Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts from the “Books” Category

Psychosis… Or not — The Marbury Lens

Posted on June 30, 2011

The Marbury Lens. I’m not sure anymore who recommended it to me, I think it was on the Kobo site. In any case: I bought the book and read it. Wow! I love scare and horror, but this was way beyond scare and horror. This was like ending up in your very own nightmare, never to wake up again. Sixteen-year-old Jack Whitmore celebrates the end of the school year at a party thrown by his best friend Connor, who will also join him on a two week vacation to London. It is a good party and Jack gets blind drunk. Staggering the six miles back home — that’s when you’re still happy that he didn’t take the car — he falls asleep on a…

Categories: Books, YA books

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Necromancing The Rolling Stones

Posted on June 18, 2011

Paranormal is a big word these days, a controversial word, if you will. There are believers and there are non-believers. Me? I am a believer pur sang. I dig the fact that there is more to this world than meets the eye. So when my friend E.D. led me to Lish McBride’s Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, I felt no objections reading it. Good choice! It grabbed me right away or rather the protagonist Sam LaCroix grabbed me, not in the least because his full name is Samhain Corvux LaCroix. A guy named after my favorite bird? That bode well. Sam LaCroix is a Seattle college dropout and now flips burgers at a local fast food joint. While playing a game of potato hockey in…

Categories: Books, YA books

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Trip, slip or be pushed to death?

Posted on June 8, 2011

Sicily. An island with a rich history, not in the least because of that one mountain that dominates it: Etna. The Arabs named it the Mountain of Fire and word goes that Zeus trapped the deadly monster Typhon underneath it. It’s easy to imagine the father of all monsters lurking below the surface of the Etna, you only have to stick your hand in one of those fuming crevices and you know he’s there, the last son of Gaia who set out to destroy Zeus. He almost got the job done, ripping out Zeus’ sinews in their first battle. But Zeus struck back, like a true ruler of the Gods should, and threw Mount Etna on him, trapping him to all eternity. Or not……

Categories: Books, The Views, Thrillers, Views Abroad

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The End of the World or Cows?

Posted on May 20, 2011

It’s nearing, they say, the end of the world. I have no idea who ‘they’ are, but they’re quite convinced that it/us will end tomorrow, May 21. I beg to differ. I think we have a future ahead of us and even a bright one, we just have to look for it and make it work. Last Wednesday Lydia Davis was in Amsterdam. Wim Brands interviewed her and had her tell us where to look. It’s right there, she said. And she told us about the observations she makes at home or traveling; observations that form the source of her ultra short stories. When she looks out of the window and across the street from her home she sees green hilly pastures, a red barn…

Categories: Books, Thrillers, YA books

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New horizons in writing

Posted on May 13, 2011

Last August was my first time at the annual SCBWI Summer Conference. SCBWI stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. It’s a mouthful and the acronym is not much of a help, but notwithstanding the name, the society itself is a gem. I had never seen so many people together (over 1,100) working towards that same goal: writing and/or illustrating the best possible book. Overwhelming as it was, I let myself go with the flow and learned more in those four days than in the past couple of years sweating at my desk, working on new manuscripts. Needless to say, I left the conference with dozens of ideas for new books, and with dozens of new friends, writers and illustrators from…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Thrillers, YA books

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The Empire State Building punctuated

Posted on April 26, 2011

It was a gorgeous summer day in Paris, even though spring only just knocked on our doors, chasing away the winter gloom. I was preparing for a party at my agent’s, Erzsi Deàk of Hen & Ink. Her quarters are in the always buzzing midst of Paris, a stone’s throw away from the Jardin des Tuileries and the famous Louvre and a stroll away from Place des Victoires. The summery temperature held me away from the Louvre and its hordes (actually, almost everything keeps me away from the Louvre hordes, not just the sun). I strolled the streets and ended up at the much more exciting Jeu de Paume, in the northwest corner of the Jardin des Tuileries. Nothing can keep me away from…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, YA books

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Warriors Of the Sun

Posted on March 8, 2011

It’s a good day for waiting. Sun floods the city and brightens up every gable on my block. Trees are still bare, but the one in front of my writer’s residence, the elm that almost touches my window with its spiky branches, has formed carmine buds. It won’t be long before they pop and reveal tender green. Blue skies where ever the eye reaches. I know it just appears blue because the air scatters more short-wavelength light than longer wavelengths, but still, it’s a happy sight. A promising sight, for it seems limitless. Days like this make the writer’s waiting game a very bearable one. Don’t worry, I don’t just sit and wait. My mind never sits and waits. It keeps me busy with…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, YA books