So here I am on the other side of the first round of book launch events. How do I feel? A trifle overwhelmed, fighting a cold that’s turned into bronchitis, Read More…
The Big Ask
Dear Friends and Fellow Readers, For months now, I’ve been entertaining you with stories from my upcoming memoir, Daughter of Spies. I’m hoping these have whetted your appetite for the book itself due out Read More…
Why I love to Talk to Book Clubs
I once took the Meyers Briggs personality test and although I can’t recall the exact results, I do remember that I landed right on the line between introvert and extrovert. I treasure Read More…
Book Clubs
Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies
The author’s mother never talked about her past when her children were growing up. Do you think this is usual for parents in general or is it particularly typical for people who have lived through a war? Have you experienced this with your own parents?
My Mother and the Queen
Although of course, it was expected, I was especially sad to learn of Queen Elizabeth’s death. She and my mother were born three weeks apart. My mother, a British war Read More…
A Wicked Child
Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the wild child of President Theodore Roosevelt and because we are distantly related and she loved a good gossip, I was often invited to have tea with her on Thursday afternoons. As a budding writer, I was an incurable eavesdropper.
What I Learned from My Father
In the early days of writing Daughter of Spies, my memoir that will be published in the fall, I was convinced that I could write equally about both my parents, Read More…
Naming My Brand
My publicist suggested to me recently that I identify my brand. The suggestion stumped me. Frankly, I associate the word “brand” with pet food or soup or cigarettes rather Read More…
When Your Characters Take Charge
I’m working on the Prequel to my fantasy series which started with The Castle in the Attic, a book I published in 1985 about a ten-year-old boy named William and Read More…
Lessons of a Storyteller
For years, like many children’s book writers, I toured around the country speaking to students and teachers.
Although I welcomed the opportunity to meet my readers, these appearances were not Read More…
Q & A with Elizabeth Winthrop
Where did you get the idea for these books?
I have two children and when they were small, I hired a lady named Mrs. Miller to take care of them so that I could go down the street to a little office and write my books. When Mrs. Miller left us, we were all sad. So I wrote a book about William and how he wanted to make Mrs. Phillips small so that she could not leave him.
HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh
Every reader can look back and remember the special books they read as children. I’m the same. For me, it was the books my British mother introduced into our Read More…
This Writer’s SELECTED SHORTS Dream Comes True
Ever since I moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I’ve had one very specific writer’s dream. I wanted one of my short stories to be read by an Read More…
The art of book covers: Recreating the jacket for IN MY MOTHER’S HOUSE
That old saying, “you can’t tell a book by its cover,” hits home especially with authors who have little or no control over the images that the marketing Read More…
Lewis Hine’s Children
Read about the work Joe Manning has done to find the descendants of the children in Lewis Hine’s child labor photographs here.
I’ve found my inner rabble-rouser…
I’ve never been a confrontational person., but suddenly I can’t stand it anymore. I grew up in Washington, D.C. surrounded by politicians and newsmakers, but fled the city Read More…
Familiarity Breeds Acceptance
Waiting to Vote on Election Day
This week more than any other time since 9/11, I’m so grateful that I live in New York where Read More…
Following in My Mother’s Footsteps: A Trip to England
As many of my readers know, I’ve been researching my mother’s childhood in Gibraltar and England for a number of years. While she was still Read More…
Harriet The Spy Turns 50
I was thrilled when Random House asked me to contribute to the 50th anniversary edition of Harriet the Spy.
Harriet M. Welsch is a girl who says Read More…
We need the Authors Guild now more than ever….
Dear Friends and Fellow Writers:
Please read this letter from Richard Russo.
If you’re a working writer, you need to join the Authors Guild. The support they have given me Read More…
Me and the NSA
I’m amused by the way everybody is freaked out about the NSA watching when we send an email and who we’re writing. I grew up in Washington, D.C., Read More…
How I wrote an essay and lived to tell the tale…
I’ve never been very good at essays. I prefer to write stories with characters in them instead of essays where I feel I ought to come to some Read More…
The First of Three Mothers
I am losing three mothers this year.
My own mother died in November. One of my best “book mothers”, Nina Ignatowicz, the editor I’d worked with for Read More…
Waiting to Hear #2
I heard.
I received an intelligent, thoughtful, incisive first read on my new book, a memoir about my mother’s early life and her meeting my father in England during World Read More…
Blog Tour # 2
The blog tour continues. What’s a blog tour? A blog tour gives those on the tour a chance to meet different authors by way of their blogs. The Next Big Read More…
Waiting to hear…
So I’m waiting for my first reader to get back to me about my new manuscript. This is the book I’ve been working on for years. I didn’t weigh it Read More…
A Blog Tour!
The Next Big Thing Blog Tour
The Next Big Thing is an author blog tour. What’s a blog tour? A blog tour gives those on the tour a chance to Read More…
Do You Love the Story or the Physical Book? Or both?
Here’s a provocative article by Joe Queenan about his 6,128 favorite books.
As for me, I love books in all forms. Even though my bookshelves hold some memorabilia and Read More…
A Wonderful Interview
I love it when interviewers ask me fun and silly and serious questions. Brittney Breakey has made herself a name on the web with her author interviews at Read More…
Where I Work
This morning, when I arrive at my “office”, which is a particular desk facing the windows in my favorite public library, Milne Public Library, someone else is sitting Read More…
I Put Up An Ebook!
Trust me, this is a big deal for me. If technology is a train, I’m running along the tracks trying to catch hold of the caboose. But I Read More…
Putting Together The Jigsaw Puzzle
Sometimes in assembling a history, be it fiction or memoir, you stumble upon delightful details that can enliven and enrich your story whether you use them in the manuscript or not.
Research On The Web
Sometimes I bemoan how much time the Web and the Internet seem to steal from my real work which is putting one sentence down after another. Other times, Read More…
What Keeps Us Writing?
How does a writer keep writing especially considering all the dire news these days about the publishing world?
Monday Morning Blues
Getting the writer brain moving on a Monday morning.
Do Writers Go On Vacation?
When is a writer really on vacation or simply avoiding the tough moment of the empty screen?
Setting and Character
As a fiction writer, I’ve always like to visit the setting where my story takes place. For example, in my recent novel, Counting on Grace, the book really Read More…
Digging Deeper
I’ve just finished a section of my new book. It tells the story of my father’s experience at the Groton School and I’m calling it SLACK AND WITHOUT Read More…
The Perfect Readers
The blessings of a trusted reader
Looking Over a Writer’s Shoulder
I’m deep into a new long project this time, a personal history for adult readers. Although I’ve published two novels for adults (ISLAND JUSTICE, IN MY MOTHER’S HOUSE), Read More…
