Countdown to Publication—Week Five

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter.”   Oscar Wilde

          I am five weeks away from the publication of my debut novel IF I BRING YOU ROSES and I am…

Last night was a late one.  And an exciting one!  I stayed up into the bleary-eyed hours, restructuring and putting a whole new face on SheWrites.com.  Happy 2nd Anniversary, She Writers, and WELCOME TO THE NEW & IMPROVED SHE WRITES!  (Whoa, 2nd Anniversary excitement just possessed my hand to hit the caps lock key. I'll try to keep it down over here.)

What the New Look is All About

She Writes' new "skin" is based on white for a…

Everybody stretch with me, do some downward dog, cross your fingers, and send your best vibes -- tonight is game time. I'm about to go into the technological back end of She Writes and install the redesign we've been working on! 

I'm incredibly excited about unveiling this new "look and feel,"…

"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SHE WRITES!"

Finding material to write about is not always easy.  One route is the memoir, which is built on revealing material you know well. Or you can write about something you don’t know well but would like to learn about. I combine the two by weaving some – but not all – of my own life story with answers to the question “What’s going on with women?” I have spent most of my professional life…

It’s rather odd that it needs to be stated, but I never thought of her that way. Betty Friedan was many things to many people—hero, activist, mentor, speaker, pain in the butt—but I only knew her as my grandmother. At her heart, though, and through the things I have learned since her death, I think she was a writer.

After all, the book began it all. And when I say ‘the book’, I mean The Book. The Feminine Mystique. The book…

Hello intrepid She Writers!

Your techie is back with another fun new functionality (remember that geek word of the day from my last post?)...our Latest Activity Feed just got a whole lot fancier and interactive!

So what's new?

• You can now post status updates…

Available now on She Writes Radio... She Writes Founding partner Deborah Siegel and Dani Shapiro discussing time management and carving out time in the dark in a busy, social-media filled life. Listen to the whole show here!

Be sure to tune in on Monday for She Writes Radio with She Writes founder Kamy Wicoff and Nancy Miller

Countdown to Publication--Week Six

Father’s Day got me thinking about what my father taught me about writing, a lesson that I still value even though he passed away twenty-five years ago at age 54.

             He was fastidious about…

Available now on She Writes Radio, Carleen Brice, Ellen Sussman, and guest host Meg Waite Clayton discussing the steps to publishing a book, from finding an agent to the writing process. Listen to the whole show here!

And be sure to listen in tomorrow on She Writes Radio for 'Recalibrating Writing/Life Balance in a Digital World'

Adèle Geras is the author of over 90 books for readers of all ages. Her latest adult title is A HIDDEN LIFE (Orion), her latest young adult book is DIDO ( Corgi), and she has recently brought out a picture book (illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas) for younger children called MY BALLET DREAM (Orchard). She lives in Cambridge.



Visit her website at…

Here is what you might have missed around She Writes this past week.

Top Content 

Hello She Writers,

This is your Social Community Manager and friendly tech geek, Julia, here.

I confess, I'm excited about She Writes turning two years old in a matter of days. I've really been into our celebratory…

Now available on She Writes Radio, Alexandra Styron, Kathryn Harrison, and guest host Sarah Saffian talking about memoirs, characters who actually exist, and how to tell our stories in a way that is both unique and universal. Listen to the whole show here!

Make sure to check out tomorrow's She Writes radio, This is NOT "Feminine Tosh": Writing…

Available now on She Writes Radio, editor Alexandra Shelley (editor of Kathryn Stockett's "The Help") and literary agent Eleanor Jackson discussing revision, publishing, and how to know when a book is 'finished'. Listen to the whole show here!

If you're looking for tools and experts to help you with editing your project or your agent search, be…

No doubt about it, an outreach to bloggers in your niche is becoming an essential part of the publicity your book receives, especially now that the traditional, schlepping-around-the-country-tour is a thing of the past, except for the top tier authors—you know, the ones who need it least. Knowing that I've organized and participated in a few blog tours (most recently for The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing…

Rebecca Lynn, author of the soon-to-be published Descendents Saga, talks to She Writes intern Isabel Farhi about self-publishing, internet publishing, and her genre choices

You have written books of all different genres, from urban fantasy to high fantasy to…

Sarah Glazer Remembers Something Else that Could Only Happen to a Woman

 I was overwhelmed and touched by the generous comments from women in the She Writes community to my last blog  about my experience with attempted rape when I was a student at the University of…

Countdown to Publication Blog -- Week 7.

 She Writes amigas, I have a confession to make: I had a crisis of faith. It began with a question, sneaking up on me while I was doing something as ordinary…

“I am always nagged by the question “Do I do what I do in ways to attract others to want to do it?” Do the students who see me in the library simply see me as the lady who checks out books or do they realize how involved the work of a school librarian really is?

There is no doubt that I love being a librarian. I love the possibilities, the challenges, the ability to use my creativity and intelligence. I love growing through what I do. It is sad that so many teachers don’t…