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: Jesse Weiner on Embracing Uncertainty
Jesse Weiner holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I taught for sixteen years and became, I’m convinced, a better writer for it. Among the awe-inspiring faculty members the year I joined was Norma Fox Mazer—quiet, clear-eyed, she wrote words that sang themselves off the page. Why do I raise this? When Jesse was a student at VCFA, she won the Norma Fox Mazer Award, which recognizes excellence in craft. Those are the kinds of overlapping circles that feel like gifts.
Jesse’s a cross-genre writer and poet. Her work has appeared in places like The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Poetry Hall. Jesse is also a writing coach and developmental editor through her business, Inksational Editorial. She also runs a free newsletter with open submission calls, contests and grants, and other industry info. Click here to learn more and sign up.
I’m delighted to welcome Jesse Weiner to WWBT.
Meet Jen Breach
This blog began in 2006 as an exercise, a discipline, a meditation for me, a way to think out loud while I was trying to think on the page in my books for young readers. Over the years it has taken on its own trajectory and become a record of sorts—a patchwork quilt of my reflections on crossing borders of all kinds as they relate to writing and teaching. It has come to include the reflections and opinions of others who create books for children and young adults.
In 2024-25, I’ll have 4 new books out, each with its own timeline of edits, copyedits, and a series of proofs, and I am not getting any swifter. Spent years multitasking and living to the thrill of the looming deadline. Can’t do that any more. So rather than shut the blog down and retreat for months on end, I’ve decided to get help.
Stalking the Spirit
Earlier this year I was in the position of juggling not one, not two, but three works in progress, all under contract, each needing different parts of my brain to give it attention.
Then a new story idea turned up, appearing like a mirage from the pages of a nonfiction book I was reading at the time, calling to me from far down the road like a ghost.
Reality, Fiction, and Why I Keep on Writing
The post that follows first appeared on author-illustrator and long-time e-mail friend and colleague Elizabeth Dulemba's blog.
I got to meet Elizabeth in person when I spoke at Hollins University's Francelia Butler Conference last year. I'm reposting this piece here because I need to keep these things in mind as we embark upon a new year and the world seems to be plunging into ever greater chaos and cruelty. (More about Elizabeth Dulemba's Lady Liberty poster here.)