iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 11h

When you're at a #museum, do you muse the artworks on your own or listen to a tour? Professor/curator #TinaRyan's talk on #art & #history today at @nyhistory.bsky.social made me realize how much I miss w/o expert insight...but that tour should come after my own 1st impressions #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

You might win a free ebook of my newest novel HER DAUGHTER plus a FREE KINDLE if you enter the #BargainBooksy Literary Fiction #Giveaway between now & Nov. 30 (I mean, I won $10 tickets to "Hamilton" via a free lottery, so why not try?) #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Congrats to my fellow #BlackRoseWriting author #ScottHammond for the newest in his series about Boo, the rescue #dog, published today--"Finding Still Water" #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My #bookclub members all surprisingly had mixed feelings about @colsonwhitehead's newest, "Cool Machine." Powerful writing, vivid portrayal of '80s NYC but TOO MUCH! Too many characs & plots & vivid writing. We got lost. Overwhelmed. #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

2d #movie in 2 days! Saw "Practical Magic2" based on the #AliceHoffman book b/c my novel-in-progress also centers on 2 sisters. Would we get along better w/ our sisters if we had magic powers? #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#JohnWilson's #film "The #History of #Concrete" is actually a lot more about concrete than I'd expected. Also more interesting than expected...uh, for the first hour or so. And then the ending is great. But it drags on about 45 min too long. #movies #BookSky 📚💙

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There can be all sorts of blood in a book, right? I'll be talking about blood ties & thirsting for blood & some possible blood-letting in my novel HER DAUGHTER at the @nypl.bsky.social Hudson Park branch on Oct 8 along w/ @sabs.bsky.social & #StacyHorn & their "bloody" books w/ VillageStorySalon

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Invigorating day at the #bklynbooksbooze.bsky festival. Lots of readers interested in my novel HER DAUGHTER & a chance to meet so many fellow writers. Even the weather apparently smiles on #books! 💙📚#BookSky #blackrosewriting

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

And today is #InternationalLiteracyDay -- 2 holidays about #books 2 days in a row! Is there another week of the year w/ that kind of celebration? 💙📚#BookSky 😀

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today Sept. 7 is #BuyABookDay --definitely a holiday I'll support! PS I'm happy also to celebrate Read a Book Day or Borrow a Book from the Library Day if they exist! PPS Of course I hope you'll consider celebrating by buying my newest novel, HER DAUGHTER 💙📚 #BookSky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Thanks to #StoryCircleNetwork for reposting my essay "Characters w/o Characteristics."Try writing a mainstream novel where the characters have no specified race/religion/ethnicity. No holidays. What food?... It's harder than I expected #BookSky 📚💙 storycirclenetwork.substack.com/p/characters...

storycirclenetwork.substack.com

Characters Without Characteristics

Fran Hawthorne

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Hey, I can't believe I've posted my 5th monthly #Substack newsletter now at "Writing in Italics." It's so much fun to do a different kind of writing in addition to my novels, but I just wasn't sure I'd be able to keep it up! hawthornewriter1.substack.com/p/writing-in... 💙📚

hawthornewriter1.substack.com

Writing in Italics

How I Choose the Settings for My Novels

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

As a #novelist, I'm lucky to have a #publisher that holds an annual retreat w/ its authors. For 2 days here in #Nashville, I'm learning a lot about craft & marketing from #blackrosewriting founder Reagan Rothe & other staff --who actually answer all the Qs we throw at them! #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

My #history #bookclub agreed that we learned a lot about the #AmericanRevolution from "The First Salute" by Barbara Tuchman BUT not a whole book's worth. Would've made a great magazine cover story. Why are so many NF books so repetitive? #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Thanks to #JeanBurgess for posting a few words about my novel HER DAUGHTER on her blog "Jean's Writerly News" mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#in... 💙 📚 #BookSky

mail.google.com

Gmail

Gmail is email that’s intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Fascinating way to look at US #history on this #250th --via #music! Not just the obvious "Star-Spangled Banner" or "Hamilton" but also, for instance, "Strange Fruit." Great talk by #AnnaHarwellCelenza at @nyhistory.bsky.social about her new book "Off the Record". #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Please check out the CONTEST & GIVEAWAY on my Substack "Writing in Italics" -- win a copy of my newest novel HER DAUGHTER and help me choose the permanent image for the newsletter 💙📚#BookSky hawthornewriter1.substack.com/p/writing-in...

hawthornewriter1.substack.com

Writing in Italics

Contest & Giveaway!

