No family is without fault; few parents can be labeled good or bad. Both Priscilla Gilman and E. Dolores Johnson demonstrated that truth with extraordinary openness in their memoirs—for which we can all be grateful. Truth-telling is hard. The Critic’s Daughter by Priscilla Gilman Gilman captures the nuances of a family—her remarkable father with fine-grained … Read more
“I’m looking for possible blurbs to be published on the back or inside cover of my 90-year-old mother’s novel,” Michelle Hoover wrote on Facebook. “Her health is precarious, she’s isolated in a care facility in Iowa, and I want to do something that raises her spirits and makes true one of her dreams, or as … Read more
If you read as I do (unceasingly, never sticking to any one genre, and always with a backup book (or ten) just in case, you’re always seeking books to match your current mood, yes? Pride and Prejudice won’t do when you’re in a Frankenstein mood. There are times nothing will work except dark and broody-moody, to … Read more
Roman à clef is a form of fiction I’ve always enjoyed reading, from Primary Colors to The Devil Wears Prada). Encyclopaedia Britannica defines roman à clef like this: (French: “novel with a key”) novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters. In The Widow of … Read more
There’s a reason more people understand the Holocaust from The Diary of Ann Frankthan from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Story. Since the cave man days we’ve learned more history through storytelling than textbooks. I know I have. Writing a novel that includes social, health or political issues carries great responsibility. We … Read more