The Ghost of Grammy Goneril, courtesy of Ken Lamug

“Dead grandparents give the worst candy…”

I’m delighted to announce that my Halloween short story “The Ghost of Grammy Goneril” has been turned into an audio-story for Episode 140 of the award-winning YA scifi/fantasy podcast Cast of Wonders. It’s narrated by Christiana Ellis and is a double feature with Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting story “Of Pumpkin Soup and Other Demons.”

The story was originally published in the Halloween 2013 edition of Underneath the Juniper Tree and illustrated by Ken Lamug. It’s about a young witch, Mab Ipswich, who gets stuck at home on All Hallows’ Eve with the ghost of her grandmother, who has just escaped from the netherworld.

You can listen to the story here, or download it from iTunes here (Episode 140).

Happy Halloween!

I wrote a book. This is a big deal for me. I haven’t completed writing a book since my sophomore year of college, and that book was deeply, deeply terrible. It was a book set during the Civil War because I am a Southern boy and every Southern boy who fancies himself a writer will, at some point, write a Civil War book, as any 15th Century Italian who fancied himself a painter eventually farted out a glum-faced Virgin Mary holding a tiny adult Jesus making gang signs with his hands. The only good thing about my very bad Civil War book was that I completed it and so knew that Writing a Book was actually a thing I could do, if not well.

This bit of experience I carried through my 20s when I spent a great deal of time thinkingand talking about the books I planned to write, and imagining my inevitable literary immortality, while doing precious little actual writing. A few stories here and there managed to get written, and smatterings of chapters of novels that I eventually “put on the back burner,” which is to say I abandoned them when they proved too difficult. Thinking and talking and imagining were easy and pleasurable. Writing itself was labor, and so I put off doing it unless inspiration struck; partially out of laziness, and partially out of confusing the imagination of plot, character, and setting with the actual work of getting the words down.

It was when I was staring down 30 without a single writing credit to my name that I finally realized that if I wanted to think of myself as a writer, I should actually do some damn writing. So, I did, and discovered that despite some talent with words and years of rough training at writing about fiction (thanks grad school!), I was actually rather crap at writing fiction. This was disappointing, but honestly kind of a relief since it meant I could shrug off my pretentions, stop waiting for the Muse, and actually get to work, and think of it and appreciate it as work. Having a writing circle like the N.L.B. helped immensely in keeping me writing, and making my writing better.

Now here we are after a few years of honest, inky toil, and I have written a book. It’s a middle grade (for 8-12 year olds) novel-in-stories about my little wicked witch Mab Ipswich. It was a wonderful feeling when I finished the last story, and sent the book out to beta readers. I knew it would need revisions and rewrites, but the important thing was: The book was done!

…Or not. I haven’t heard back from all my beta readers yet, but the ones who have responded have been universal in not caring for the book’s final story.  This wasn’t too surprising as I wasn’t crazy about it myself. But it means I need a new ending. I have been trying to think of one for a couple of weeks now, sketching out different plots and paths, but they’ve all led to dead ends, and no good ending. I just don’t know how to bring all four of the book’s narrative arcs, and all five of its main characters, together in a satisfying way.

Kristopher Jansma had a great essay in the New York Times recently about trying to end a novel, and wrote, “Endings have always been my Everest. Or, really, if writing a novel is like climbing Everest, then my tendency is to get within eyeshot of the summit and say, ‘Well, that’s far enough.’” This is pretty much where I am now, within eyeshot of the summit, but tired, and fatigued, and not sure if I can make it. It’s frustrating, but the good thing about having learned to see writing as work, is that I know all I need to do is keep working at it and working at it, until the thing is done.

As Jansma says, “The last hundred yards up the mountain are the steepest. The air is very thin and you cannot share it with your characters anymore. You have to leave them, along with everything you’ve written to that point. It is the last thing you want to do, but as you go higher you’ll get your first look at them from above.”

So, it’s time to start climbing again. The good news is, sitting at your desk and opening a Google Doc is considerably easier than hauling your tired body up the world’s highest mountain. And there’s plenty of coffee.

image courtesy of Marcela Vargas

I wrote a book. This is a big deal for me. I haven’t completed writing a book since my sophomore year of college, and that book was deeply, deeply terrible. It was a book set during the Civil War because I am a Southern boy and every Southern boy who fancies himself a writer will, at some point, write a Civil War book, as any 15th Century Italian who fancied himself a painter eventually farted out a glum-faced Virgin Mary holding a tiny adult Jesus making gang signs with his hands. The only good thing about my very bad Civil War book was that I completed it and so knew that Writing a Book was actually a thing I could do, if not well.

