Dear Readers, There are lots of holidays being celebrated around the world. In America, one of the classic movies is, A Christmas Carol. Photo by Phil Robson on Unsplash The movie and its various versions are based on the book of the same title by Charles Dickens. Please go ahead and pick up the book from your local public library or order it in time for us to read and discuss this month. Abebooks.com is a great source for inexpensive books. I do not receive a commission from the stores I recommend. It is important to also support our local bookstores. Here is a link to some independent bookstores in Indianapolis. Independent Bookstores Indianapolis Each Sunday, I will publish a post. Next week's post will be information about the author, the following week a dive into theme and characters, the next week will be historical context and then an intro to our January read. As always, please post questions or comments here about this month's read. H...
October 12, 2025 Dear Readers, I wanted to share about my writing process in these next few posts before I return to sharing books I am interested in and think you will be interested in. A lot of times, I am asked, "How much of this is true..." I think many beginning writers do write about experiences they have literally had-- that actually existed and is more thinly cloaked as fiction. As a professional writer , this question is more complicated to answer since more of my writing now (fiction that is) is not so much about me but perhaps a person I met at one point who inspired a character, or some theme that I myself have been grappling with or a subject such as Arab immigration that I experienced but retold in a way that was different than what I actually experienced. So if you are an emerging writer as well as reader, feel free to write about literal experiences. Just be careful not to write about someone in explicit detail without their permission....