Tag Archives: Roz DeKett
Enacting in safe spaces the dramas of our lives: Marc Zegans
By Roz Kay “You seem to know a lot about humans,” she whistled, splashing with her hind flippers. “Perhaps you will write it all down for me.” These lines, from Marc Zegans’ poem The Underwater Typewriter (in his new collection … Continue reading
Seeing the heart of the story: Melissa DeCarlo
By Roz Kay Call it a seven-year itch of sorts. Because seven years after Melissa DeCarlo stopped writing (“I got frustrated … it was almost like I was resentful toward it”) she started again, and the result is her first published novel, … Continue reading
Developing dramatic tensions through fiction: Kim van Alkemade
By Roz Kay If she hadn’t stumbled on a handwritten note in the minutes of a long-forgotten committee meeting, Kim van Alkemade might not have given us her powerful debut novel. Orphan #8, inspired by life in an orphanage for Jewish … Continue reading
Query letters to literary agents: Don’t be weird
By Roz Kay Literary agent Janet Reid runs the Query Shark web site. There are some of my notes from her talk at the 2015 Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City. I’ve posted about the right way to query literary … Continue reading
Exploding the Emily Dickinson myth: Nuala O’Connor
By Roz Kay Nuala O’Connor’s third novel, Miss Emily, alternates perspectives between the American 19th century poet Emily Dickinson and a fictional Irish maid, Ada Concannon. “I wanted to explode the myth about Emily being the complete recluse,” Nuala O’Connor … Continue reading
The kind of stories that bring us together: Dorothea Benton Frank
By Roz Kay “I think we’re all kind of in the same boat,” says Dorothea Benton Frank. She’s talking with me about her readers and her new novel, All the Single Ladies, published in June by William Morrow. “We’re dealing … Continue reading
Writing from a deeper place: Ellen Sussman
By Roz Kay As Ellen Sussman’s second “French” novel, A Wedding in Provence, comes out in paperback, we talked about the attraction of France as the setting for two of her four published novels. “I knew that I wanted to … Continue reading
Enriching history with a story-teller’s voice: Hazel Gaynor
By Roz Kay Hazel Gaynor’s second historical novel, A Memory of Violets, tells the tale of two orphaned Victorian flower sellers, seen through the troubled eyes of Tilly. Tilly stumbles on the story of Florrie and her sister Rosie in 1912 … Continue reading
Roz Kay 