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.
“If it was good, it was golden.” History, Fiction, and the Writing Self
I find rambles through history as captivating as any other kind of rambling travel. Some of the histories I’ve wandered through have led me to the ramblings of the writer Eric Blair who became George Orwell, his nom de plume traveling right into the English language. Orwellian, right up there with Kafkaesque, is frequently conjured up as a reflection of all things authoritarian.