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Thanks to "WOW! Women on Writing" for publishing my essay "Characters without Characterization"--about why the folks in my new novel HER DAUGHTER have no clear ethnicity/religion etc--and how hard it is to write such denuded people! #BookSky 💙📚 muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2026/07/frid...

muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com

Friday Speak Out!: Characters without Characteristics

By Fran Hawthorne From the first draft of my most recent novel, Her Daughter , I knew that I needed to strip its characters of almost any id...

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I watched the parade of tall ships up the Hudson River in NYC for #July4 #250th & honestly, while the ships were cool, there seemed like a lot fewer than in 1976. I guess the rest of the world doesn't want to celebrate the US right now #booksky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I love imagining alien life--so "Disclosure Day" #movie was disappointing. The focus on the human story & debates over secrecy were good. But SPOILER ALERT at the end #Spielberg punted--just the same tall, big-eyed, spidery-limbed, humanlike creatures you see in every sci-fi comic & film #Booksky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Wow! Lucinda Sage-Midgorden invited me on her podcast Story-Power to talk about my new novel HER DAUGHTER while planning to discuss the classic film "Gaslight" elsewhere--not knowing my book is about a different form of #gaslighting! See our chat at www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1OK.... #BookSky 💙📚

youtube.com

S P Fran Hawthorne Ep 155 Shared Stories of Parental Gaslighting That Inspired a Novel

YouTube video by Story-Power Podcast by Lucinda Sage-Midgorden

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

And now the 3d issue of my #Substack "WRITING IN ITALICS" is live. Can I really keep this going? Every month? How do you #newsletter-writers do it? #BookSky 💙📚 hawthornewriter1.substack.com/p/writing-in...

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

My friend #ShannonMcKennaSchmidt & I have new books this year--both w/ blue covers (lol) & both about women w/ impossible husbands. Mine (HER DAUGHTER) is #fiction about #parental-alienation; hers (YOU CAN'T CATCH US) is nonfiction about #LadyBird Johnson. #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

At 1st it seemed like my #bookclub was all over the map in our opinions of "Kin" by #TayariJones. But then we coalesced: Riveting story, engrossing writing, such an important look into that Jim Crow world--but there wasn't enough inside & between the 2 main charachters #booksky 💙📚#fiction #mothers

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

June is the #birthday month of Esme, the daughter in my new novel HER DAUGHTER (see Chapter 9)--but her father's #gaslighting & efforts to pull her away from her mother began even before she was born...💙📚 #fiction #parental-alienation #divorce #california #womensfiction #mothers

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Fascinating #semiquincentennial exhibit "Revolutionary Women" @ #NYHistorical #museum looks @ women's roles before, during & after the American Revolution. Good news: The ways #women got around the patriarchy Bad news: They rarely got to tell their own #stories #history 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

My new novel HER DAUGHTER is now available in #French, #Spanish & #German!! (I've read the first few pages in the French version & it's OK; it maintains my style.) I'd love to hear from Spanish & German readers #BookSky 💙📚 Here's a link to the Spanish translation: www.amazon.com/hija-Spanish...

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

..and here's the rocking chair #EdgarAllanPoe actually sat in, from his cottage in NYC, which I mentioned in my previous post. Just touching it makes my hand want to write! #Booksky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

At #EdgarAllanPoe Cottage in NYC: Touching the rocking chair where he sat & the replica of his desk, I could feel him, dipping his quill, pondering what kind of wine Fortunado should drown in, in "The Cask of Amontillado"--then fiddling with stuff in the cubbyholes to avoid writers block #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I'm on a roll! My 2d monthly Substack "Writing in Italics" posted today. After 3 novels, 8 nonfiction books & 1000s of newspaper & magazine articles, I'm really enjoying this new form of writing--which does NOT mean I've abandoned the others! #BookSky 💙📚 hawthornewriter1.substack.com/p/writing-in...

hawthornewriter1.substack.com

Writing in Italics

Hello, readers!

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Wonderful new exhibit at #NYHistorical #museum: b/c there was little or no artwork in 1600s New Amsterdam (ie pre-#NYC), the exhibit combines paintings of life in #Amsterdam of that era ( #Rembrandt etc) w/ maps of New Amsterdam to portray what daily life probably looked like in Dutch America!

