Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts from the “Children’s books” Category

Amsterdam view: high school research

Posted on October 14, 2010

    It was a almost like a trip down memory lane. I had to report at school, at 12 sharp. High school, that is. Now I have been at high schools quite a bit these past years. It comes with the territory: children’s book writers go out for reading and signing sessions at schools. It’s fun and it creates an audience, it sells books. I often combine a reading session with a workshop creative writing. It’s amazing how much talent there is out there! After spending a couple of hours with kids I usually head home tired but totally replenished. My inspiration cup filled to the brim with intriguing protagonists and unexpected plot twists, and with the strongest urge to write, write and…

Amsterdam view: Published! Again!

Posted on August 19, 2010

It was a happy day, here at my writer’s residence in Amsterdam. I’d been working on The Pot Boat, my new YA novel, getting into a – not too literal – pot flow and drawing up questions for my esteemed science connection about tappin’ ‘n volts ‘n watts. I know, I know, once I was a science girl, too, but most of that priceless stuff they put in my in head in high school, kinda got lost along the way. I need my facts straight, so I turned to the best high school science teacher in Amsterdam and far beyond (he’ll be in the book!) to guide me along electrocution’s fine lines. So there I was, at my desk thinking up all the questions…

Palm Springs: The Invigorating Spirit Of The Sun

Posted on August 10, 2010

My first SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles was an overwhelming experience. Never have I seen so many kindred spirits together – 1,136 writers and illustrators, agents, editors and publishers. Never have I been in such good and fun company. E.B. Lewis‘ words and work left me in awe. Wow, that man knows how to paint a picture! Krista Marino’s master class Finding and Revising Your Protagonist’s Voice in a Young Adult Novel was an eye-opening inspiration. Jon Scieszka: boy, that man is so funny, telling us about the do’s and don’ts of a writer. Here’s a helpful don’t: Once you start writing, stop reading all the blogs and industry magazines and get down to working. Write, write write. But if you’re Jon’s dentist – thinking of writing a…

Arizonan View: Tsé Bit’Aí

Posted on July 3, 2010

This was the first view at that magnificent monolith the Diné call Tsé Bit’Aí, or the Rock with Wings. Hiking high up in the Chuska Mountains I could see why legend tells these are the petrified remains of a giant bird. It is said that this is the bird that brought the Diné from the north to the Dinetah, their current homeland. It crashed here, in the middle of a rock desert in Four Corners and turned to stone. Getting closer to Tsé Bit’Aí I encountered some of the more gruesome sides of this beautiful land. Bones, bleached by the unrelenting sun, and left on red earth reminded me that life and death were ever so close to each other. The bones also reminded…

Arizonan View: Spider Woman

Posted on June 30, 2010

Some time ago I took my writer’s residence to the Dinetah. The Dinetah is the homeland of the Diné, the People, a.k.a. the Navajo. It lies between the four sacred mountains: Tsisnaasjini’ – Dawn or White Shell Mountain in the East (Blanca Peak, Colorado), Tsoodzil – Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain in the South (Mount Taylor, New Mexico), Doko’oosliid – Abalone Shell Mountain in the West (San Francisco Peaks, Arizona) and Dibé Nitsaa – Big Mountain Sheep or Obsidian Mountain in the North (Hesperus Mountain, Colorado). At first sight the Dinetah seems a callous rock desert where the living is harsh, but if you look closely you will find myths and legends in every nook and cranny of this strikingly red land. One hot…

Vught View: where it all started

Posted on June 22, 2010

Going back in time, back to my birthplace Vught. I didn’t have much of a view from my room there. All I could see was our garden and our neighbors’ gardens. But when I climbed out of my window, into the old peach tree and onto the roof, when I sat on the rooftop I had the best view in the world. I could see all the way to the assault course on the military fields. We weren’t allowed to go there, but hey, we were children and the assault course looked like a giant’s playground, of course we went there. We would cut holes in the fence and race each other on the course. Until one day… Imagine one summer afternoon. Imagine the…