Here is a short story mystery collection about four women writers that form The Writers Club. Each writer faces mysterious happenings in her life. Taylors beloved bridal chest, a wedding gift from her husband suddenly has new names carved into it. A baby monitor warns Jenna, while working on assignment, that someone is following her. Jenna is working on an investigative report concerning a famous dating service that has a scandal brewing. Amy finds an old letter in a secret drawer of a writing desk she has refinished. This letter describes a relationship that spells disaster. Lily faces a masked intruder at the bookstore, the Wrens Nest. While footsteps are heard upstairs in The Tomb, the temperature controlled room for old books. Lily will discover on her honeymoon that an inkwell passed down to her from her great grandmother was part of a legend.

Screenwriters are storytellers and dream builders. They forge new worlds and beings, bringing them to life through storylines and idiosyncratic details. Yet up until now, no one has told the story of these creative and indispensable artists. The Writers is the only comprehensive qualitative analysis of the history of writers and writing in the film, television, and streaming media industries in America. Featuring in-depth interviews with over fifty writers—including Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, and Frank Pierson—The Writers delivers a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the role and rights of writers in Hollywood and New York over the past century. Granted unprecedented access to the archives of the Writers Guild Foundation, Miranda J. Banks also mines over 100 never-before-published oral histories with legends such as Nora Ephron and Ring Lardner Jr., whose insight and humor provide a window onto the enduring priorities, policies, and practices of the Writers Guild. With an ear for the language of storytellers, Banks deftly analyzes watershed moments in the industry: the advent of sound, World War II, the blacklist, ascension of television, the American New Wave, the rise and fall of VHS and DVD, and the boom of streaming media. The Writers spans historical and contemporary moments, and draws upon American cultural history, film and television scholarship and the passionate politics of labor and management. Published on the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the Writers Guild of America, this book tells the story of the triumphs and struggles of these vociferous and contentious hero-makers.

An innovative new approach to teaching and writing creative nonfiction from veteran teacher and critically acclaimed author Carol Bly. Teachers and writers everywhere are facing the limits imposed by the prevailing models of teaching: community or MFA “workshops” or, at the high-school level, “peer review.” In Beyond the Writers' Workshop Carol Bly presents an alternative. She believes that workshopping’s tendency to engage in wry scorn and pay exaggerated attention to technical details, causes apprentice writers, consciously or unconsciously, to modify their most passionate work. Inspired by a philosophy of individuality and moral rigor, Bly combines ideas and techniques from social work, psychotherapy, and neuroscience with the traditional teaching of fresh metaphor, salient dialogue, lively pace, and analysis of other literary work in her pioneering new approach. She also includes exercises and examples in an extensive practical appendix.

In this warm and inspiring guide, a #1 New York Times bestselling author shares her unique insight to how to write: from finding a subject and creating good writing habits to sustaining progress and seeking a publisher. “The most important thing to realize is that everyone is capable of telling a story.” —Maeve Binchy If you scribble story ideas on the backs of receipts… If you file away bits of overheard conversation from the coffee shop... If you’ve already chosen the perfect pen name... Well, then the journey has begun! From beloved author Maeve Binchy comes the unique insight to how a bestselling author writes: from finding a subject and creating good writing habits to sustaining progress and seeking a publisher. Whether you want to write stories or plays, humor or mysteries, Binchy prescribes advice for every step with her signature humor and generous spirit. She has called upon other writers, editors, and publishers to add their voices to this treasury of assistance for budding writers and a refreshing dose of encouragement for longtime scribes. And once you are ready, an appendix offers of writing awards and competitions and a selection of websites and literary journals.