The Salonniere's Blog (43)

Shout Out a She Writer for International Women's Day!

As we all know too well, women writers -- not to mention directors, producers and other creative women -- are up against it when it comes to making our voices heard. As VIDA's 2010 edition of "The Count" laid bare, men review more books, more books by…

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Added by The Salonniere on March 8, 2011 at 10:00am — 19 Comments

Do You Know An "Invisible Woman"? Because We Want to Meet Her.

Last week on a trip to the west coast, I was lucky enough to meet with newly minted She Writes member (welcome her!) JENNIFER SIEBEL NEWSOM, creator of the documentary film…

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Added by The Salonniere on February 8, 2011 at 2:00pm — 35 Comments

A Letter from Kamy: Exciting News about She Writes

Dear all,

I'm so very happy and pleased to be writing to you today to tell you about some exciting new developments here at She Writes.

As you know, since our launch on June 29, 2009, we have grown into a thriving community of more than 13,000 women (and men) from around the world. The diversity…

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Added by The Salonniere on January 25, 2011 at 12:02pm — 3 Comments

Who Inspired (and inspires!) You to Write? (Or: The History of My Literary Love Affairs) Prompt 3 #swinspires

When I first began to read, it was LAURA INGALLS WILDER, E.B. WHITE, CAROLYN KEENE (who I thought was a person, not a syndicate) and FRANCES HODGSON…

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Added by The Salonniere on December 15, 2010 at 1:30pm — 10 Comments

Ten Reasons You (and Everyone You Know) Should Give Books This Holiday Season

10 REASONS WHY YOU (and Everyone You Know) SHOULD GIVE BOOKS AS GIFTS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

ONE:

When you give someone a book, you create a way to share an experience that

will continue long after the holidays. Months later, you can… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on December 9, 2010 at 1:30pm — 2 Comments

Creativity, Perserverance, and Other Best Videos for Writers

Last night at the salon of women writers I started years ago with Nancy K. Miller, our guest was the novelist, essayist and poet Siri Hustvedt, who prepared a talk for our group on the neuroscience of creativity, a field in which she is a well-known expert. It was one of the best, most… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on December 2, 2010 at 8:00am — 2 Comments

Give Thanks to A Woman Brave Enough to Tell You Her Story.

Added by The Salonniere on November 25, 2010 at 2:55pm — No Comments

This Would Be Funny if it Weren't So Infuriating

So while I would like to forget about the whole Wasserstein Prize thing, I just can't. Partly because the Director of Communications for the Theater Development Fund, David LeShay, emailed me the day after my blog post about the fund's decision not to award a prize this year because none of the 19 finalists selected by THEIR process was good enough for it. (And yes, they blamed the playwrights, not their own process, until they ran into a firestorm of protest and suddenly changed their minds.)… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on November 18, 2010 at 12:00pm — 28 Comments

How Do You Read?

This never used to be a question. Kamy Wicoff asks: How do you read?

You read by opening up a book, or picking up any piece of paper with letters printed on it, and go! Now this has all changed. With e-books exponentially increasing in popularity in ways that have taken the industry… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on November 11, 2010 at 1:00pm — 15 Comments

What Word (or Words) Gross You Out the Most?

In writing today's email, themed off of "Wednesdays", we realized "hump" (as in hump day) is one of the grossest words we know. What are yours?

Join the discussion we've started here!

Added by The Salonniere on November 10, 2010 at 2:00pm — No Comments

"The Women Are Back!" Wait A Minute -- Did We Leave?

First of all, let's just give it up for Publishers' Weekly this year. They have announced their "Ten Best Books of 2010," and guess what? There are WOMEN on it! And one of them isn't white! Wow! (Is anyone else wondering, however, why these knuckleheads had Patti Smith, the rocker of all time, make a kind of Britney-fied "oops I did it again"… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on November 8, 2010 at 2:51pm — 19 Comments

Writing or Hand-Writing: What Do We Lose When We Type?

The singular pleasures, and irreplaceable results, of writing by hand.

A few weeks ago, my mother sent me an email to thank me for a book I'd sent to her. And in her email she wrote: "I need to write you a real letter. Hard copy, by hand."

I knew just what she meant. An email is not a letter, and a letter means much more. Which got me to thinking. What is it that is so precious about hand-writing? Why does a letter from my mother, pulled like a jewel from… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on November 4, 2010 at 1:00pm — 47 Comments

Five Questions for Dawn Davis, from the Salonniere

Last month, Dawn Davis, editorial director of the Amistad imprint at Harper Collins, was promoted to be its publisher, and also given the job of Executive Editor at Ecco, another Harper imprint. Dawn is one of the most influential women in publishing, and is particularly a woman-to-watch when it comes… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on October 28, 2010 at 1:00pm — 10 Comments

Contest! Tell Us Why You Write -- Then Wear the Shirt.

Help us celebrate the opening of the She Writes Cafe Press store by entering our latest writing contest.

On Monday, I wrote about Gloria Feldt's powerful new power-book full of power-tools (more power to you!), No Excuses, because I believe it's a book every woman writer should read. And I called out one of my favorite of Gloria's… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on October 22, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

What Are You Reading Now? Show Us Your Bedside Table! (No, not that drawer)

She Writers, what are you reading? We are introducing a new feature on She Writes (well, new-ish), an invitation to ALL She Writers to tell us what you are reading now. We have had the wonderful luck to have several of you contribute columns to our "What She's Reading Now" series (if you want to pitch us on one, check out the submission guidelines… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on October 20, 2010 at 12:30pm — 58 Comments

Nine Reasons Every Woman Writer Should Read "No Excuses"

I don't tend to read a lot books about writing. But I have a few favorites, and they have been transformative for me -- Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers; Anne Lamott's… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on October 15, 2010 at 10:30am — 11 Comments

What's In A Title? Everything. Tell Us Yours!

Titles matter. A lot. Every writer knows this, and so does every publisher, producer and reader. Titles draw us in or turn us off; titles are clear or disastrously muddled; titles stick with us or slide off our brains without leaving a trace.

Last night, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a mini-writing workshop, of sorts, with the editor, author and agent Betsy Lerner, in conversation… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on October 7, 2010 at 8:00am — 45 Comments

Come and Word-Play, She Writes!

Over the years, I have had an extremely clever, utterly delightful list of words forwarded to me accompanied by a variety of subject lines -- sometimes it's the Washington Post Mensa Invitational, sometimes the Style Invitational, sometimes just "I never forward things like this, but I couldn't resist!"

Have you seen it too? It's a list of words given alternate definitions, and it is indeed hilarious.

Some choice bits:

Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on September 23, 2010 at 11:00am — 3 Comments

Where Learning To Read (and Write) Can Get You Killed -- If You're A Girl.

I don't know quite how to start this post. So I think I will start with what inspired it -- if "inspired" is a word I can even use in this context.… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on September 16, 2010 at 11:13am — 7 Comments

How Do You Know If It's A Book?

You know you have a great idea, but is it a BOOK? (As opposed to an essay, a magazine article, or a compelling blog?) Three of our Passion Project judges -- an agent, a publisher and an author -- talked with Kamy Wicoff about how you can tell the difference.

In reading the entries for the She Writes Passion Project -- a contest… Continue

Added by The Salonniere on September 9, 2010 at 1:30pm — 3 Comments