Grounded in the setting of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, fans of historical fiction will appreciate the careful research that has gone into the weaving of the latest by prolific author Tracie Peterson. “Remember Me” captures Addie Bryant at her lowest point and traces her journey into safety and hope. Yet her dark past shadows her […]
Author: Bonita Jewel
Want to Write Books for Children?
Don’t Think It’s Easier than Writing for Adults. On Writing for Children In my last blog post, I talked about becoming a better writer by trusting your readers more. In this post, I want to talk about how this is especially important when it comes to books written for children and young people. But first, […]
Want to be a Better Writer? Trust Your Reader.
So, you want to be a better writer. Every writer does, right? Even bestselling authors can be dissatisfied with their writing skills and want to be better writers. If we have the right mindset, we’ll constantly work to improve some aspects of our writing craft and grow better at it. I thought I was a […]
Inconstant Time – Annie Dillard
It is funny how the occasion imperceptibly changes, like the light, at an inconstant rate. At any given glance you may see that the dog has rolled over in his sleep, or the trees have lost their leaves. Morning drains inexpressibly into lunchtime, or Christmastime. Overhead the geese are migrating, just as they were the […]
Characters Are We
Time is unfolding like a scroll, and we are letters on the parchment, helping to make up the words that tell the story. Each of us is a character, in both senses of the word. At times, characters become aware that they’re part of the story, and that brings the realization that, first, there is […]
The Best Books I’ve Read on the Writing Life
There comes a time in every aspiring writer’s life that they decide they want to learn writing from the best writers out there. And that means reading books on writing by successful and well-loved authors. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to choose from. It seems that nearly every successful and established writer has written […]
The 12 Best Books I Read in 2021
I didn’t reach my reading goals for 2021. I started the year with a Reading Challenge on Goodreads of completing 77 books. Didn’t think it would be too challenging. After all, in 2020, I read 126 books (although my initial goal was only 99). In fact, I’ve met or exceeded my reading challenges for the […]
Rest in Joy, Joan Didion
In Memoriam, A Review of The White Album Joan Didion, American novelist and essayist, passed away last week, at the age of 87. Her book, The White Album, was required reading for me to obtain my MFA in Creative Writing. One of my professors loved her work and spoke about it at length. I had […]
5 Hard-Earned Remote Work Lessons
I’ve been working from home for over 10 years as a freelance writer and editor. These days, clients search me out and invite me to work with them … But it wasn’t always like this. I’ve learned several lessons about remote work, particularly while launching my work-from-home career. Some of these lessons were costly in the […]
The Still Point – A Poem
When you believe in a dream you can reach You head out west or any of the four directions or six, counting ground And sky But some part of you returns or remains, the still point From which you travel To which some part of you always returns