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.
A Hidden World Revealed in Eon: My Pet Tardigrade by Cybèle Young with Nel Jocelyn
Tardigrades belong to the more than 1,100 species of free-living tiny invertebrates living in habitats ranging from moss to sand to fresh water to oceans. I’m willing to bet there are not too many people who can claim to have met one but Cybèle Young has. The experience led to her creating a picture book that combines a child’s imaginings with the science of this peculiar little creature whose other names, endearingly, are “moss piglet” and “water bear.”
When life isn’t good—when it’s too cold or dry, for instance—a tardigrade can do something astonishing. It can go into a state of suspended animation and turn into a little speck of matter called a tun. Just that word, so small and easy to toss out, makes me smile. Tuns can stay still and specky and inert for years, even decades.