Thank you, Ryan Boyko and the Shevchenko Foundation, for creating this interview about the inspiration for Winterkill. This was filmed at Firefly & Fox, a great independent bookstore in Simcoe Ontario.
Author: Marsha
I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war.
Pysanka, first steps
Now there are 4 pee wee pysanky
Eeek. There’s a reason I don’t do videos! One pysanka nearly got away!
First pysanky of 2024
I like to do pysanky of all different sizes. These first two are pee wee eggs. To give you an idea of the size difference, here’s my first pee wee beside an XL egg from last year:
Here’s a step by step (primarily so I can show you the nifty Tryzub nail art that Lacey at Hair Body Boom did for the Kobzar event:
Interview with TQ Townsend of Children’s Literature Podcast
Thank you, Tiffney, for your well-considered questions. I enjoyed our discussion!
A Q&A instead of a read-aloud on WRAD
Ms Slapnik of Batesburg-Leesville Middle School North Carolina had scheduled a slot with me for her students, but forces beyond her control foiled our plans. Her students were assigned unexpected mandatory testing and weren’t available. She had a list of questions from the students, so I agreed have the Q&A zoom session recorded.
My one and only Canadian school during WRAD
Eleven of my twelve World-Read-Aloud-Day donated virtual visits were claimed by American schools, but one I gave to Melita School in Manitoba, and it came about when two grade 8 students, Chaz and Zander, were doing a project on one of my books and asked to meet with me virtually. Normally, I would have had to say no, but World Read Aloud Day was coming up, so I suggested we meet on that day, with their whole class. It was a wonderful visit with Ms Anderson and her students! Here are some pics.
Three bad writing habits
There are lots of bad habits that can mess up a manuscript, but here are three that often show up in early drafts.
ONE: Exclamation marks
Don’t use them.
You can always go back and sprinkle some in later but try to get away with as few as possible. They are a crutch and each time you use one their effect is diminished. Avoiding them will force you to be a better word-selector.
TWO: Fancy and extended dialogue tags
Don’t laden your dialogue tags with description, (ie she said angrily as she took a sip of her hot cider). The words you put in your character’s mouth should imply the power of their wants/needs/loves/hates and the dialogue itself is implicit action, or SHOWING, whereas dumping info into the dialogue tag is by definition TELLING — and should be avoided.
A quick way of cleaning up about 60% of this is to do a global search on “ily” because you’ll find a lot of the adverbs that way and adverbs are all about telling. Trust your power of good dialogue and avoid the temptation of second-guessing yourself by adding into the dialogue tag what you already make clear with your choice of words and tone in what your characters say. Less is more.
THREE: Dialogue instead of scenes
Do you have pages of solid dialogue? This is a red flag for action that happened in the past. If you find sections of your story that are almost entirely dialogue, check it to see if you’re using dialogue as a scene avoidance technique. While conversation is nominally action, over dependence on dialogue is a way to unconsciously avoid writing a scene.
Every paragraph in a story should include at least one powerful action event. Don’t waste action potential on a scene with two heads yakking at each other after the fact. Plunge your scene in the middle of the action, and then chase your characters, keyboard in hand. Your readers will thank you for that.
Question: Can I read your second WWII trilogy out of order?
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:
Making Bombs for Hitler published in Ukraine
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.
