despite having published dozens of novels that hasn’t happened yet, and in my saner moments, I know it never will. My smart readers let me know that there is still work to be done, so I plunge back in, dropping a scene here, adding another one there, changing the direction a character takes and the ensuing consequences. In one book, I had to change the entire manuscript from present to past tense which is the way it should have been written in the first place. I needed a smart editorial assistant to point that out to me and I’m grateful for her honesty.
When the revisions are done and the book has been copyedited, printed and put between two covers, I have another moment of sadness. This stage reminds me of leaving my child wailing at the door on his first day in preschool as I hurry off, trying not to look back.
 |
Now there’s no way to protect this creation from the reviewers. She must make her own way. I’ve done all I can. However, I’ve proven to be a fickle creative parent. By the time that book is out in the world, I usually find I’m getting distracted by another idea, an island setting, an overheard tale or a wily trickster whispering in my creative ear.
If I’m lucky and the publisher has done its job, the book finds its readers and fans, it lands on bookstore shelves and in library nooks, and sometimes all the way into classrooms.
 |
Often my book is translated, published in other countries, excerpted in anthologies. The sales are robust in the first years but usually dwindle slowly over time and one day in two years or ten or even twenty, I get the inevitable letter from the publisher informing me they are putting the book out of print.
Another moment of mourning. The little one I sent out has returned to me somewhat tattered and torn, but having lived a full life in the hands of readers who for a while entered the world I created. I order some last copies, revert the rights so that I hold them should another publisher show interest in reissuing the book, and I move on.
This is an especially poignant week for me because for the first time, I am the one reclaiming the rights of a book still in print. For now, The Castle in the Attic, my fantasy novel for middle grade readers will only be available in an audio version or in used bookstores, and libraries.
 |
I wrote more about the reasons for my decision in my last post, A Big Announcement. Even though it is the right decision for the future of the franchise (a prequel is finished, the first sequel, The Battle for the Castle, is still in print, I’m working on the final sequel and a movie deal is in the works), I am sad at this pause in the 40-year publishing track record of my novel.
But a writer is never not writing. So I’m back on the roller coaster, one third of the way into the final sequel to The Castle in the Attic. The snowball is packed, heavy, unwieldy and I’m teetering on the crest of the hill. Wish me luck on the way down.
P.S. I’m always happy to hear from my readers in any form, but I’m especially grateful if you can write your comments in the Substack app, so that others can read them and respond.
Thanks for reading Table of Contents: 1. Writing 2. Publishing 3. Notes. Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.
Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop (www.elizabethwinthropalsop.com) is the author of over 50 works of fiction for adults and children under the pen name Elizabeth Winthrop. These include the award-winning fantasy series, The Castle in the Attic and The Battle for the Castle as well as the short story, The Golden Darters, read on the nationwide radio program, Selected Shorts,and included in Best American Short Story anthology, and Island Justice and In My Mother’s House, two novels now available as eBooks. She is the daughter of the acclaimed journalist, Stewart Alsop. Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies, a family history about her parents’ love affair during World War II and their marriage lived in the spotlight of Washington during the 1950s was published by Regal House, October 25, 2022.
Follow her newsletters on Substack.
