Broadcast News has always been one of my top ten favorite films, ever since I saw it in the theater as a teenager. When I was young, I enjoyed it for its witty banter and the depiction of its feminist yet feminine protagonist, Holly Hunter’s Jane. At one point, Jane’s boss says to her sarcastically, “It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you’re the smartest person in the room.” Holly Hunter/Jane responds, deadpan, “No. It’s awful.” Watch the scene The movie is …
Writer
I love writing, and I also love to write ABOUT writing, classic female authors, and whatever else might be on my mind. I hope you enjoy the variety!
Favorite Daughters: Path to Publication
It’s been several years since I’ve published a novel, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. I started Favorite Daughters roughly six years ago, and I went through multiple revisions and rewrites, and a long process in finding a publisher. But I am happy to announce that Black Rose Writing will release Favorite Daughters in August of 2022. Why the wait? Traditional publishers have a long, complicated process and they want to make sure they get everything right. Today, I am celebrating …
Swim Challenge
This fall, as part of my MFA program in Creative Writing at Lindenwood University I took a course in revisionist fiction. When I told them about the course, my friends and family would ask, “What’s revisionist fiction?” Revisionist fiction is when you take an original work, and riff on it. For instance, there’s the original Pride and Prejudice, and then there’s a plethora of revisionist works, like Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies, or Ibi Zoboi’s excellent YA novel, Pride, or Curtis Sittenfeld’s …
Feminist Fiction Writers: Dorothy Parker
If “A Phone Call” was the only story by Dorothy Parker that you ever read, you might dismiss her as frivolous. It would be easy to overlook the commentary on gender dynamics, or the skilled, biting humor that is grounded in self-deprecation, and which layers a profound sadness underneath. “A Telephone Call” is a tragi-comic rambling of a woman so desperate for a man to call her that she’s pushed to the edge. But if you consider that it was written in 1930, when women were expected to be …
Feminist Fiction Writers: Sara Orne Jewett
Sara Orne Jewett was a turn-of-the-century novelist, poet, and short fiction writer, known especially for emphasizing nature and descriptions of coastal Maine in her work. Two pieces she is most well known for are:
And
In The County of Pointed Firs, Jewett inserts throughout a dueling yet complementary sense of loss and perseverance. The rural town setting of coastal Maine drives the piece, and the environment is as harsh and …