Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts tagged “The Sun Spirit

I Am a Rock – The Twin Warriors

Posted on September 4, 2013

  Without this rock there would be no first book in the Warriors of the Sun series. We so often base our knowledge on the journeys of Odysseus, we pull strength from the adventures of Thor and wisdom from the musings of Vishnu, but we rarely quench our thirst with the wealth of stories that spring from the first peoples of North America. When I searched  Dutch libraries, I couldn’t find a single book that showed Dutch children the true cultures of the United States and Canada. It urged me to write the Warrior Of the Sun series. Research for the series brought me to the lands and tribes of North America. I wandered the desert and the mountains in search of Thunderbird and Coyote.…

The Long Wait

Posted on January 30, 2011

It’s been a while, people, I know. It was hard work, finishing the Dark Fiber revision and it didn’t leave much room for anything else, but last Monday I hit those six keys I’m so fond of, the ones that give me that TGIF feeling: THE END. Dark Fiber is done and I’m very happy with the result. Now starts the long wait until my agent has read the new version and comes with his verdict. Waiting is a constant in the life of a writer. We wait a good deal of our time and most of us have learned to live with it. Some waiting bouts are worse than others, though. The most agonizing one is when you wait for a positive reply to a query.…

Amsterdam view: Amsterdam on fire again?

Posted on October 7, 2010

    Last Friday the Amsterdam sky lit up with protest fires, built on the bridges by outraged squatters, thrill-seeking tourists and hormone-driven adolescents. Last night the skies lit up again. But this time it wasn’t the anti-riot squad that did the scattering, this time it was the sun. For me it felt like the Sun Spirit was telling me he was keeping his fingers crossed. It felt like he was sending me all the good luck in the world. I need those good luck wishes! I need them in relation to that wonderful skin-crawling adventure fantasy I wrote and that is on its way to the US: THE SUN SPIRIT! It is the first volume of the Warriors of the Sun tetralogy and…

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…