Anne Leigh Parrish, Author at Women Writers, Women's Books

CALL YOURSELF A WRITER

Anne Leigh Parrish — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 06:46:07 +0000

I recently took part in a virtual author event with two other women writers. Let me say how much I have come to appreciate the magic of Zoom video conferencing, aside from not having a paid account which meant getting dumped off the call after forty minutes. No problem, everyone, including the audience, was able […]

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A Typical Writing Day: Anne Leigh Parrish

Anne Leigh Parrish — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 08:57:38 +0000

I come into my office each morning with one goal—to calm the chaos in my head. I don’t sleep well these days, probably my body telling me I need fewer hours in the sack—and what I’m working on tends to make its way into my dreams and woozy waking moments. I always have several projects […]

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Writers – Do Your Job and Stop Worrying About Reviews

Anne Leigh Parrish — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 05:37:00 +0000

Standing before my fourth grade class, reading aloud a story I’d written, it never occurred to me they wouldn’t like it. The teacher, Mrs. Nungazer liked it. Mrs. Nungazer loved it. I can’t even remember what the story was about. Probably a girl figuring out how to get what she made her happy, and put […]

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Looking from The Ground Up

Anne Leigh Parrish — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 15:55:08 +0000

Susan Cheever, daughter of the famous author, John Cheever, once said that fiction is not a competitive sport. Also a writer, living in the shadow of her father’s reputation and achievements can’t have been easy. I believe she made the remark to someone asking what she had published and where, and then saw him compare […]

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Characters and Craft – Learning To Leave Yourself Behind

Anne Leigh Parrish — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 19:54:46 +0000

Literary fiction is a strange, yet compelling animal. So much emphasis on language, rhythm, imagery. And let’s not forget character. Some novels are all about the character and the mad world behind her eyes. When I started writing fiction, my characters had a bad habit of sounding a lot like me. Sadly, they suffered from […]

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Bringing Back a Favorite Character

Anne Leigh Parrish — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 05:37:38 +0000

My second book, Our Love Could Light The World, is a collection of linked stories about the Dugan family in the fictional town of Dunston, New York. The Dugans are made up of the parents, Potter and Lavinia, and their five children. Potter drinks and can’t hold down a job. Lavinia works like mad to […]

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How Objects Inspire Fiction

Anne Leigh Parrish — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 07:42:59 +0000

Just about anything can serve as inspiration for a work of fiction. Often, it’s a person, someone we knew, cared for, or had trouble with when we were younger. It can be a place, somewhere we hold dear, or couldn’t wait to escape. In my own work, a single scene has many times been the […]

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Letting The Story Open The Door

Anne Leigh Parrish — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 21:46:44 +0000

I love short stories. Reading them, writing them, choosing them for Literary Orphans, the online literary magazine I have the privilege to spend time with. In many ways, although I’ve written two novels and am half-way through a third, I feel that short stories will always be my home, and first love. The submitted pieces […]

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Here’s Why: Short fiction by Anne Leigh Parrish

Anne Leigh Parrish — Fri, 20 May 2016 09:11:05 +0000

Here’s why. You slump, shrink, curl down in your seat, never stand up straight. As if an arrow might pick you off. Not an arrow, a bullet. Not a bullet, a blow. Not a blow, words. Not words, looks. Here’s why. You’re a freak. Four inches in one year? Your father’s colleague says he keeps […]

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Writers and Self-Censorship

Anne Leigh Parrish — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 07:56:51 +0000

Writers should not be censored. I think everyone can agree on that. The whole idea of censorship conjures an image of stern political enforcers, combing through every line of poetry and prose with an eye to deleting or destroying anything that works against the current regime and its often hypocritical ideology. Who can create art […]

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