I wrote this piece nearly 20 years ago for the online journal Swans, talking about a different war, different refugees — my war, my refugees. So little has changed, nothing…Continue readingTHEY CHANGE THEIR SKY
An Ode to Summer Delights I have frissons of existential fear every time I wander past the news headlines these days. There is only one explanation for what is going…Continue readingWhen the world goes mad
Wars, refugees and the twilight of the spirit Wars seem to come naturally to our species. Too naturally. I once read that we and a handful of species of ants…Continue readingRefugees of war
Why can’t a woman save the world? I watched the first episode of a new disaster TV series, ‘Salvation’, and while I was entertained enough to keep watching, there was…Continue readingWhere are the women?
… get your ideas/write a book?’ One of the perennial questions posed to authors in many many many interviews is the fabled “Where do you get your ideas?” I too…Continue readingHow do you…
The Were Chronicles: “Random”, “Wolf”, “Shifter” At a certain level, the line between YA and adult literature becomes so fine as to be totally irrelevant. Yes, there are always some…Continue readingYA and the ‘Real World’
The epistolary novel in the digital age The story-in-correspondence found in epistolary novels is by no means a new thing. It’s been going on for centuries. Letter writing to people…Continue readingLetters tell the story
Children’s Book Week – June 12-16 When books were just books When I was growing up, there was no such thing as “young adult” as a marketing niche. In my…Continue readingJust what is YA?
Part 1: The Five W’s and a H Before reporting became a dying craft, every newbie was taught that a news story had to answer five fundamental questions: Who, What,…Continue readingHow do you build a world?