A Modern Woman: Writer of the Week with Universal by Design

21st century life continues to dazzle. To think that here I am in Manhattan and my publishers are in hip Berkeley and trending Toronto; my website manager in Austin TX; my PR team in Nashville TN; and that the 'Writer of the Week' interview with Universal by Design in Oslo, Norway. There was a time when we thought a ten-inch black-and-white Emerson TV the last word. The times they are still a-changing. But for the last word today from your trusty blogger, click on the video. It was a wonderful experience. I learned a great deal about what to do and what not to do. Listen carefully for the New York 'ambiance.' I hope you enjoy it.

What Every Writer Needs to Know

Behind every successful book lies not only a great story but a great PR team. Never a month goes by that I'm not asked by a writer with a story to tell if they need to hire a publicist. My answer is always the same: Absolutely! Invariably the next question is: What did your PR agency do for you? Most people, myself included, have no idea what happens in the complex world of public relations. Which is why I was delighted early on to have crossed paths with JKS Communications. What fellows is a brief and instructive overview that, by chance, I recently found on the their website. Read on to find out how they made Veronica's Grave a standout. Enjoy!

You Can't Go Home Again: Or Can You?

As a teenager, it was never my choice to go to St Barnabas High School. My cousin Aileen, a year ahead of me, went there and didn’t have a good word to say about it. In fact, she would have transferred to Cathedral High had her parents let her, but the tuition at Cathedral was five dollars more per month.

Writing and MarketingBarbara DonskyNovember 19, 2017Comment

Dipping the Madeleine: Finding Your Hidden Memories

After dipping a madeleine in a cup of verbena-infused tea, Proust’s boyhood memories played out before his very eyes. After a few more sips and a few more dips, he transformed his entire life — all that he knew about history, cultural mores, social privilege, art, science, and human nature—into what is arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century. If not a memoir, it’s an autobiographical treatise in the guise of a novel. Dipping the madeleine proved an antidote to the much-dreaded writer’s block.

Writing and MarketingBeth BeauchampNovember 12, 2016 Comments

Meet Me at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

This week there's more news to share, news that's dear to my heart. For many years, while living in Oyster Bay, New York, I had a private practice for children having difficulty in learning to read. Most were not what you’d call dyslexic, though a number of them—all boys—confused the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ and didn’t recognize that ‘p’ was standing on its ‘long leg.’ To them the letters were mirror images of one another.

So we set to work, tracing and writing large on the blackboard, linking the shapes of the letters with the sounds they made -- the Orton-Gillinham method -- while encouraging their parents to read to them so they could hear the beauty of the language and enjoy the magic of children's literature.

Writing and MarketingBarbara DonskySeptember 17, 2016 Comments

Becoming an Author

Have I told you about the perils of blogging? Since Labor Day, I've been sending you a post each week, not knowing that they were not being delivered by the mailing service. If blogging sounds simple, trust me, it's not. In the meantime, my apologies. Essentially, subscribers were notgetting Sunday morning updates via email. Yet those who are friends on Facebook could read the posts there. What a mess, what a muddle. But now, hoping against hope that this snafu is behind me, let me belatedly say welcome back! Sorry its taken this long. Here's the first one that you missed.

Writing and MarketingBarbara DonskyOctober 10, 2015Comment

Welcome to Levittown!

As many of you already know, I’ve been working on a memoir for the past two years, one now in the capable hands of my editor, Elizabeth Kracht of Kimberley Cameron & Associates, an agency dedicated to publishing 'high quality writing that makes a difference in the world.' Sounds good, no? However, in order to ready the manuscript for publication, it had to be cut down to size—cut down by thousands of words. Rather than leaving the words scattered on the cutting room floor, Liz suggested I blog some of the cut pieces.

Writing and MarketingBarbara DonskyJanuary 25, 2015 Comments

Ground Zero: A Book Launch at Studio Daniel Libeskind

With a nip in the air, I grab a cab heading for Studio Daniel Libeskind on Rector Street, close by Ground Zero and across from Trinity Churchyard. This is the workplace of an architect who has created some of the most stunning cultural centers, museums and residential buildings in the world. The list goes on and on, ranging from “Reflections at Keppel Bay” in Singapore to “Dancing Towers” in Seoul, South Korea to “Chausseestrasse 43’ in Berlin, to mention only a few of my favorites. Not only does the list go on and on, but so does the view of lower New York and the harbor.