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. The blog name refers to the mythical pact made between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of 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 and still miraculously in print.
Since March 2024, Jen Breach (writer, VCFA graduate, and former student) has helped me manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog. They have lined up and conducted author/illustrator interviews and invited and coordinated guest posts. That support has helped me get through weeks when I’ve been in edit-copyedit-proofing mode, and it’s also introduced me to writers and books I might not have found otherwise. Our overlapping interests have led to posts for which I might not have had the time or attention-span. It’s the beauty of shared circles.
Quirky Tense Employed to Tell a Heartrending Story
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Egyptian Canadian journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad, was selected for discussion in the Ink Book Club earlier this summer.
A title that begins like a story (One Day…) contains a promise about the narrative to come. The comma, with its implied pause, suggests that this will be a complex book and I ought to pick it up and expect to spend some time trying to come to terms with it.
And how could I not find irresistible the use of the future perfect tense, “will have been…?”