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, writer and former student Jen Breach 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—Venn diagrams, anyone?
Process Talk with Jen: Yamile Saied Mendez on The Beautiful Game
[Posted by Jen Breach for Writing With a Broken Tusk]
There are similarities and differences between Yamile Saied Mendez’s The Beautiful Game (out now) and bestselling, beloved novel Furia (2020). Both are exceptionally compelling fiction led by talented and passionate female soccer players, raised in close-knit Argentinian extended families, who are trying to find the place in the world they believe to be theirs, even though others say different. From there nuance and difference unfold. The biggest difference, obviously, is that in the YA Furia, Camila is seventeen, and in the middle-grade The Beautiful Game, “Magic” is thirteen.
Jen talks to Yamile about The Beautiful Game.