Full disclosure: I started this blog some time ago so I could create a “writer’s platform” to show agents and potential publishers. But it doesn’t come without a cost, and that is one’s privacy, even though my postings mainly focus on some aspect of reading and writing. (more…)
Okay, I’ve been writing for longer than I care to remember, but I still can convince myself (arrogant? yes!) that I don’t need feedback from other writers. This attitude tends to take over when I’ve spent considerable time working on something, as I had with a memoir I’ve written. After all, it’s my story I’m telling! How could someone else help me to improve it? I don’t usually take this approach to fiction. I assume it can be made better. But I’d persuaded myself that this material was ready to be published. (more…)
I can see why the French wanted to occupy Morocco in 1912. And I can also see the remains of that occupation. While the official seizure is over, the French (and others) still dominate. French is spoken as frequently as Arabic. And while officially France may not be in charge any longer, it still has a majority interest in most of the banks and other institutions. It’s not an easy relationship. Of the over 500 riads in Marrakesh’s Medina (the old section of Arab cities), only five or six are owned by Moroccans. That doesn’t mean only French people own the others, but it illustrates how powerless in certain ways some native Moroccans are. (more…)
On my blog today, I’m delighted to be in conversation with the lovely Bonnie Lee Black, a woman who has been Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, Central Africa, who has conducted an independent economic development project in Mali, West Africa, and who has been a professional writer and editor for over 40 years. She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico,
Here is Bonnie’s bio:
Bonnie Lee Black earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles in June 2007. An honors graduate of Columbia University in New York (BA, Lit./Writing, 1979), she has been a professional writer and editor for more than 40 years and an educator in the U.S. and overseas for over 30 years. (more…)
On my blog today I’m talking to Pat Taub, a family therapist, a journalist, a writer/host for the Syracuse NPR station program “Women’s Voices,”a writer for Key West Magazine, and a writing teacher. Pat explains how her memoir, The Mother of My Invention, helped her make peace with her troubled relationship with her mother.
After Regal House Publishing recently released Cliff Garstang ‘s new novel Oliver’s Travels, I asked him to be a guest author on my blog and sent him some questions about his writing process, including how he comes up with titles, the origins of his characters, literary inspirations, what feeds his writing, how he researches his books, and more.
Here are his great responses: (more…)
Joseph Carrabis BioJoseph Carrabis has been everything from a long-haul trucker to a Chief Research Scientist. He’s taught internationally at the university level, holds patents in a base, disruptive technology, created a company that grew from his basement to offices in four countries, helped companies varying in size from mom&pops for F500s develop their marketing, and most of this bored him.
But give him a pen and paper or a keyboard and he’s off writing, which is what he does full-time now. (more…)
“Braided in Fire tells the story of Lieutenant John Fox, a forward artillery observer and posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, who directed friendly artillery fire on his own position as German troops overran Sommocolonia, Italy, on December 26, 1944. Fox’s selfless sacrifice went unrecognized by the U.S. government for half a century simply because he was black. Solace Wales has invested decades in researching this instance of forgotten valor, producing a rich tapestry that interweaves the experiences of the black GIs and Italian villagers caught in the hellish maelstrom that engulfed Sommocolonia the day John Fox died. The result is a moving meditation on the cost of war and a tribute to the African Americans who fought for a country that treated them like second-class citizens.” — Gregory J.W. Urwin, Professor of History, Temple University, author of Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island (more…)
Bio:
Cindy Rasicot is a retired Marriage Family Therapist. Her life has been a spiritual journey that took on new dimensions when she and her family moved to Bangkok, Thailand for three years. There, she met her spiritual teacher, Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, the first fully ordained Theravada nun—an encounter that opened her heart and changed her forever. This deepening relationship led to writing her memoir, Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest to Thailand, which chronicles her adventures along the spiritual path.
Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness is an Inside Job, said about her book, “Cindy Rasicot’s loving account of her own transformation through knowing her is a joy to read.” (more…)
Thanks to author Bobbie Kinkead for sharing the following post with me and my viewers!
When interviewing an author on CWC Berkeley, (CWC = California Writer’s Club) have many links included in the blog post. The author can then post the author’s interview on their blog or website for their audiences to read. Most writing programs on your computer, iPad, emails, texts, online newsletters, or blogs, allow linking; look at the menus under editing or find the linking symbol. Both the interviewer and interviewee should add links to connect twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook page, Amazon’s Author page, Smashword author interview, and online sale sites Kobo, iBook, Sony, Barnes&Nobles, etc. (more…)
If you’re used to me posting something about reading and writing, you may be wondering why my guest interview today is with the visual artist Betsy Kellas. The reason? I think there’s a strong link between painting, sculpture, art installations, and written art, poetry and prose. Both use the line intensively though differently. Both intensely explore our everyday reality. And both use layering to create their effects and to add texture to a work. Here, then, is my interview with Betsy, but I urge you to visit her website and view the range of her artmaking: betsykellas.com
Terry’s bio:Terry’s stories and poems have appeared in over forty literary magazines, and his poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, will be published in May 2020 by Unsolicited Press. He taught college composition and creative writing, and he later survived several Silicon Valley startups as a software engineering manager. Lucky Ride (Unsolicited Press), an irreverent Vietnam-era road novel is set to release in 2022. His website is http://terrytierney.com. (more…)
Meet my guest author Terra Ziporyn, fiction and non-fiction writer.
