Sharon Short, Author
  • Home
  • About
    • Behind the Scenes FAQ
  • Books (as Sharon)
    • My One Square Inch of Alaska
    • Josie Toadfern Stain-Busting Mysteries
    • Sanity Check
    • Patricia Delaney eGumshoe Mysteries
  • Books (as Jess)
  • Stories & Essays
  • For Writers
  • Contact

Remembering Sue Grafton’s generous writing life and local literary ties Literary Life Column:

1/7/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
"Those comments were pure gold. By giving me a critique that both affirmed what I was doing well and provided specific areas to improve, Sue not only helped me with my manuscript, but taught me how to teach. I went home and studied everything I could about dialogue..."

 Read the rest of my column remembering Sue Grafton by clicking here.


​NOTE: This originally ran as my Literary Life column for the Dayton Daily News on January 7, 2018.)

2 Comments

Author Guest Post: Yona Zeldis McDonough on her new novel, "You Were Meant for Me."

11/10/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
My novels typically begin with a character tapping me on the shoulder, a character whose insistent whisper urges to me to get the story down, and to get it right. But for my most recent novel, You Were Meant for Me, inspiration came to me in a very different way: an actual news event in which a man found a newborn infant on a subway platform and eventually ended up adopting him.

The story stayed with leave me, and I found myself returning to it again and again in my mind. What had driven that baby’s mother to leave him not in a hospital, police or fire station—safe havens, all—but on a subway platform? And what random stroke of luck or divine intervention averted all the horrific ends to this tale—and there could have been so many—and instead turned it into one of salvation and grace? As I mulled over these questions, it occurred to me that there was an even bigger theme here, one that was both mythic and archetypal. The foundling, the infant abandoned and rescued, is motif that occurs over and over in literature and can trace its roots as far back as the Bible.  Wasn’t Moses himself a foundling, set in the ark and concealed in the bulrushes by his mother, whose fear for his life was so great that she was willing to give him up to save him? And wasn’t Moses rescued by the most unlikely of saviors, an Egyptian princess who found and then raised him as her own?

It was the connection to the Moses theme that sealed the deal for me; this story was too good, and had too much in it, to leave alone: I had to write it.  But because I am a novelist and not a journalist, I made several important changes along the way.  I turned the man of the real story into Miranda Berenzweig, a single woman who has not thought of having a child but whose biological clock is nonetheless ticking loudly.  I changed the baby boy to a girl. And unlike the real story, in which no one came forth to claim the child, I introduced the birth father, an up-and-coming black real estate broker who did not know he had a daughter. Once his paternity is proven, he steps up to claim her. This plot turn raised issues about what makes a good or fit parent and once again, I found I was once again grappling with a Biblical theme—this time, it had to do with King Solomon who must adjudicate between two women who come to him with an infant each swears is her own. Both of my characters have a claim to the abandoned baby as well but which claim is the one that should prevail?

Novels can come from surprising sources and lead to equally surprising destinations; sometimes their themes are not out there front and center, but are buried in the story and must be coaxed out gently.  I did not know that my reconfiguring a contemporary news event would take me back to ancient stories and universal themes, themes that stirred my heart and mind—and galvanized me to write.

1 Comment

Cross Training For Writers: Yona Zeldis McDonough on Writing and Doll Houses

8/30/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
Yona Zeldis McDonough (www.yonazeldismcdonough.com) is the author of several novels, most recently Two of a Kind, which will be available September 3, 2013, as well as of A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as nineteen books for children. She is also the editor of two essay collections and is the Fiction Editor at Lilith magazine. Her award-winning short fiction, articles, and essays have been published in anthologies and in numerous national magazines and newspapers.

There are two ways I “cross train” as a writer.


Read More
1 Comment

Cross Training for Writers: Kristina McBride and Pottery, Kids, Life

7/19/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today's cross-training for writers guest post is by author Kristina McBride, author of One Moment and Tension of Opposites. Learn more about Kristina and her books at www.kristinamcbride.com   

Q. Have you (or do you) engage in another art or a sport that helps you as a writer--whether that's to give you a break, re-energize you, provide inspiration. 
 

A. Hanging out with my two children (ages 5 and 7) often feels like a sport. And an art...


Read More
0 Comments

Cross Training for Writers: Marci Nault and Ice Skating

7/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today's author guest post on 'Cross-Training for Writers' is by Marci Nault, whose debut novel, The Lake House (Gallery/ Simon & Schuster) was a Chicago Tribune, Cape May Herald, CBS, and Amazon Premier summer read pick. Originally from Massachusetts, today she can be found figure skating, salsa dancing, hiking and wine tasting around her home in California. Marci is the founder of 101 Dreams Come True, a motivational website that encourages visitors to follow their improbable dreams. Her story about attempting to complete 101 of her biggest dreams has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and she regularly speaks on the subject on radio stations in both the United States and Canada. She’s also the owner of www.Elegantbridaldesigns.com, a couture lingerie, dress, and jewelry store. To learn more go to www.marcinault.com or www.101dreamscometrue.com. 

"I have so much work, ideas are storming in my brain, so today I’m going to get up, walk to my desk, and begin work early. There’ll be no skating this morning because it takes up too much time and I don’t have the space for it."   These are the words I say when a deadline is looming, but more often than not, four hours later I’m staring at my computer, nothing has come out, and I’m realizing that I would’ve returned from figure skating already.


Read More
0 Comments

Cross Training for Writers: Jeff Marks and Tae Kwon Do

6/28/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
Today's "Cross-Training for Writers" is from mystery and nonfiction author Jeffrey Marks. (He also happens to be a good friend of mine!) His website: www.jeffreymarks.com 

Following, his thoughts on cross-training for writers:


Better late than never I suppose! As a way to offset the hours that I sit behind a computer writing, I decided that I needed some physical activity. Being someone who likes to multi-task, I decided to take up martial arts, thinking that perhaps in a future book I could have a character who knew the art of self-defense or perhaps like Sherlock Holmes take up the martial art of Bartitsu.


Read More
1 Comment

Cross Training for Writers: Carolyn Hart

6/14/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
Carolyn Hart, much-beloved, award-winning author of 50 novels; the 50th, DEAD, WHITE AND BLUE (in her Death on Demand series) just came out in May. Her mysteries have won many awards, including the Agatha, and her standalone, LETTER FROM HOME, was a New York Times notable book. Learn more about this terrific novelist on herwebsite. 

Have you (or do you) engage in another art or a sport that helps you as a writer--whether that's to give you a break, re-energize you, provide inspiration?

Carolyn: "I used to jog and work out plot snarls, now I walk. Usually a leisurely walk will help me find the answer. At the moment, I am as stuck as a tethered camel in the middle of the desert. Today's walk didn't help. Maybe writing about it will be good karma."


Read More
2 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Books I Love
    Creativity
    Cross Training For Writers
    Literary Life
    Movies
    My One Square Inch Of Alaska
    Pie
    Recipe
    Sanity Check
    Screenwriting
    Waxing Philosophical

    Sharon Short...

    ...is  a novelist, columnist, workshop director, instructor, and a pie enthusiast. As such, she blogs about the literary life, life in general, and pie. Definitely, pie.

    As Jess Montgomery, she writes historical mysteries.

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from GabboT