Margaret Duarte

Visionary Fiction

Book Talk

UC Davis Extension Creative Writing Courses

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Note to Reader: Unfortunately, since I wrote this post, the creative writing program through UC Davis Extension is no longer being offered. I’ve done my share of college writing.  I’m a college graduate after all. But when I started writing fiction instead of college essays and term papers, I stepped into a whole new world. Many fiction […]

The White-hot Center of the Unconscious

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The ideal time to write is first thing in the morning, says Robert Olen Butler in his book, From Where You Dream. Why? Because that’s when you’re closest to “The Zone.” “The Zone,” he says, is the white-hot center of the unconscious, the birthplace of art. It’s where the analytic flow of your brain stops and your total […]

Publishers Weekly Review

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On May 3, I received the prize for making it to the quarter-finalists in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. A Publishers Weekly Review. And it didn’t disappoint. Don’t get me wrong.  Part of me hoped for a miracle, that the PW reviewer would say my novel was “best seller” material and that I was the […]

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

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Oh the innocence of the budding writer! Between the entry fee (somewhere around $20, I believe) and the postage (no electronic transmissions back then), I was a bit poorer for the experience. But I learned an important lesson: There are plenty of writers out there who have not only written novels, but have put in […]

A Word from My Protagonist

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Inspiration for Between Will and Surrender, in the words of protagonist Marjorie Veil. Dear Reader, My name is Marjorie Veil Sunwalker. Margaret Duarte, the writer of this novel, believes she has created me. She believes she has made up the events and details of my journey. What she doesn’t realize is that I have been […]