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.
Guest Post: Shruthi Rao on When Science Stood Still
Sometimes you come across a book someone else wrote that taps precisely into a story you wanted to tell yourself, that you perhaps tried to tell and never quite managed to. That’s part of the writing life. You chalk it up to experience and move on. But wait, twice? Twice, and it turns out to be the same writer who snagged the very story fruit you were reaching for? Can this happen twice?
Reader, it did. Shruthi Rao has managed to bring to the page two-count-em-two book ideas I tried desperately to pitch for decades without finding traction. What was the problem? Timing? Focus? Execution? Too much critique? Not enough? Who knows?