As promised in my last blod on novels set in the midst of tumult, here is a sample of my first novel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOWHERE ELSE TO GO by Judith Kirscht Chapter 1 Labor Day, 1968 Cassie Daniels stood at the door of the Norton Bluffs School Board room, taking in the semi-circle […]
I’ve always been drawn, in my reading and writing, to stories set in the middle of tumult and to characters who manage to create their identies between battling forces. Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities was a favorite in adolescence, and Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller, which I reviewed recently here is another. These are tales of […]
Twenty years ago in Santa Barbara, my friend, Joyce, fell in love with the Scoop, the basenji belonging to the boarding kennel next door to her job. Then one day Spook’s owner showed up at her office door with a red and white pup. “How would you like this one?” Originally from Santa Barbara […]
Once again a killer storm has swiped across the nation , killing many and leaving thousands to view the rubble that was their lives. Tornadoes this time. Last week it was the California wildfires, last month Midwestern floods. Over and over we’ll hear, “We have nothing, but we’re alive.” But you’ve heard the words […]
Friend and author, Priscilla Long, who writes a fascinating column in the American Scholar, shares this story by author, Brian Doyle, on the origin of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Findings – Summer 2006 Findings: A Bogey Tale By Brian Doyle Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream, […]
Let me introduce Debra Borys, another author who finds her stories in Chicago’s streets. She is the author of Street Stories, a series of suspense novels (Painted Black and Bend Me Shape Me, so far) . Below is the story of how she came to focus her talents on the homeless of the city’s streets. […]
Chances are, if you’ve ever been in a writing class, you’ve been asked to do a “freewrite” in response to a prompt. Writers are routinely asked to produce such spontaneous writing at conventions and workshops–usually protesting that such exercises never produce anything worth the time. I’ve been a protester, but as I was browsing through […]
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? How do you live with it? What does it take to forgive? Be forgiven? The novel, according to Jodi Picoult’s “Acknowledgments,” was inspired by Simon Weinsenthal’s The Sunflower. While in a Nazi concentration camp, Weinsenthal was brought to the deathbed of an SS soldier who wanted to confess […]
I’m delighted to welcome this guest post by Northwest author Terry Persun on the writing of Sweet Song, a historical novel which, like The Inheritors, deals with a mixed race hero. I would never have guessed I’d write an historical novel. After writing science fiction short stories and a few mainstream novels, historical fiction just […]
An eight year old boy was blown to bits, yesterday, as he waited for his father to finish the Boston marathon. Two others died and a hundred more were injured in the explosions that littered the sidewalk with dismembered legs. Who would, could, do such a thing? Foreign or domestic, political or deranged? We want […]
Have you ever met a basenji? We ask that question at least once in response to curious looks every time we take our quartet out walking. These barkless hounds from the Congo are still fairly uncommon, probably because they are “different.” It’s an attitude thing. Catlike, they have their own agenda and live on […]
This blog falls into the category of snippets–bits and pieces triggered by pictures, writing prompts, incidents–anything that brings pen to hand. One of my favorite triggers when I was teaching was a book called WINDOWS by Val Clery, http://www.amazon.com/Windows-A-Feast-Eye-Imagination/dp/0770515835/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1363403109&sr=8-5&keywords=Val+Clery A window gives a peek–imagine what lays beyond. The picture below, by John Visser, brought this […]
Judith Kirscht lives and works in the beautiful Puget Sound area. She is the author of four published works of fiction with more to come soon!