It’s hard to answer this question because I’ve been writing “books” since I was a kid, and the trajectory of my fiction and non-fiction is very different. I guess I completed my first novel during college, but it’s still in a drawer, along with various other novels I’ve written since then that may never go anywhere else. That first novel was inspired by the life of a troubled friend who life story needed telling. Whether or not it’s worth publishing remains to be seen—I’m a bit afraid to unearth it from my file cabinet. My first published book was an adaptation of my PhD dissertation, a historical study of the way medical research gets communicated in the popular media (Disease in the Popular American Press). That was back in the late 1980s. The first novel I published was Time’s Fool (2001), a historical novel that drew on my academic work in the history of science, centered on a 19th century utopian community. (more…)
Writer Unboxed: Consider these 8 Marketing Tips in 2019 |
| Consider these 8 Marketing Tips in 2019
Posted: 26 Jan 2019 06:17 AM PST
Welcome, Ann-Marie! It’s my 20-something year in PR, my 10th in social media, and good ole lucky 13 as a tiny business owner. While I’m thoroughly enjoying the wisdom of my 40s, I can honestly say that each day at my desk, seated in my well-worn chair, feels brand new. You’ve seen the substantial changes in the media world in 2018—several magazines will cease printing or reduce print schedules. (We’ll miss you Glamour!) You’ve experienced the seismic shifts in social media world. (I can follow #dogsofinstagram hashtag?!) While much has been written in the marketing communications sphere about highlights for 2019, here’s what I’d like my colleagues in words to pay attention to:
So, tell me, where will you begin? About Ann Marie NievesAnn-Marie Nieves is the founder of Get Red PR, and an award-winning communicator with experience across a broad range of industries in both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business sectors. She has experience within all communications platforms including public relations, advertising, marketing, copywriting, website development, community relations, and social media. Web | Twitter | Facebook | More Posts
|
Leslie Lehr’s Bio:
Leslie Lehr is a prize-winning author whose latest, A Boob’s Life: How America’s Obsession shaped Me… and You was featured in People Magazine, Glamour, Good Morning America, and in Entertainment Tonight’s short list of books by “trailblazing women changing the world.” Salma Hayek is producing a comedy series based on A Boob’s Life for HBO Max. In addition to her novels and nonfiction books, her essays have been in the New York Times Modern Love column (narrated by Katie Couric for NPR). Leslie is the Novel Consultant for Truby Writers Studio.
What inspired you to write A Boob’s Life?
One night when my husband and were about to celebrate our first home together, I got out of the shower and noticed my breasts didn’t match. I’d just completed breast cancer treatment and was grateful to be alive. But I was also upset. My husband accused me of being obsessed. As a feminist, I was insulted. Then a comedian on TV made a boob joke, proving it wasn’t just me. I couldn’t sleep.
Next to my bed was my favorite picture of my mom and sister and me in matching red bikinis. It makes me laugh because my baby sister couldn’t keep her nipples covered, I was three and I already knew that nipples were taboo. How can this not be a huge influence about how we feel about our bodies?
I went to my computer to find an answer. There were books about breast cancer and breastfeeding and of course lots of porn, but nothing that put it all together. I could track my whole life by my breasts – wanting them as a girl, hiding them to work, showing them to date, breastfeeding, breast implants, breast cancer… I had to investigate further. Turns out that the way we view breasts, the part of a woman that enters the room first, has influenced both men and women in profound ways.
How do you come up with book titles? Do you know them from the beginning, or do they evolve?
Titles are super important, so I always decide at the beginning. It’s the easy part for me, and the most fun. A good title can also remind me of my story goals as I write. When I consult or teach, I suggest that writers brainstorm titles based on character, setting, plot, and theme to come up with options. Sometimes the publisher changes it, but at least I’ve had my version.
