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....
I am an American author of Czech and Arab heritage published in The Chicago Tribune, Fiction among others. We will be learning about authors, their books, literary movements and what it's like being a writer in the 21st century.