Beatrice Gormley

From my research for Back to the Day Lincoln Was Shot and First Ladies: Women Who Called the White House Home, I have definite ideas about what Abe and Mary Lincoln were really like. It was thrilling to see my ideas come to life in the movie with Daniel DayLewis,  Read More 

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Don’t get the impression that the writing life is a bed of roses. It can be frustrating, disappointing—even dangerous. Like the time I dropped the Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary on my bare foot. Ow! The Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary must weigh 15 pounds. I was limping around for days.

Long before my first book was published, I learned that real writers never, ever, publish themselves. The only way to become a professional writer, everyone said, was for your work to be accepted by a mainstream publisher who would give you an advance and pay you royalties. “Self-publishing” meant that you  Read More 

Every once in a while I get an impulse to read a classic novel. Last summer it was Huckleberry Finn; last month it was The Great Gatsby. It’s always rewarding. It’s always inspiring for my own writing. Not that I’m going to write about life on the  Read More 

I’ve been noticing mentions of Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried, about soldiers in the Vietnam War, for years now. But I was afraid it would be unbearably grim, so I didn’t read it. Finally this Memorial Day weekend I realized the book has become a classic  Read More 

First blog ever!

For the longest time I couldn’t imagine writing a blog, because a) I’d waste time blogging when I could be writing an actual book, and b) more important, how could I write to strangers? Wouldn’t my blog turn out like one of those obnoxious holiday letters to Dear Everyone?

Then I thought, But the people who read my books aren’t strangers. We already have a connection. I’ve liked every single reader who’s ever talked to me or written me a message. I can write to those people!

As for the time, I could try blogging once a week. Which is about as often as I email my sister, and that's easy to fit in.

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Reading the New York Times science section the other day, I was struck by an article about how having enemies at school can “enhance social and emotional development” for kids. Omg.

I was carried right back to seventh grade, when I started junior high school and suddenly felt like I was in  Read More 

What am I working on now? That’s what people always ask. And I always want to answer that I’m working on a book under contract. The truth is, at the moment I’ve got three projects going, but they’re all kind of up in the air:  Read More