This bit of experience I carried through my 20s when I spent a great deal of time thinkingand talking about the books I planned to write, and imagining my inevitable literary immortality, while doing precious little actual writing. A few stories here and there managed to get written, and smatterings of chapters of novels that I eventually “put on the back burner,” which is to say I abandoned them when they proved too difficult. Thinking and talking and imagining were easy and pleasurable. Writing itself was labor, and so I put off doing it unless inspiration struck; partially out of laziness, and partially out of confusing the imagination of plot, character, and setting with the actual work of getting the words down.

It was when I was staring down 30 without a single writing credit to my name that I finally realized that if I wanted to think of myself as a writer, I should actually do some damn writing. So, I did, and discovered that despite some talent with words and years of rough training at writing about fiction (thanks grad school!), I was actually rather crap at writing fiction. This was disappointing, but honestly kind of a relief since it meant I could shrug off my pretentions, stop waiting for the Muse, and actually get to work, and think of it and appreciate it as work. Having a writing circle like the N.L.B. helped immensely in keeping me writing, and making my writing better.

Now here we are after a few years of honest, inky toil, and I have written a book. It’s a middle grade (for 8-12 year olds) novel-in-stories about my little wicked witch Mab Ipswich. It was a wonderful feeling when I finished the last story, and sent the book out to beta readers. I knew it would need revisions and rewrites, but the important thing was: The book was done!

…Or not. I haven’t heard back from all my beta readers yet, but the ones who have responded have been universal in not caring for the book’s final story.  This wasn’t too surprising as I wasn’t crazy about it myself. But it means I need a new ending. I have been trying to think of one for a couple of weeks now, sketching out different plots and paths, but they’ve all led to dead ends, and no good ending. I just don’t know how to bring all four of the book’s narrative arcs, and all five of its main characters, together in a satisfying way.

Kristopher Jansma had a great essay in the New York Times recently about trying to end a novel, and wrote, “Endings have always been my Everest. Or, really, if writing a novel is like climbing Everest, then my tendency is to get within eyeshot of the summit and say, ‘Well, that’s far enough.'” This is pretty much where I am now, within eyeshot of the summit, but tired, and fatigued, and not sure if I can make it. It’s frustrating, but the good thing about having learned to see writing as work, is that I know all I need to do is keep working at it and working at it, until the thing is done.

As Jansma says, “The last hundred yards up the mountain are the steepest. The air is very thin and you cannot share it with your characters anymore. You have to leave them, along with everything you’ve written to that point. It is the last thing you want to do, but as you go higher you’ll get your first look at them from above.”

So, it’s time to start climbing again. The good news is, sitting at your desk and opening a Google Doc is considerably easier than hauling your tired body up the world’s highest mountain. And there’s plenty of coffee.

image courtesy of Marcela Vargas

Welcome to my blog!

I’m so glad you could join the Blog Tour. Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable. I do apologize for the smell. Some feral cats got into this blog last week and made a mess. Yes, yes, the cats are still here, but mostly beneath the floorboards now. If you hear disturbing scratching or shrieking sounds beneath you, it is probably just those cats. Probably.

I would offer you a drink, but this is a blog and so is made of electricities (I suppose; I am not a scientist) and liquids and electricities don’t mix. That said, I do have some interesting tidbits for you! You cannot eat them, these bits of tid. But you can enjoy them. So. Let’s enjoy! Blog Tour Away!

The Monster & Mab Ipswich, courtesy of Marcela Vargas

Who came before?

My friend and fellow writer Lara Ehrlich invited me on this Tour o’ Blogs. Lara’s writing is centered on “the liminal space between adolescence and adulthood, a space imbued with restlessness, anxiety, shame, and desire.” She explores this terrifying space in both fiction, like her razor-sharp sports satire THE HERO, and in non-fiction like her hilarious pieces for The Hairpin. She blogs at LaraEhrlichWrites.com.

What am I working on?

I recently completed the first draft of my middle-grade novel-in-stories MAB IPSWICH, OR THE WICKEDEST WITCH. It’s a series of interlocking stories about a wicked, chaos-causing 11-year old girl who is the only witch at her school. It’s currently with beta readers. A few of the Mab stories have been published in the children’s lit mag Underneath the Juniper Tree. And one Mab story will soon be turned into an audio story on the YA scifi/fantasy podcast Cast of Wonders. You can find my published Mab stories here.

