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.
Books in Conversation with Other Books
bibliophile | ˈbiblēəˌfīl | noun a person who collects or has a great love of books
That would be me, from the tender age of four, when I received this book as a prize in the admittedly modest category of “Best Endeavour.” I loved that book. I “read” it over and over, upside down and sideways. I have it still, moth-eaten as it became through years of being forgotten, then moved around as my parents hauled it with them once I had left home, finally disinterred from the bottom of an old steel trunk when my father died and my mother decided to move out of their house.
3 Little Kittens managed to survive heat, dust, damp, dryness, neglect, and small chewing insects. It is a reminder of how early in my life I fell in love with the object that is the modern book.