Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Boreas in Bologna

Posted on March 16, 2017
My Dutch publisher will be in Bologna, located in Hall 29 D23. Boreas again features prominently in their foreign rights guide. Please, do not hesitate to inquire with their representatives, Dania van Dishoeck, Luciënne van der Leije and Sophie Mulder. They have synopses of the three Boreas books and the translation of the first chapters of Boreas and the Seven Seas, all in English, of course.
And publishing friends abroad: know that the Dutch Literary Fund issues grants for translations of Dutch literature. A substantial help in covering the costs of translation.
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Categories: Books, Children's books

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Boreas and the Four Winds

Posted on March 9, 2017

Hurray! BOREAS EN DE VIER WINDSTREKEN (BOREAS AND THE FOUR WINDS) has been proofed and should be on its way to the printer now.

I am super excited about this third book in the Boreas series, which will come out mid April. Again, I’ve thrown Boreas in adventure after adventure on his trip around the world with his parents on their yacht the Argo. In BOREAS AND THE FOUR WINDS, the family sails from Miami up the East Coast of America all the way to New York, and back south again to Key West, Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Colombia. After passing through the Panama Canal they sail north to San Francisco for a short trip to the Sierra Nevada. The final destination of this third book is Hawaii. Will they arrive on Hawaii? I don’t know! Because… where did that hurricane come from?

 

The Boreas books are, of course, first and foremost super thrilling reads for all young adventurers out there, spiced with little fun facts. But I also slip a more serious theme in each book. The theme of the first book, BOREAS AND THE SEVEN SEAS, was taking decisions. The main theme of the second book, BOREAS AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS, was leaving, and this time in BOREAS AND THE FOUR WINDS the theme is the nature and the environment.

 

Excited? Publication date is April 19 and I will share details about the book launch party in Amsterdam soon!

 

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

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Into the Sea

Posted on February 19, 2017

she walks into the sea to cleanse herself

from the hurt that flooded her

when he called her a

whore

with handfuls of brine

she douses his vernacular, vile and full of harm,

erases it from her mind

barters the words for the soft-spoken sweetness

he used to ensnare her heart and soul

she’s not here to clear his conscience

she’s not here to lift his guilt

let him face the love he

crushed with his thoughtless thirst

she scours her body with sand and stone

struggles to escape the hissing voice

that tells her to let

his words rip her to

shreds and drown

in the force of a surf that will

steal her life

 

 

 

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Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Views Abroad, YA books

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February Fairmaid

Posted on February 4, 2017
spring-chill
Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books

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International Author Sails in With Some Fabulous Writing Insights

Posted on January 4, 2017

Interviewed by Australian author Dee White: International Author Sails in With Some Fabulous Writing Insights

deescribewriting's avatarDeeScribewriting Blog

I first met extraordinary author Mina Witteman at the 2010 SCBWI LA Conference where she was also the representative of SCBWI Netherlands through her role as Regional Advisor.
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By a strange coincidence, we both successfully applied for the SCBWI Nevada Mentorship Program and here we are pictured above.

As well as being a much-loved writer, Mina is also a huge advocate for children’s and young adult creators and the publishing industry.

In 2015 I was lucky to be invited by Mina to present a writing workshop at the second SCBWI Europolitan Conference she organised in Amsterdam. She is one of the three founding members of this bi-annual conference that offers a great opportunity for children’s book creators to connect with each other and with publishing professionals from all over the world.

screen-shot-2015-04-06-at-3-57-14-am My Amsterdam writing workshop

Mina was Regional Advisor for SCBWI Netherlands for more than five years from 2011 to…

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Categories: A Bit of Everything

What Makes Me Smile

Posted on December 13, 2016

You all know about writers, right? And about how we always seem to be able to swerve towards the precipice of doubt? If not… Trust me. We’re really good at it, veering off course and sliding head first to the ledge.

 

Or at least, I am.

 

Doubt lassoes me like a seasoned cowboy lassoes a filly. It usually catches me when my brain’s in overload. Like these past few days, while I was in the midst of translating half a million documents, busy pestering friends left and right to battle red tape with me, working on a book proposal, trying to ward off the anxiety brought on by a myriad omens that bode for a devastatingly harsh political climate, fretting about the manuscript I just sent off because a trusted publishing friend told me it could do with some serious tightening.

 

Yeah.

 

That’s when doubt throws its rope and yanks me to the edge. That’s when I start thinking no one’s waiting for my words, that my lines are no more than inconsequential chatter, that my dreams are not worth pursuing.

 

That’s also when I know that if I wedge my feet in every rock ridge I can find, every stratum, every layer of sediment that sticks up, I can keep myself from going over and have doubt nix my dreams. It does require me to open my eyes so I can actually see the things that make me smile again, find the things that restore the trust in myself, the things that can cut the cord and set me free. Not always an easy task with my penchant for the dark. I try anyway.

 

So when doubt hurled its merciless rope at me again, I forced myself to look up. And there was the dear friend who took me to the beach and made me smile. There were my two guys across the pond who believe in my dream. There were my downstairs neighbors who hugged me close and restored faith.

And then there was this guy today standing on the corner of a street downtown with his sign, reminding me why I can never give up and that made me smile, too.

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Thank you, Michael. I owe you one.

 

 

 

 

Categories: A Bit of Everything

The Gray of Tears

Posted on December 10, 2016

 
 a gray of tears conceals the sky
 not long ago a striking blue
 a tyrant bends
 his pallid creeds into a vicious dark
 assails the love that shapes
 my heart
 i sit and listen, hear his sound, the thunder of his fallacy, 
the quaver of a loon in fright

 a gray of tears conceals the earth
 not long ago a vibrant green
 the sun curves
 its black-body radiance into a blinding white
 shreds the veil that obscures
 my view
 i sit and listen, hear new sounds, the rumbling of the ocean, 
the tremor of a bird in flight

 a gray of tears cleanses my soul
 i sit and listen, i find my voice
 i fight

 

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Categories: A Bit of Everything