There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. —W. Somerset Maugham Tweet...
Last month, Jo Parfitt—a British writer, writing teacher and radio host living in Holland—interviewed me for her Writers Abroad radio show. I’ve since read Jo’s
While writers must constantly ask themselves whether a scene or event is “realistic”, truth really is stranger than fiction. A case in point is this
Hanoi Jane coversMy publisher just informed me that they’ve sold the Vietnamese-language rights for my novel, Hanoi Jane, to a Vietnamese publisher. While this probably
On a busy street in Saigon’s District 1 I spied this pair of lady’s shoes placed neatly on the sidewalk. Passerby paid the shoes no
One of the most fun parts of starting work on a new story is coming up with the characters’ names. During my second pregnancy I
If you’re interested in Burma, or just love good travel writing, I highly recommend The Trouser People by Andrew Marshall. It’s brilliantly written, packed with information
A recent visit to the Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali reaffirmed my hatred of monkeys – and the feeling seems mutual. My first run-in with
Some pregnant women crave pickles and others crave ice cream, but when I was carrying my third child, I developed an addiction to thrillers. I
Today, I was writing a scene in which a character was dining in an Olde England-themed tourist trap kind of restaurant. In a bid to
