Artificial? Yes. Intelligence? Maybe.

AI Image of female author talking to an Artificial Intelligence chatbot

Artificial? Yes. Intelligence? Maybe. Years ago my son bought the house Marion Zimmer Bradley owned at the end of her life. She lived there in community with the writers who ghost wrote many of her later novels. Those books, published under Zimmer’s name to take advantage of her established readership, really did literally take advantage […]

How Can an Old Biddy Become an Author?

AI image of over 55 community with Ambulance and fist responders for blog How Can an Old Biddy Become an Author

How Can an Old Biddy Become an Author?  I’m an old biddy who released her first book at the age of seventy-one. I want to share my story of becoming a traditionally published author of four humorous nonfiction books after retiring from a forty-year career. We older women need to tell our truths. We have […]

Let’s Shine Our Light: Crone Authors Together

AI generated image for blog Let's Shine Our Light: Crone Authors Together

Let’s Shine Our Light: Crone Authors Together   The issue of “stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest” sounds like an outdated problem, but the truth is that women still run into those demands whenever we find and use our voices. —Brene Brown, Daring Greatly We live in a time of massive change, including huge changes […]

My new boyfriend is AI

My new boyfriend is AI montage for Shenker blog

My new boyfriend is AI Some women love their vibrators. I love a different type of digital companion…AI. I’m not a total nerd-girl. I adore flesh-and-blood men too, but my current tech toys and techniques are vital to my work and personal life, giving me autonomy, entertainment, and even stimulation. How it All Began: My […]

In Praise of Color

Stylized headshot of Stella for blog post In Praise of Color

In Praise of Color Deanna Raybourn’s terrific novel Killers of a Certain Age starts with the retirement cruise of a trio of crone assassins. As a special surprise, their erstwhile boss has hired a younger killer to bump them off mid-cruise. Once the women overcome their hitman and safely land, they get away with murdering their […]

Setting Lights the Way

A montage of the author and settings for the blog post Setting Lights the Way

Setting Lights the Way I love talking to authors about where their ideas come from, and I’m fascinated by the small seeds that blossom over time into a full-fledged novel. In workshops, I hear about starting the writing process with a character in mind (a nurse, grieving the death of her nephew), and one of […]

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Stella Fosse