Tag Archives: writing

Queens and Elephants

Dear Reader, I have two goodies to share with you today! First of all, my forthcoming novel, “Four Sisters, All Queens,” made a world premiere last week when I read five of my favorite pages during the Flying Pig Reading Series here in Spokane. I’ve included the link to the video for your viewing pleasure:Sherry […]

How I Got My Agent

The first literary agent who read the manuscript of my first novel snapped it up. Don’t hate me, though: She turned it down the first time she read it, plunging me into despair. Why did Natasha Kern reject my first submission? As so many first-time authors have done, I sent her my first draft. She […]

Self-Publishing: Carpeing the Diem, or Wasting Time?

Like internet dating, self-publishing is something I always swore I would never do. Like internet dating, it seemed an act of desperation, the last resort for writers who couldn’t get published in any other, legitimate, way. Then news that an Oakland, California religious group had predicted the Rapture and ensuing Apocalypse would happen on May […]

Passion: More Than Just Play

In 52 years of marriage,Vladimir Nabokov wrote hundreds of love letters to his wife, Vera. This I find touching, even moving. But surprising? Hardly. Nabokov was a writer, after all, and no doubt he expressed himself most perfectly via the written word. He was also, as anyone knows who has read “Lolita,” a man of […]

You Are So Selfish — And That’s a Good Thing.

The man I love is a composer of classical music. He is also a music professor and conductor, which makes his time for writing very precious. “I guess I’m selfish in that way,” he said recently, as calmly — and non-judgmentally — as if he were discussing his hair color. I caught my breath. Selfishness, […]

My Story: Finding Power Within

Dear Reader, Every writer, it’s said, has a single story to tell — and tells it over and over again. A’isha bint Abi Bakr, the most famous and influential woman in Islam, inspired me to write about her life in my novels “The Jewel of Medina” and “The Sword of Medina.” Now that I’m at […]