A while back, I posted an essay to a Facebook group of women writers that I’m in. In a nutshell, this essay is about me — while I was living in Hanoi — dating a much younger Vietnamese man for 10 months, who turned out to be a covert narcissist. He almost killed me. You would think that the comments about my essay would centre around the cycle of narcissistic abuse, or trauma bonds or intermittent reinforcement. Or how a smart, educated woman like myself could be drawn in by manipulation and lies. How I was gaslighted and controlled. Or why leaving emotionally abusive
Continue reading...Writers write about creative writing Regular readers will know that over the last 18 months—yes, it’s been that long since it started!—I’ve been running a series by writers, for writers, on their approach to creative writing, with a special focus on how they fit writing into their busy lives. I am super pleased to announce that The Secret Lives of Writers is now available in the Amazon Kindle store, Kobo, Nook and and iBooks. You can grab your copy from the Delicious Publishing Book Store. So who is this book about writing for? If you are interested in creative writing, or dabble in
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Photo via Visual Hunt. Used with permission. Someone asked me recently, knowing that I was a writer and knowing I wrote mostly non-fiction and knowing that I often wrote about difficult things, whether I wrote for healing. As in, was writing a cathartic way of lancing a few boils? I responded in the negative. And it got me thinking. Why do I write? Hell, why does anyone write? It’s not like I have a huge audience of a gazillion people champing at the bit to digest every word I write. It’s not for money, because I don’t earn a living from
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Aniko Carmean is a Virginia girl living in Austin, Texas. She writes stories and novels in a variety of genres, including horror, science fiction, and literary-artsy. Her definition of success involves stickers, giving away free versions of everything she writes, and dwelling in the beauty of the literary community rather than the anxiety of selfish grasping. You can find links to free downloads of all Aniko’s published works at Odd Sky Books. The surprising benefits of being your own patron I began writing in October of 2005. Oh, there were some stories written in high school, and a few tender, overly
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Karen Banes is a writer, editor, indie author, wife, mother, truth seeker and trouble maker. She’s lived, worked and studied in five countries on three continents. She mainly writes non-fiction, dabbles in short fiction and dreams of writing a dystopian future novel. She loves connecting with other writers and indie authors and shares an awful lot of writing and publishing tips, mainly on Twitter and at her website KarenBanes.com. Five Myths about the Writing Life – Busted There are many myths about the writing life. Writing is easy. Writing is astronomically hard. Everyone has a book in them. Shakespeare didn’t
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Libby Parker is a teacher of English, Drama, Media Studies and life lessons, a qualified journalist who loves the arts, and a performer who dreams of an occasion to drop the mic. Libby lives in Adelaide with her husband, two gorgeous step-children and a high maintenance cat. You can find her at The Upside News. After six years of being a secondary school teacher, I decided it was time to throw in the towel and try to achieve a lifelong goal: become a journalist. I left a permanent teaching job, where I held a position as a faculty coordinator, and
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Jillian Schedneck is the author of the travel memoir Abu Dhabi Days, Dubai Nights, published by Pan Macmillan in 2012. She received her PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Adelaide in 2013, for which is won the University Doctoral Medal. Her first novel is called Hungry for the World and Its Glow. You can find out more about Jillian on her website. Nonfiction writer Patricia Hampl once said that no matter what she studied or what kind of job she took, she would always be a writer. Whatever she learned in those other facets of her life would
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M.J. Ernest lives with his wife and Golden Retriever in Chicago. He’s written pieces that have made it to print, but it’s still on his bucket list to earn the official title of “published author.” His current writing project is a murder mystery novel he feels has the best chance for checking that item off his list. When he wants a change of pace from writing his novel, he works on one of the projects from his writing wish list or adds another article to his blog, The Church Of The Cheese Omelette. You can also find him on Facebook.
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Ronnie was born in Chilliwack, which isn’t as fun as it sounds. After traveling the world, she is happily settled in Northern Canada with family—both human and canine—writing and painting. You can contact Ronnie via her her website or email, and you can purchase her books on Amazon. I am a writer. Just saying it makes me so happy. It took me years to spit that out without feeling pretentious. I used to think, ‘Hey, who are you kidding? Stephen King is a writer. Nora Roberts is a writer.’ Now I work part-time in our local library because it’s fun to sit
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Laura Roberts writes about sex, travel, writing, and ninjas—though not necessarily in that order. As the author of the “V for Vixen” sex column, Laura began her career chronicling Montrealers’ sexcapades, which are collected together in her book of essays, The Vixen Files. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, she’s also penned Confessions of a 3-Day Novelist, Ninjas of the 512, parts one and two of her serial novel, Naked Montreal, and a wide assortment of erotic Quickies. Laura is also the founding editor of the literary magazine Black Heart, and can leg-press an average-sized sumo wrestler while sipping her
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Panos Dionysopoulos is an Adelaide author who lives with his wife Margie and Burmese cat Minkah. He has been trying to edit three novels at once as well as finding the time to write more in general, whilst attempting not to fall into poverty or get lost inside his head. You can find out more about Panos on his blog Kingdom of Pan and he’s on Twitter as @PanosD. When I finished my first novel, I cried. Technically, the tears didn’t flow until a half hour later when I got home from the friend’s house I was working at to make sure I finished
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