write on!

It's not that I don't want to post more often - because I do. It's just that I spend very little time online right now. When I do get a chance to use the laptop I realize how disconnected I've become to the online world of children's writers.

All's not lost, though. I'm working on a new project, I have a great new critique group, and I'm reading some very good books. Just finished Miriam Toews' new release, Irma Voth, and loved it. I like the way her story developed, closer and closer to the SECRET and then it's out and everything else falls into place. Miriam Toews was writer-in-residence at our local library a few years past - just before her breakthrough novel, A Complicated Kindness, was released and she was most encouraging and supportive with my then unpublished manuscript of my first book.

(I say first - fingers crossed and working hard - so that it will not, hopefully, be my only published book.) Toews' writing is funny, smart and oh so sensitive. I keep hoping that if I read enough great books, I'll eventually write one. On the other hand, reading a great book is a reward in itself.

Besides the reading, writing, and critiquing, there's also a garden to be edited (or weeded, watered, and talked to). There are various young people drifting through my house - usually in a hurry - looking for food, socks, head phones, rides, car keys - or even - a bit of encouragement.

Then there's the day job. Big changes in the last month. It's a good thing I like walking because with my new route I'm walking two hours more a day. You know what they say, what doesn't break you, only makes you stronger. I feel strong. But all I really want to do is get my next book published. So, write on, I shall.

Happy writing, reading, editing, and gardening to everyone.

Wretched Land Review

This decade-spanning saga of a family in eastern Ukraine begins in 1907 and ends with Ukraine's independence in 1991. The story follows the lives of Dmytro and Khrystina Verbitsky and is based on the lives of the author's grandparents. They lived through several famines (including the Holodomor), the Bolshevik Revolution, WWII, the death of Stalin, and finally the slow disintegration of the USSR.

The book was a page-turner. The story is very well-written and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this era of history. There's a lot of the historical framework added so that the reader understands the bigger context and not just this particular family's experiences. My only quibble would be that I'd have liked a family tree added. The Verbitsky couple had such a large family and I had trouble keeping track of them. I had to keep turning back and forth to remind myself.

But quibble aside, the book is full of positive vibes, in spite of much sadness. It's obvious that a lot of soul went into the creation of this work. On more than one occasion I was brought to tears. One example is during the German retreat when the collective's barn is set ablaze and Khrystina almost dies.

Another profound moment is right near the end of the book after the war. It's peacetime now, yet the family is still having difficulties. Khrystina says, "What's wrong with out children, Dymtro? Why are they so cruel to other people?" And Dymytro replies, "Nothing is wrong with our children. It's the war. It has made them cruel."

The book is brimming with wisdom and love in spite of personal tragedy. It's powerful stuff and I wish the author, Mila Komarnisky, much success with it.

Visit her website for more info. www.komarnisky.com

A Quote

Escape from Warsaw

Historical fiction - or rather, 20th century war stories - are my special interest. Because of my family's personal history, perhaps I'm genetically-programmed to being obsessed with this dark past. There's no shortage of books on the subject, so I know I'm not alone with this interest. A family member said to me recently, why don't you just forget about the past. It's not healthy. Perhaps, it's not. But when I go visit my mom in the nursing home, and I see all these old people, I can't help but imagine what they've seen, who they once were, and where they come from. Life is about so much more than the present - unless you're a dog, of course.

That preamble was to justify my reading of yet another war novel. Escape from Warsaw - a mid grade novel by Ian Serraillier - was first published in the UK in 1956 with the title, The Silver Sword. In 1957 it was turned into an eight-part children's TV series by the BBC.

I've been doing background reading for an adult novel I'm working on and know so little about Poland. While I prefer reading non-fiction as research, I also enjoy learning about narrator techniques in novel-writing. It is, after-all, point-of-view that determines the story.

Escape from Warsaw (or The Silver Sword) is primarily an adventure story. Four children leave Warsaw in the search for their parents in Switzerland. The war has just ended and Europe is in shambles. While not rich in character, the novel does reveal an important aspect of war - families were torn apart and homes did no longer exist. Children were often without adults, and had to survive on their on. I imagine when this aired on TV - a mere ten years after the war had ended - that there would have been an intense interest.

