Writing With a Broken Tusk
Writing With a Broken Tusk began in 2006 as a blog about overlapping geographies, personal and real-world, and writing books for children. Since March 2024, Jen Breach (writer, VCFA graduate, and former student) has helped me curate and manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog.
The blog name refers to the mythical pact between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the epic narrative, the Mahabharata. It also refers to my second published book, edited by the generous and brilliant Diantha Thorpe of Linnet Books/The Shoe String Press, published in 1996, acquired and republished by August House, now part of Reading Is Fundamental, and still miraculously in print.
Posts on this site reflect personal opinion and commentary protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
In Search of Structure
For John McPhee, it started with a picnic table.
Me, I’ve been staring at a 2 ft. x 3 ft. piece of cardboard, hoping to find a way to pin down the structure of the nonfiction book I'm working on. I have a thesis that emerged from my proposal for the book and was more or less confirmed by the draft. I have a synopsis I put together when I was halfway through, revising it along way. Those will go onto that cardboard. They'll help me stay on track so the draft manuscript deliver in a few months won't be a red hot mess.