Mab Ipswich, courtesy of Elizabeth Rose Stanton

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

The biggest difference is that my book is a novel-in-stories rather than a straight novel. And the stories in the book span different genres. Some are comedic, some are horror, some are fantasy adventure, one’s a locked room mystery, one’s crime fiction, etc. Mab’s role also changes story-to-story. In some she’s the hero, in others the villain; in some she’s the main character, in others she’s a background character who sets the action in motion. The goal is that by the end, through these different character POVs, genres, and stories, you get a full picture of Mab and what makes her wickedly tick.

Mab Ipswich & Mrs. Johnson, courtesy of Stacey Byer

Why do I write what I do?

I spent two years teaching English in junior highs and elementary schools on a remote Japanese island. I really enjoyed working with kids and seeing the world through their eyes. The middle-grade age range (8-12) is a really fascinating time, I think, because it’s when you really start to perceive the shape of the world and your place in it; when you really start to become you, before you get hit with the burdens of being a teenager or an adult. For me, I remember it being when I was at my most imaginative and adventurous, exploring the woods behind our house and imagining it filled with dinosaurs, black wolves, and buried treasure. So, I enjoy reading and writing stories that deal with that time of life, with a healthy dash of magic, monsters, and mischief thrown in for good measure.

Mab Ipswich & the Ghost of Grammy Goneril, courtesy of Ken Lamug

How does your writing process work?

I write mostly at coffee shops (I need the hum of activity and the jolt of caffeine) once or twice a week after work or on the weekend, then do editing at home. I also have a writing circle that reads my pieces and offers critiques. They are invaluable and have made me a much better writer.

Who’s next? (on March 31)

Amanda Duncil is a freelance writer who pretends to live in perpetual summer by wearing flip-flops and shorts year-round. She maintains a healthy dose of whimsy in her life by watching cartoons and reading YA books. She writes for various online platforms and can often be found advocating for gender and LGBTQIA+ equality. You can chat with her on Twitter at @amandaduncil.

Welcome to my blog!

I’m so glad you could join the Blog Tour. Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable. I do apologize for the smell. Some feral cats got into this blog last week and made a mess. Yes, yes, the cats are still here, but mostly beneath the floorboards now. If you hear disturbing scratching or shrieking sounds beneath you, it is probably just those cats. Probably.

I would offer you a drink, but this is a blog and so is made of electricities (I suppose; I am not a scientist) and liquids and electricities don’t mix. That said, I do have some interesting tidbits for you! You cannot eat them, these bits of tid. But you can enjoy them. So. Let’s enjoy! Blog Tour Away!

The Monster & Mab Ipswich, courtesy of Marcela Vargas

Who came before?

My friend and fellow writer Lara Ehrlich invited me on this Tour o’ Blogs. Lara’s writing is centered on “the liminal space between adolescence and adulthood, a space imbued with restlessness, anxiety, shame, and desire.” She explores this terrifying space in both fiction, like her razor-sharp sports satire THE HERO, and in non-fiction like her hilarious pieces for The Hairpin. She blogs at LaraEhrlichWrites.com.

What am I working on?

I recently completed the first draft of my middle-grade novel-in-stories MAB IPSWICH, OR THE WICKEDEST WITCH. It’s a series of interlocking stories about a wicked, chaos-causing 11-year old girl who is the only witch at her school. It’s currently with beta readers. A few of the Mab stories have been published in the children’s lit mag Underneath the Juniper Tree. And one Mab story will soon be turned into an audio story on the YA scifi/fantasy podcast Cast of Wonders. You can find my published Mab stories here.

Mab Ipswich, courtesy of Elizabeth Rose Stanton

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

The biggest difference is that my book is a novel-in-stories rather than a straight novel. And the stories in the book span different genres. Some are comedic, some are horror, some are fantasy adventure, one’s a locked room mystery, one’s crime fiction, etc. Mab’s role also changes story-to-story. In some she’s the hero, in others the villain; in some she’s the main character, in others she’s a background character who sets the action in motion. The goal is that by the end, through these different character POVs, genres, and stories, you get a full picture of Mab and what makes her wickedly tick.

Mab Ipswich & Mrs. Johnson, courtesy of Stacey Byer

Why do I write what I do?

