But first news about Boreas It’s been quiet on the Boreas front. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything going on here. There is! By now, paperback editions of three of the Boreas titles have been published. Hurray! Children still love the series and sales are steady. And maybe, just maybe… Boreas will make the jump to America like I did. That pleases me enormously. And now about The Memory Maker Meanwhile, I have been busy writing new books. This time in English. There is a wonderful middle grade out on submission: The Memory Maker in which Georgia “Izzy” Isherwood grapples with the loss of her mother. Her only real comfort is an old, worn t-shirt that still carries the familiar scent of her…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts tagged “writing”
What happens to a writer when there is a shelter-in-place edict that shrinks your physical world to proportions of times passé? Not much, I thought. I’ll be fine, I thought. I’m a writer and, by nature, a bit of a recluse. I mostly live in my head. Not that I don’t pay attention to the world around me. I do! A lot. But you won’t find me in the middle of the melee if I can help it. I feel most comfortable observing the world from the peace and quiet of my home. I prefer to take in life as it glides by: who moves where and how and, importantly, why? I look for connections and cross-connections, I analyze, I contemplate, I add perspective,…
Tagged: Berkeley, California, Children's Books, COVID-19, Drawing, Journal, Nature journaling, Shelter in place, Sketching, virus, writing
Writer friends! All friends! I am still glowing from the Bay Area Book Festival, which was a great success in no small part thanks to the brave young women of Cinnamongirl Inc. I approached Cinnamongirl Inc. to find youth moderators for my middle grade and young adult sessions. And I got them! I am so honored to have met Renée Richard and these exceptional girls. I am in awe of what they did, stepping out of their comfort zone and onto the stage, rocking at interviewing accomplished authors. And I’m in awe of how Renée guides the girls to a future brimming with opportunities and possibilities. Now, Cinnamongirl Inc. is kicking off their Write Your Story program. I am reaching out to you,…
The San Francisco North and East Bay region of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators had asked me to teach a workshop on plot for their Contra Costa County Meeting in Walnut Creek. Sixty people signed up, all children’s writers eager to hone their writing skills and improve their craft. Now, I love teaching, but when the room is filled with people who simply love what they are doing, people who are dedicated to and persevering in their dream to become better writers, my heart leaps. Yesterday was such a joyful day. I set out to show how plot structure formats — and there are so many out there that a web search brings you 3.000.000 results in 0.76 seconds! —…
This week was the start of a new chapter in my life. I recently obtained a visa for the US, a so-called artist’s visa that identifies me now as an alien with extraordinary abilities in writing children’s books. Needless to say I am super excited at this opportunity to spread my children’s books wings. But it’s also a life-changing leap into uncharted waters and I feel like the little ones in the picture below. Intimidated by the dark around them, you can see them think: are we going in or… I’m that little one at the end of the rudder. I made my choice and went in. These next years I will be exploring and navigating these, to me, uncharted waters. I’ll be enjoying Californian life, too. Let myself be lifted…
My previous post – Dark Musings – turned out to be a tad unsettling for a few readers. Let me take the edge off: it’s about my protagonist. Not about me. Even if I have a penchant for the dark. I do will myself to skate very close to the memories of my time in the abyss that is so euphemistically named depression. I force that upon myself to make sure that the emotions in my new YA novel ring true to the reader. It’s a hard topic that I touch upon in this story and it needs to come from the heart. My heart. I can do that because, as a former hockey goalie, I know how to take a blow. When those memories and life throw me…
After 45 days on the road, it’s time to go home and last night’s show was the perfect ending to this road trip. Fiddler on the Roof is all about love and loss, just like my journey was rediscovery of the power of love and loss. A rediscovery that I could pour into the story I’m working on. I didn’t have to wait long before I realized that Fiddler on the Roof perfectly illustrated what writing means to me, Tevye’s first lines were enough. I’ve adapted them slightly here to show you (and I hope Joseph Stein will forgive me for changing his words): “A writer on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Fiction, you might say every…
Tagged: #amwriting, Fiction, Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph Stein, muse, stories, Tevye, writing
Mina Witteman 