#ArmUkraineNow
Category: News stories
Pysanky 2022
My Ukrainian-themed books
In interviews and reviews, over the years my identity has been mislabeled as Polish, Jewish, Iranian, Armenian, Lithuanian, Ukranian [sic] (please add in that first i!]. To set the record straight, I am Canadian of Ukrainian heritage. I’ve written books on a variety of themes and set within many historical eras, always concentrating on young people plunged in a time of war and persecution. Because Ukraine’s history has been subjected to much disinformation and distortion by both Russia and the former Soviet Union, I’ve written a lot of Ukrainian-themed historically accurate books. If you want to understand the Russian war against Ukraine, inform yourself about the treatment of Ukrainians by both Stalin and Hitler. Putin is channeling them both. Here are my Ukrainian-themed books:
Kidnapped from Ukraine: Under Attack
To be published by Scholastic on Jan 7, 2025. This gripping, accessible novel by celebrated Ukrainian Canadian author Marsha Forchuk ...
Winterkill
Nyl is just trying to stay alive. Ever since the Soviet dictator, Stalin, started to take control of farms like ...
Traitors Among Us
Originally from Ukraine, Maria and her older sister Krystia have made it through separate ordeals during World War II and ...
Trapped in Hitler’s Web
Publication date: Oct 6, 2020 Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, author of Making Bombs for Hitler, explores the bonds of friendship and ...
Stolen Girl
Simplified Chinese edition Korean edition Scholastic Canada original edition edition Scholastic Canada French edition Wook Portuguese edtion Audio edition Nadia ...
Don’t Tell The Nazis
Scholastic Inc Scholastic Canada Previously published in Canada as Don't Tell the Enemy. Krystia’s family is hiding Jews from the ...
The War Below (previously: Underground Soldier)
A companion to the award-winning books Stolen Child and Making Bombs for Hitler. Fourteen-year-old Luka works as an Ostarbeiter in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, ...
Making Bombs for Hitler
In this companion book to the award-winning Stolen Child, a young girl is forced into slave labour in a munitions ...
Unbound: Canadian Ukrainian Writing Home
What does it mean to be Ukrainian in contemporary Canada? The Ukrainian Canadian writers in Unbound challenge the conventions of genre – ...
Prisoners in the Promised Land
The heart-wrenching story of one girl’s experience at a Ukrainian internment camp in Quebec during World War I. Anya’s family ...
Silver Threads
Silver Threads is the magical story of Anna and Ivan, two young newly-weds who escape poverty and hardship in Ukraine ...
A Christmas to Remember
A Christmas To Remember is a wonderful seasonal anthology for Dear Canada readers, both old and new! A real treat for ...
Kobzar’s Children
This unique anthology introduces new voices and a century of hidden stories. The kobzars were the blind minstrels of Ukraine, ...
Hope’s War
Kataryna Balyk, a gifted fine arts student, is hoping to have a fresh start at Cawthra School for the Arts, ...
Pysanky 2022
Overwriting
I run a private online crit group where participants “pay” by giving critiques in order to get them from other participants. Recently, one participant posted this question after my feedback on her work-in-progress
Question: I’m not sure if I totally understand something you advised me on. You said, “No second stage directions in one sentence.”
an example of this is when I wrote a triple stage direction:
“Maria crossed herself, picked up her spoon and said X”
Why, Marsha is 2 or 3 stage directions not to be done? Is it because it is “over-writing?” I looked that term up and I think that is why you advised this. And yet, in novels it seems common to do multiple stage directions. For example:
“Laila kneeled before her mother and took her hand.”
“He coughed, cleared his throat.”
“He hunkered down, pulled her to him, and held her for a long time.“
Answer: It’s overwriting when the actions aren’t necessary to move the scene forward.
The examples you posted from published books are not equivalent to the example from your own work. Maria crossing herself, picking up a spoon and saying something are not three significant actions. One of those actions will move the story forward with fewer words and in a less distracting way.
In this example:
“Laila kneeled before her mother and took her hand.”
Both of Laila’s actions are separate and significant. If you took one of them out, the meaning would change. The writer has used an economy of words and action to progress the story. It’s a beautifully pared down sentence that’s infused with action and emotion.
An overwritten version of the above would be:
Laila smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt, then looked into her mother’s blue eyes. She knelt down onto the small embroidered cushion at her mother’s feet, then reached out and took her mother’s hand.
In this example:
“He hunkered down, pulled her to him, and held her for a long time.”
Again, the actions are quite separate and vivid with an economy of words. You couldn’t remove any of the actions and have the same progression of story. And again, this is a beautiful sentence, infused with meaningful action. Actually three significant actions, vividly shown, in just 14 words.
For more writing tips, go here.
Pysanky for Freedom
Help Ukraine with donations, but choose wisely
Wondering which organizations give the best bang for the buck to help Ukraine?
Canadians, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is the most efficient way to get your entire donation to the people who need it. Money is best (ie, not blankets, clothing etc) so the exact supplies can be purchased as needed. If you are American, the US-Ukraine Foundation is the best choice.
These two foundations work closely with people on the ground in Ukraine and their efforts are precisely targeted.
Pray for Ukraine
Legend has it that the world won’t end as long as someone is making pysanky. Thinking of Ukraine. Blue and yellow.
Banning books
Here’s a recent Amazon.com “review” of Don’t Tell the Nazis: This should not be permitted in our school library. This is not a children’s book. It describes in graphic detail violence against women and children. My child brought this home and we have gone chapter by chapter writing a summary for his class, but I should have investigated the content prior to him using this book. I will be speaking to the school board and superintendent about the removal of any of this disturbed author’s works.
Within hours of the above “review” being posted, someone trolled through my Goodreads list and left a comment on my review of a piece of old Soviet propaganda published in book form titled Famine, Fraud and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. It’s long been part of the Soviet (and now Putin) playbook to label Ukrainians as fascists and therefore killable. Before WWII, they were labeled kulaks to identify them as “enemies of the people” and a killable group. In the 1930s, using this propaganda method, the Stalinists killed millions of Ukrainians by starving them. My review of this book was simple. I gave it a single star and noted that it was hate propaganda. The troller’s comment was, “found the kulak”. Everything old is new again.
When one writes books on topics that others won’t touch, it’s a given that some people will direct hate your way. I’m not a shrinking violet, but thought the timing was interesting. Two attacks within hours of someone like me, a mere children’s writer. Multiply this by all of the other Russian information warfare out there. Smells of desperation.
Pray for Ukraine, but donate too
If you’re feeling helpless as maternity hospitals, kindergartens and children’s cancer hospitals are routinely bombed, yes, please do pray. But also, please donate. This is a war of attrition and Ukrainians are dedicated to the freedom of their country but they’re outnumbered. Please donate. Canadians, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is the most efficient way to give Ukraine help. Money is best so the exact supplies needed can be purchased.
I had also been recommending the Red Cross because the Canadian government is matching donations, but I’m alarmed with their negotiations with Lavrov and their potential opening of an office in Rostov-on-Don, which basically legitimizes the abduction of Ukrainians in the Russian “humanitarian” corridors. I think many Red Cross donators would be appalled that their well-meaning donations would go to such a use. More on this in this Reuters story.
If you are American, the US-Ukraine Foundation is the best place.
