Writer Unboxed

Therese here. Today’s guest is Annie Neugebauer, who’s here to talk about how to be a more confident writer. Annie is an award-winning poet, and a writer of short stories and novel-length works. Her writing has appeared in–or will soon in appear in–the following publications and venues: Underneath the Juniper Tree, The Spirit of Poe, [...]

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Therese here. Please welcome today’s guest, the one and only Sarah Callender, who’s here to talk with us about how doubt can be good for a writer. Sarah’s blog, Inside-Out Underpants, is one of my personal favorites–intimate and authentic, and highlighting Sarah’s sharp wit. Case in point, her recent blog post entitled Graffiti, in which she announced [...]

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Therese here. I’m excited to present today’s guest, author Carleen Brice, who’s here to talk about self-doubt and how to combat it. Her debut novel, Orange Mint and Honey, was made into a Lifetime Movie Network movie under the title Sins of the Mother, and pulled in the highest rating of any movie produced by that [...]

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The first time I had to speak in public was for the American Association of University Women’s annual Breakfast with the Authors at theGeorgetown,MAlibrary. I was the warm-up act for André Dubus III, who is one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard. I, on the other hand, was less than stellar. I’d avoided public [...]

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The writing life is one never-ending roller coaster ride of rejections and acceptances, of form rejections and personal rejections, of thoughtful feedback and hurtful criticism. One day, you’re down in the dumps. The next you’re on top of the world, and nothing can come between you and your victory. Until the next dip in the [...]

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Therese here. Today’s guest is author Orna Ross–a Penguin-published novelist who has recently self-published a book called Inspiration Meditation: A Guide For Writers Artists & Everyone, teaching step-by-step meditations to help cultivate creative flow. When Orna reached out several months ago and asked about speaking to this subject, we jumped at the opportunity. Who wouldn’t [...]

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In my post last month, I talked about a really hard-to-find essay that was written in 1985 (thanks for the fabulous feedback, by the way). This time, I’d like to talk about a very easy-to-find conversation that took place in 2009 between two extremely popular writers/speakers in the tech community (John Gruber & Merlin Mann). [...]

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In an idle moment a few months ago,when I was between novels and feeling at something of a loose end, I finally got around to doing something I’d been thinking about for a while: start my own blog on food and all sorts of culinary matters, with a French-Australian slant. I wanted it to be [...]

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What inspires you as a writer? If you write, and especially if you’re an author who visits book groups, you’ve likely been asked that question more than once. I think the question has more than one level, as does the answer. Like me, you may not even recognize all of your inspirations until after you’ve finished a [...]

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So how is this for an opener: Here is my blog post called Writing in the Cold about my video called Writing in the Cold, which is about an essay by Ted Solotaroff called “Writing in the Cold”, which was published in Granta in 1985. The essay was something one of my MFA mentors (Leonard [...]

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Therese here. Today’s guest is Joe Bunting, who’s here today to blog about two different sorts of writers: the Genius and the Late Bloomer. Joe, a self-professed Late Bloomer, founded the blog The Write Practice, a site that showcases craft techniques and then encourages writers to practice them for fifteen minutes a day, six days [...]

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In last week’s trip to a national mountain park, our plan was simple: By day, the ToolMaster and Frank would bike the highway while I wrote to my self-imposed deadline. At night we’d have family time. I loved this arrangement. I thought it especially great because this book I’m drafting still has sizeable gaps, and [...]

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