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

my 1st #bookclub discussed #GeorgeSaunders "Vigil" & while our feelings were mixed, it prompted an amazing & deep discussion of God and religion. An unusual book. (Would I want to be a courier like Jill? Hmmm) #BookSky 💙📚

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Really? Today is National #Pretzel Day? and no one told me. (But how do you celebrate properly if you don't live in #NYC or #Philadelphia?)

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Saw "Death of a Salesman" on #Broadway today. Wow--the power of masterful words & acting & staging. The sadness. The love & pain. #BookSky 💙

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Today is #Parental-Alienation Awareness Day, focusing on the painful and too-widespread situation at the heart of my new novel, HER DAUGHTER--when one parent deliberately turns the children against the other parent. #BookSky 💙 #mothers #families #California #divorce #gaslighting

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

...and today is #WorldBookDay. #Booksky 💙That makes 3 book-related holidays w/in 1 wk! (Also National Librarian Day & National Library Wk) Pls celebrate by getting a book from a library or local indie #bookstore or giving a book to someone who wouldn't otherwise read it!

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

#NationalLibraryWeek this week gives us a chance to double-down on our celebration of #NationalLibrarianDay last week: Check out 7 more #books from the #library! Help someone else get a library card. (In my case, I belong to 2 public library systems in #NYC.) #BookSky 💙

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Please check out #Booktrovert.com to win a FREE ebook copy of my novel HER DAUGHTER --the story of a father who gaslights his wife and their daughter #BookSky 💙

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Today is #NationalLibrarianDay --a perfect chance to read #books from your local #library or buy from an indie #bookstore instead of buying from Amazon. And pls encourage your libraries to support reading not #censorship! #BookSky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Today is National Donate a Book Day... I'm glad to learn about a new holiday that honors reading #BookSky 💙 & to celebrate, I'll donate a copy of HER DAUGHTER to every Little Free Library I pass on the way to the subway! Please share & donate your favorite books

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

So disappointed w/ the #film "A Great Awakening." It's misleadingly billed as a #historical tale of Ben Franklin's debate/friendship w/ preacher George Whitefield. In fact, it's an evangelical PR job that inaccurately implies Franklin suddenly found God, thus saving the fledgling US Constitution

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

My #bookclub liked "Leaving Eastern Parkway" by #MatthewDaub more than I did. They didn't even mind the endless handball! I admit that the narrative voice was strong & the genre unusual, and they agreed the plot had serious weak points. PS The author's career is impressive #BookSky 💙 #fiction #NY

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

I've finally launched my #newsletter, entitled "Writing in Italics." (Supposedly it will be monthly, on Substack; will I manage to keep that going?) Please check it out at hawthornewriter1.substack.com/p/writing-in... .. and wish me perseverance! (Any advice?) #booksky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

What if you read a book that you really think is so bad it deserves just 1 or 2 stars? Do you post that on #Amazon #Goodreads etc? Or do you just not review the book at all? #BookSky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

NEW YORKERS! I hope you'll come to my #booktalk w/ #LindaRosen--"Motherhood, Estrangement & Lies"--about our novels "Her Daughter" & "Abandoning the Script" 6:30pm March 31, sponsored by the #Women'sNatlBookAssn. Free refreshments! Email president@wnba-nyc.org for details #BookSky #fiction #mothers

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

#vermontgmg.bsky.social Hmm...As Garrett Graff explains in his talk to #nyhistory about his new book "The Devil Reached Toward the Sky," oral history's value is that, like in real time, we don't know what's happening as it happens. But I wish oral histories had more of an organized thesis #BookSky

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Pretty good night for #Oscars2026 by my ratings: Awards were fairly well dispersed tho I wish Marty Supreme & Bugonia had won something instead of quite so many for One Battle after Another (tho I love that film's politics) & the winners weren't all white men. Yay for the anti-Putin documentary

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

New MILESTONE for my new novel HER DAUGHTER: 50 reviews on Amazon.Thank you, readers! Now... do I hear 75?100? 125?? Whatever those algorithms demand... #BookSky #fiction #mothers #parental-alienation #divorce #California

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

If you're in #NYC, please come to my conversation w/ #LindaRosen about estranged #mothers & daughters and our new novels: HER DAUGHTER and ABANDONING THE SCRIPT. Sign up here: wnba-nyc.org/product/conv... #BookSky #motherhood #families

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Fran Hawthorne @hawthornewriter.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Hear ye, hear ye: The #audiobook for my new novel HER DAUGHTER is now available on Amazon, iTunes & Audible! #BookSky #fiction #divorce #motherhood #California #veterinarians #greeninvesting

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