I spent two years teaching English in junior highs and elementary schools on a remote Japanese island. I really enjoyed working with kids and seeing the world through their eyes. The middle-grade age range (8-12) is a really fascinating time, I think, because it’s when you really start to perceive the shape of the world and your place in it; when you really start to become you, before you get hit with the burdens of being a teenager or an adult. For me, I remember it being when I was at my most imaginative and adventurous, exploring the woods behind our house and imagining it filled with dinosaurs, black wolves, and buried treasure. So, I enjoy reading and writing stories that deal with that time of life, with a healthy dash of magic, monsters, and mischief thrown in for good measure.

Mab Ipswich & the Ghost of Grammy Goneril, courtesy of Ken Lamug

How does your writing process work?

I write mostly at coffee shops (I need the hum of activity and the jolt of caffeine) once or twice a week after work or on the weekend, then do editing at home. I also have a writing circle that reads my pieces and offers critiques. They are invaluable and have made me a much better writer.

Who’s next? (on March 31)

Amanda Duncil is a freelance writer who pretends to live in perpetual summer by wearing flip-flops and shorts year-round. She maintains a healthy dose of whimsy in her life by watching cartoons and reading YA books. She writes for various online platforms and can often be found advocating for gender and LGBTQIA+ equality. You can chat with her on Twitter at @amandaduncil.

How do you teach your children about a foreign culture? Try the delicious dishes, learn a little of the language, sample the local music, take a trip to the country or region when the airfare’s affordable. Those are all fun and wonderful. But don’t forget to read up on their fairy and folk tales, too.

Think about how often we use fairy and folk tales to describe and understand our world. Unlikely sports champions give us Cinderella stories. The geek who turns into an Adonis? Quite the Ugly Duckling. Most parents want their kids to be as strong as Paul Bunyon, as fierce-willed as John Henry, as wise as Solomon.

Folk tales and fairy tales are a great way to introduce our kids, and ourselves, to other cultures–their histories, their values, and maybe most importantly, their magic. And right now is the perfect time to find a bunch of great multicultural fairy tales for kids!

This Monday, January 27th is Multicultural Children’s Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Literature. This wonderful event was created by Mia Wenjen of Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr of Jump Into a Book & Audrey Press, and is sponsored by Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books Chronicle Books, and Susan Daniel Fayad: Author of My Grandfather’s Masbaha.

The Day’s Mission: Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.

I’m thrilled that Mia and Valarie invited me to participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day, and that Wisdom Tales Press sent me a wonderful book to review. The Knight, the Princess and the Magic Rock: A Classic Persian Tale is an Iranian fairy tale retold by Sara Azizi and illustrated by Alireza Sadeghian.

The Knight, the Princess and the Magic Rock tells the tale of a knight named Bijan, who is sent by the Persian king to drive out a herd of wild boars tearing up the country side. On his way home, he falls in love with a beautiful princess name Manijeh, daughter of the king of Turan, an enemy of Persia. A sleeping potion, a deep dark pit, an immoveable magic rock, an all-seeing golden cup, and the cunning of a  warrior named Rostam, mark the tale before the two star-crossed find their happily ever after.

Ms. Azizi tells the tale with clean and clear prose. She uses a nice framing story of a grandfather telling the story to his grandchildren, which impresses on the reader that this is a living Iranian story and one to be told and retold. The story is simple enough that young children can understand it, but told well so that older kids (and parents) will enjoy it, too. Ms. Azizi also includes a postscript explaining the history and meaning of the tale, which gives readers a deeper understanding of the story and its place in Iranian culture.

Mr. Sadeghian’s art is simply stunning. The book’s pictures are inspired by medieval Persian painting (see above, of Bijan fighting those pesky boars), and are beautifully detailed and colorful. Mr. Sadeghian’s art manages a mean feat. His paintings manage to both draw from Iran’s deep artistic heritage while also fitting perfectly into a children’s picture book. They are a feast for young and old eyes both.

So, celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day by checking out this beautifully written and illustrated Persian fairy tale! Also, you enter great book giveaways being held by Barefoot Books and Wisdom Tales Press for MCCBD!

And be sure to check out all the other books being reviewed on January 27th as we celebrate and promote diversity in children’s literature! Blog links ahoy!