As people learned about your book, what unexpected things happened along the way?
The most unexpected was having a producer want to make A Boob’s Life into a TV comedy series. That was before I even got a book deal. It’s in development now with Salma Hayek’s company for HBOMax. I also am always surprised at the letters I get, and the real opportunities I have supporting related causes that help people. From cancer to breastfeeding to parenting, divorce, and domestic violence, I’ve been able to have a voice to attract support and fundraising. Different themes of the book really speak to all kinds of readers. And recently I’ve had one fan sending me her favorite lines – a lot of them! Writing is lonely, so this is a best result.
What is your preferred genre to write in?
I write to explore the lives of contemporary women. I think that’s why reviewers have called me a “bold new voice for feminism.” I use whatever genre works best for the story I want to tell. I usually start with personal essays that evolve into books, from nonfiction (Welcome to Club Mom) to drama (66 Laps, Wife Goes On) to thriller (What A Mother Knows) to this pop culture memoir (A Boob’s Life).
Where do your ideas come from for stories/books?
You know that old saying, write what you know? I write what I want to know, to find ways to understand the divide between sexy and sacred, the way women are challenged and defined and limited when we are truly complex and doing our best. This passion drives all my work. And, of course, I want to have fun and entertain readers while doing it.
What have people most liked or found most meaningful/funny/creative/ challenging about your book?
Readers of all ages are relating to my personal experiences because all of us with boobs get up in the morning and decide what to do with them. We all get judged by them and have feelings about them. I get letters from both women and men, mothers and daughters, teens and seniors, because it’s A Boob’s Life for all of us. That’s why the subtitle is How America’s Obsession Shaped Me… and You. The mix of memoir is woven with anecdotes and songs and fun facts about how our culture was defining women at each stage. This unique combination made it hard to sell. But it’s also what makes the book so popular, especially now, for Women’ History Month. It’s the history of how America has defined women by our breasts for decades.
Why do you write?
I write to have a voice. I started with essays to figure things out and have my opinion on record. I wrote the NYT Modern Love essay to show something that truly surprised me about love. I had no intention of going deeper. Then one day I knew I had to write a book related to it and go much deeper. It’s incredible to start with an idea and make it real, to work hard and create something that can move and delight others. It’s magic.
What’s the hardest part of writing or publishing?
Writing is the fun part for me. Not the first draft but revising. It’s like having a puzzle and playing with the pieces. Publishing is all hard. It’s such a gamble. Writers have no control unless we do it ourselves and publish independently. But that is not my strong skill set. I just want to write!
What are you currently working on or have future plans to write?
I’m currently working on a novel based on real events that I’ve been trying to approach from different angles for decades. It’s a historical novel combining love story and drama. Just recently, I found a notebook from high school saying I needed to write this story before I was 25 and “over the hill.” Ha!
What is your most bizarre talent?
I don’t know of a bizarre talent, but I sure have a bizarre lack of talent: typing. I was forced to take typing in high school because girls needed to have a fallback career as a secretary. I was not interested, so I nearly failed. (I wasn’t planning to be a writer.) I still type with four fingers.
When We Were Shadows, for middle-school students, is based on the true story of a Jewish boy and his family hiding from the Nazis in WWII in Holland. It traces his journey at the age of 5 from Germany to
Holland in 1937, where the family thought they would be free of the persecution happening to Jews in their home country, only to have their haven invaded by the Nazis 3 years later. The story describes how the family fled from one hiding place to another, aided by people in the Dutch Resistance, until they found refuge in a hidden village in the Veluwe forest. For 18 months they lived in fear of discovery, and were assisted by local villagers and the Resistance, and trying to make the best of their situation. After the village was attacked, the boy and his family had to take on new identities and continued to hide until liberation in Zwolle by the Canadians in 1945. (more…)
We are so excited to welcome our newest contributor to Writer Unboxed—-Ann-Marie Nieves! Ann-Marie is the founder of the highly respected company 
