Traveling Through Tomes: Let Books Be Your Passport
I recently saw this post on Twitter: I wish my passport kept a record of all the places I’ve traveled in books. I’m not sure who said it, but we would get along famously, especially in these days of fear-of-COVID travel. I haven’t traveled abroad as much as many I know, despite having been to […]
For the Love of Critters
October is adopt a shelter dog month, and today is World Animal Day, so it’s a stellar time to talk about my dog, Bodie, and my cat, Morris. Bodie wasn’t adopted from a shelter like Morris, but he was rescued from a very bad situation. Both of them rescue me from the doldrums of life. […]
Fourth Book of Other Worldly Series Launches
Being Alien launched this week on Amazon. It’s currently available as a paperback, with many more online bookstores and eBooks soon to follow. This is my very own Brigadoon, so fasten your flying saucer seatbelt and let’s head to the Highlands: As if it weren’t challenging enough for Rowan Layne to address Britain’s Parliament on […]
Writing Critiques: Striking a Sexist Nerve
I recently tried out a new writer’s group where I received excellent constructive feedback on the first chapter of my next novel, Alien Sensation, fifth book of the Other Worldly series. Unfortunately, I also struck a nerve with one male critic who wanted to replace my female protagonist’s discourse on the First Amendment of our […]
Unicorns: Fierce and Not So Fantastical
When I shared initial chapters of Being Alien with my Sin City Writer’s Group for feedback, I first explained how this novel was set primarily in Scotland. One participant inquired, “Will it include unicorns in addition to aliens?” Unicorns? Those silly little ponies, those fantastical creatures favored by girly girls? Why would a novel set […]
Superheroines that Glow Green in the Night
It’s the six month anniversary of the launch of this Luna Moth Woman blog, so let’s talk Luna moths. Perhaps it all came about from pinning towels to the shoulders of play clothes as kids, with visions of being Batgirl as our “capes” flapped behind us while we saved the world from our front yards. […]
Lady’s Liberty: Hijacked on a Hypocritical Highway
I’d like to write about fun stuff like intergalactic travel and fierce feminist adventures. I want to promote my latest Other Worldly novel with entertaining tidbits and titillating trailers of fabulous and fantastical destinations. But skies have grown ominously cloudy and driving conditions for women in America have become even more hazardous. It’s hailing male […]
Eschew Limits of Another’s Imagination
Recently I read something on social media that spoke to me quite succinctly: Don’t restrict yourself to the limits of someone else’s imagination. In one sentence, this summed up how I’d felt since I began drafting my Other Worldly series about aliens among us. I’ve come to call it genre alienation, this lingering notion that […]
When Fiction Becomes Reality
Every time I think I might run out of topics to blog about, or issues to weave into my Other Worldly series plotlines, along comes headlines. The real world rushes in, keeping me fuming, or laughing, and therefore keeping me writing. As I said in my author bio for Feeling Alienated, I keep trying to […]
Being Feminist
Rowan Layne, lover of aliens and crusader for otherworldly rights who uses her mighty pen and passionate voice—and sometimes a pointy-toed shoe—faces a few bumbling misogynist aliens in Being Alien, fourth novel of the Other Worldly series coming soon to online bookstores. Rowan’s initial reaction is utter disgust and disappointment that bigotry and stupidity are […]