Book Focus
Highlighting a few of the many books Jane Ross has been involved in producing or editing through her company, MJR Publishing Services. A Jewish Girlhood in Berlin, 1859-1879 The memoir of Jenny Barth Bornstein, who would go on to become one of the very first women doctors in Germany in the early years of the twentieth century. A spirited and intelligent child, Jenny grew up in an affluent German, Jewish, middle-class home at the height of Bismarck's Germany and was a keen observer of the social and political life going on around her. Written in German when Jenny was in ...
Upcoming Writing Prompts Book
Writing prompts are the hooks we hang our story on as we search our memories for the events, emotions and relationships that make up our past. A good writing prompt evokes our past by activating memories, first of smells, sounds, sights, and emotions. Once those memories start to stir in our consciousness, the prompt should guide us towards the specifics of the memory and encourage us to notice and record the sense memories that arise and the stories that go with them. Working with a group of eight to ten senior women during eight years, each month I brought a new writing ...
Déjà Vu: Banana Republic Edition
The last time I lived here in Brazil (as opposed to just visiting for a couple of weeks), the country was in the middle of a slow-motion train wreck. This was 1991. Incompetent leadership and corruption had caused inflation to escalate from around 40% per annum in the early 1980s to 40% a MONTH by the early 1990s. Poverty was widespread, and crime, fueled by desperation, was rampant. Kidnappings happened almost daily. My husband's nephew was held up at gunpoint and his car stolen. Another's car was stolen from the street to turn up a few days later abandoned on ...
Self publishing
Cover Design Basics
Rule 1 for self-published book covers: They shouldn’t look self-published!...
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Recent Projects
Upcoming Writing Prompts Book
Writing prompts are the hooks we hang our story on as we search our memories for...
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Writing Practice
Two Sides of the Same Coin
I’ve been watching with growing dismay as the headlines about the euro crisis grow steadily more dire. The economics blogs I follow are predicting years of stagnation in Europe as a best case scenario for the resolution of the crisis. Their worst case scenarios include widespread economic depression and misery, blood in the streets, and even... [Read more of this review]
Déjà Vu: Banana Republic Edition
The last time I lived here in Brazil (as opposed to just visiting for a couple of weeks), the country was in the middle of a slow-motion train wreck. This was 1991. Incompetent leadership and corruption had caused inflation to escalate from around 40% per annum in the early 1980s to 40% a MONTH by the early 1990s. Poverty was widespread, and crime,... [Read more of this review]
I Said, You Said
In her research for her new book, Leila Levinson was surprised how the veterans she interviewed often switched to using the second person “you” as they talked of their experiences…. I’ve been reading Gated Grief by fellow Austinite, university English professor and friend Leila Levinson. Ultimately it’s a warmly reassuring... [Read more of this review]
Not What You Planned
There’s an urgency to your writing, knowing friends are anxious to read your disaster reports. It’s not what you planned, but you’re writing… You have sabbatical year ahead of you with ample time for writing. You’ve found the perfect place to stay on a quiet street, with a writing table near an upper-story window overlooking... [Read more of this review]
On the Meaning of Home, an Interview with Barbara Gates
My hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, has just experienced a massive earthquake. Though no lives were lost, many thousands of homes were seriously damaged, hundreds to the point of being likely teardowns. Reading the news about the devastation and talking to family in New Zealand, I remembered my conversation with Buddhist writer Barbara Gates captured... [Read more of this review]
Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir
Recently I had the great good fortune to hear writer Natalie Goldberg speak when she visited Austin for a book signing. Goldberg was here at the end of a book tour to promote the recently released paperback edition of her latest book, Old Friend from Far Away: the practice of writing memoir. I bought copies of Old Friend and her very first book,... [Read more of this review]
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