I was delighted to do a return visit to Mrs. Hand's grade six class out in Carman, Manitoba last week. When I got to the school several students were watching and waiting for me - The Kulak's Daughter in hand. So first off I had to sign their books. Next, they took me on a tour of the school and introduced me to the principal, the librarian, the gym teacher, etc. They also showed me their favorite place - which was the kindergarten room. Then we headed off to their Grade six area.

I had a powerpoint to go along with my presentation and the students took care of all the technical details - which was great, because I'm still a bit of a luddite when it comes to technology. (I learn something more, and then something new comes along.)

Mrs. Hand's students had extremely interesting and well thought-out questions. They asked about Stalin, about my life as an author, and about the characters in the book. I was delighted to receive a copy of this question and answer exchange in the mail a few days later.

Thank you Mrs. Hand's grade six class! You made me feel very special, and Carman, Manitoba

will always make me think of bright, enthusiastic students and every author's dream of a teacher.

Kingdom of Trolls

Just finished reading Rae Bridgman's Kingdom of Trolls. (Sybertooth Publishing, New Brunswick) It's the fourth book in her Middlegate Series which is set here in Winnipeg, but over in the magical part - you know the area - in between the cracks of reality.

In Kingdom of Trolls, Sophie and Wil, the two young protagonists travel to Iceland - obviously inspired by the author's visits over there. I got to go to the book launch back in February and was thoroughly entertained by Bridgman's expressive reading. She weaves 'an enchanted web' over her listeners and I do hope she gets many opportunities to read her work out loud. The writing style - with its Latin, Icelandic and troll sounds - begs to be dramatically presented. That said, my one minor criticism would be the way the troll words were written. I found the mix of capitals and non-capitals hard on the eye. But then, that mix does convey the gruffness of troll's speech.

Bridgman's beautiful ink drawings throughout add another dimension to the story, and I kept referring back to the colorful cover (another author drawing) when the two characters were deep in troll country.

I don't read a lot of fantasy, so this was a real treat - to escape into a plot full of talking rocks, ghosts, trolls, crystal balls, and more. My favorite lines come in the translation of one of the Latin chapter introductions: Chapter XXXVII: Observation: Problems can multiply like flies. Another observation: Gifts soon beget gifts. Third observation: The story certainly changes depending on the storyteller.

This storyteller gives readers the gift of make-believe with dramatic style and an incredibly vivid imagination.

p.s. I heard that the first three Middlegate books have been translated into Chinese. Congrats, Rae!

Timothy Synder's The Bloodlands

Just finished Timothy Snyder's book, Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. What a heavy read. It's mind-numbing. Page after page of senseless deaths reported.

The area that Snyder refers to includes most of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus, plus Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and western Russia. 14 million people. And this is just the 'non-combatants.' He's including the years of the Holodomor and the Great Terror, but

excluding the people collectivized under Stalin's First Five Year Plan.

If you think things were bad during those years, think again. They were, in fact, much worse. The camps liberated by the Allies in '45 were just the tip of the iceberg.

In one of the early chapters, Synder writes about the victims of the Great Terror. My grandfather was shot in September, 1937. His crime was documented and filed and I was able to read the interrogation proceedings, back in 2004. Part of my grandfather's crime was requesting and receiving food aid during the famine in 1933. Here's an image of those 'top secret' files

listing the letters, the amount of money involved and the dates.

And now, through Synder's book, I'm able to identify the weapon that was used. Here's a quote from the book (p. 83) describing that 1937/8 kulak operation:

"The killings were always carried out at night, and in seclusion ... The executioners were always NKVD officers, generally using a Nagan pistol. (Image of weapon from World Gun website) While two men held a prisoner by his arms, the executioner would fire a single shot from behind into the base of the skull, and then often a 'control shot' into the temple." The bodies were then dumped into prepared ditches. This is a photo of my grandfather's ditch, here.

Having a researcher like Timothy Synder corroborate my own findings about my missing grandfather is empowering. I want to share one more powerful quote from Snyder's closing paragraph.

"The Nazi and Soviet regimes turned people into numbers...It is for us as scholars to seek these numbers and to put them into perspective. It is for us as humanists to turn the numbers back into people. If we cannot do that, then Hitler and Stalin have shaped not only our world, but our humanity." (The Bloodlands, p.408)

Here's my grandfather's face. He once had a wife and a family. He had a home, a bit of land, a windmill and a purpose for living. For this, Stalin killed him - one of the 14 million.