writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
A reader recently asked if my second trilogy, Don’t Tell the Nazis, Trapped in Hitler’s Web and Traitors Among Us can can be read out of order.
My answer: While there is enough context in each of the novels so that they can be read as standalones, to get a true picture of Krystia and Maria’s experiences in WWII, they should be read in chronological order, which is:
I am so very thrilled to have this novel finally available for Ukrainian readers. Yulia Lyubka’s translation is brilliant and I LOVE the cover art by Anya Styopina. Making Bombs and Stolen Girl tell the tale of two Ukrainian sisters torn apart by the Nazis in WWII. One is considered racially valuable and is kidnapped, brainwashed into thinking she’s German, and placed in a Nazi home. The other sister is considered not racially valuable, and is starved and worked nearly to death. Although these books are historical, they’re unfortunately also current because Putin channels Hitler and Ukrainians are currently going through this all again. The publisher is Books XI. In Canada they’re available through Koota Ooma.
Thank you, J.P. Antonacci for this wonderful story in the Hamilton Spectator, titled, “A writer’s promise to her young readers — to tell the truth.”
A compelling look at the seamy underside of the fashion industry, told from the perspective of a vulnerable young person who had more of a backbone than most right from the beginning but was still manipulated and abused. Instead of letting herself remain a victim, she used her visibility became an advocate for others in order to help change the system. This book will also go a long way in doing that. Thank you, Cameron Russell, for sharing your experiences in what must have been a very painful memoir to write.
WRAD is always a very nifty day. It’s like running a race, hoping that no technical barriers or complications arise at the last moment. The wonderful Kate Messner posts author availability early each New Year and educators rush in to nab their brief free virtual sessions. It’s a great way for schools who could otherwise never afford an author visit to let their students interact with a live author.
On the other side of the screen, it can be a challenge for authors. I’ve heard stories of authors being booked for a full day and then when WRAD approaches, being faced with a string of cancelations when educators opt for a “better” author — how humiliating. Also, this can leave an author with an uneven day. I’ve heard of authors generously setting aside a 12 hour span to cover a wide number of time zones, carefully planning the day with brief intervals in between, but then when the day arrives, being confronted with no shows or last minute cancellations. This leaves the author in limbo, still needing to be on the ready, but having big gaps between presentations. Not a respectful way to treat authors who’ve kindly donated their time.
One way that I get around this is to not give a slot to any educator who sends a mass message to authors or who sends a canned message to me. In order for me to volunteer my time to speak to a school the educator must demonstrate that they’re familiar with me and my work and that their students want to hear from me. Also, I book short sessions — just 15 minutes each — and book them back to back with no downtime in between. This year I booked 12 in three hours. All of my slots were filled within 48 hours of them being posted. Today I did 11 of them. One educator had unresolvable zoom problems. But I was thrilled to speak with students for three hours straight and still have the rest of the day to concentrate on writing. A win-win all around.
Here are some students from today:
Winterkill is shortlisted for the Kobzar Book Award, and in preparation for the event night, Ryan Boyko has been tasked with doing short videos about all of the nominees. I love supporting independent bookstores so it was a natural choice to ask Catherine if we could do the interview at her wonderful Simcoe bookstore, Firefly & Fox. That’s Catherine standing beside me with her son Gilbert.
Ryan and I have known each other for quite along time. We’re both passionate about shedding light on Ukrainian and Canadian Ukrainian history and we’ve both been banned by Russia. Ryan is best known for That Never Happened his searing documentary on WWI internment, but he’s done so much more than that! So good to compare notes with my creative friend.
Such a great experience all around, getting to know Catherine and catching up with Ryan. If you’re in Simcoe Ontario, be sure to drop by this fabulous store.
It was a six degrees of separation kind of day yesterday. I had lunch with Robin Baird Lewis, Brantford born and raised like me, and a book person. She’s the illustrator of the iconic picture book Red is Best, written by Kathy Stinson.
Robin was in town for a few days and emailed to see if we could get together. She had something for me: a book by another fellow book person, Valentina Gal, author of Philipovna a novel/memoir of the Holodomor, which is the same topic as my latest novel, Winterkill. Robin and Valentina are in the same knitting group!
I read Philipovna and LOVED it. I was thrilled to get a hard copy of the book from the author herself as I only had the e-edition, and it is such a powerful book. But also, I wanted to share with her, through Robin, another connection that we had, that both of our books had been discussed in Mateusz Świetlicki‘s groundbreaking work on Ukrainian Canadian historical literature for young people. I brought the book to our lunch to show Robin, and will be sending snaps of the pertinent pages so that Robin can read them to Valentina. How nifty is that?
Hey Marsha! I’ve contacted you before about a book, and decided to write a new one about XXX, this is what I have for now:
Chapter 1 (page or two of story ….)
My response:
Dear xxx,
First, congratulations on plunging into a story! So many people say they want to write but never get around to actually doing it. But I cannot read your story. If I read every story readers sent me, I wouldn’t have time to write. Years ago, as a solution to wanting to help aspiring writers but not having the time to do it, I created a private online critique group for writers.
You would be welcome to join it once you write the first draft of an entire chapter book and you are age 16 or over (I’d want an email from a parent to confirm permission). The critique group is free, but in order to stay in it, you give other participants feedback on their work in exchange for feedback on yours.
So, in the meantime, happy writing. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
all the best
Marsha
What inspired you to become a writer and author?
I have dyslexia and didn’t learn to read until I was 9 — taught myself with big fat novels. Once I got hooked on reading I decided to write the books I couldn’t find — on topics that others didn’t write about, and also the way I like to read them, which is action-paced.
What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you, while you’re still working on a book?
Make a note of it and go back when I have time.
What was your favorite book to write and publish? Why?
My picture book Enough. I talk about that here.
What do you want to be known for or remembered for?
For honoring those who have been forgotten.
When did you publish your first book and how many books have you published?
To be clear, I don’t “publish” books. I write them. A publisher publishes them. There is a lot of misinformation online about what it means to publish a book. If you google it, the first 5 or more pages of your search are all scams and ads. In reality, an author submits a book to a publishing house. They look at thousands of submissions a year and out of all that, select a few for publication. The author signs a contract and is paid a percentage from each book sold — usually 10% of the list price. What you see online is really often people having their book printed, not published, and that means you can write anything of any quality, pay money, and have it made into a book.
Now, back to your original question, here are all my books:
Some have been republished in different editions and different titles and languages so hard to count them all. For example, my first book, Silver Threads, was published first in 1996, then in 2003, and again in 2023, and in Ukrainian and Korean editions too.