Ask the Author: Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
Answered Questions (5)
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
I usually turn to something I've already written, like the paragraph I ended yesterday. I know people say not to edit while you're drafting, but I find it helps me. Tweaking what I wrote yesterday often gives me the momentum I need to keep going today.
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
My advice to aspiring writers is READ widely and hungrily. Experiment and be bold. You have stories to tell that only you can tell. Believe in yourself. BUT don't submit anything without first getting a lot of feedback. Take that feedback in but listen to your own heart first and foremost.
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
I have two drafts of novels I'm toggling back and forth between. Both involve motherhood, family secrets and multiracial identity.
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
Often by letting my mind wander over stories I've read in the newspaper, novels and memoirs where language excites me and holds me captive, even film. I love the interplay of words and story, so writing something new is always a thrill, like play of new love.
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
Embers on the Wind was inspired by the story of a freedom-seeking woman who had died in my father-in-law's Massachusetts farmhouse, a former stop on the Underground Railroad. The legend was that this woman's spirit haunted the house. I knew nothing about her--not her age, her story, or which plantation she'd fled--beside the direction she was running: North to Canada, along with the fact that she didn't make it. What, I wondered, as I walked the halls at night, would she make of me, this free 21st century Black woman? What would she think of who I was and how I had used my choices? These questions led me to flesh her out in my mind, to tell my imagined version of her story--and the stories of others who had passed through the house in the past and present day.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more