2GirlsLostInaBook · 365 Days of Motherhood · A Bilingual Baby · A Simple Life, Really? · Africa to America · After School Smarty Pants · All Done Monkey · Andi’s Kids Books · Anita Brown Bag  · Austin Gilkeson · Barbara Ann Mojica ·  Books My Kids Read · Bottom Shelf Books · Cats Eat Dogs · Chasing The Donkey · Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac · Children’s Books Heal · Church o Books · CitizenBeta · Crafty Moms Share · Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes · Early Words · Flowering Minds · Franticmommy · Gathering Books · GEO Librarian · Gladys Barbieri · Going in Circles · Growing Book by Book · iGame Mom · I’m Not The Nanny · InCulture Parent · Itsy Bitsy Mom · Kid Lit Reviews-Kid World Citizen · Kristi’s Book Nook · Mama Lady Books · Mama Smiles · Mission Read · Mother Daughter Book Reviews · Mrs AOk · MrsTeeLoveLifeLaughter · Ms. Yingling Reads · Multicultural Kids Blog · One Sweet World · Open Wide The World · P is for Preschooler · Rapenzel Dreams · School4Boys · Sharon the Librarian · Spanish Playground · Sprout’s Bookshelf · Squishable Baby · Stanley and Katrina · Teach Mama · The Art of Home Education · The Brain Lair · The Educators’ Spin On It · The Family-Ship Experience · The Yellow Door Paperie · This Kid Reviews Books  · Trishap’s Books · Unconventional Librarian · Vicki Arnold · We3Three · World for Learning · Wrapped in Foil 

How do you teach your children about a foreign culture? Try the delicious dishes, learn a little of the language, sample the local music, take a trip to the country or region when the airfare’s affordable. Those are all fun and wonderful. But don’t forget to read up on their fairy and folk tales, too.

Think about how often we use fairy and folk tales to describe and understand our world. Unlikely sports champions give us Cinderella stories. The geek who turns into an Adonis? Quite the Ugly Duckling. Most parents want their kids to be as strong as Paul Bunyon, as fierce-willed as John Henry, as wise as Solomon.

Folk tales and fairy tales are a great way to introduce our kids, and ourselves, to other cultures–their histories, their values, and maybe most importantly, their magic. And right now is the perfect time to find a bunch of great multicultural fairy tales for kids!

This Monday, January 27th is Multicultural Children’s Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Literature. This wonderful event was created by Mia Wenjen of Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr of Jump Into a Book & Audrey Press, and is sponsored by Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books Chronicle Books, and Susan Daniel Fayad: Author of My Grandfather’s Masbaha.

The Day’s Mission: Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.

I’m thrilled that Mia and Valarie invited me to participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day, and that Wisdom Tales Press sent me a wonderful book to review. The Knight, the Princess and the Magic Rock: A Classic Persian Tale is an Iranian fairy tale retold by Sara Azizi and illustrated by Alireza Sadeghian.

The Knight, the Princess and the Magic Rock tells the tale of a knight named Bijan, who is sent by the Persian king to drive out a herd of wild boars tearing up the country side. On his way home, he falls in love with a beautiful princess name Manijeh, daughter of the king of Turan, an enemy of Persia. A sleeping potion, a deep dark pit, an immoveable magic rock, an all-seeing golden cup, and the cunning of a  warrior named Rostam, mark the tale before the two star-crossed find their happily ever after.

Ms. Azizi tells the tale with clean and clear prose. She uses a nice framing story of a grandfather telling the story to his grandchildren, which impresses on the reader that this is a living Iranian story and one to be told and retold. The story is simple enough that young children can understand it, but told well so that older kids (and parents) will enjoy it, too. Ms. Azizi also includes a postscript explaining the history and meaning of the tale, which gives readers a deeper understanding of the story and its place in Iranian culture.

Mr. Sadeghian’s art is simply stunning. The book’s pictures are inspired by medieval Persian painting (see above, of Bijan fighting those pesky boars), and are beautifully detailed and colorful. Mr. Sadeghian’s art manages a mean feat. His paintings manage to both draw from Iran’s deep artistic heritage while also fitting perfectly into a children’s picture book. They are a feast for young and old eyes both.

So, celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day by checking out this beautifully written and illustrated Persian fairy tale! Also, you enter great book giveaways being held by Barefoot Books and Wisdom Tales Press for MCCBD!

And be sure to check out all the other books being reviewed on January 27th as we celebrate and promote diversity in children’s literature! Blog links ahoy!

2GirlsLostInaBook · 365 Days of Motherhood · A Bilingual Baby · A Simple Life, Really? · Africa to America · After School Smarty Pants · All Done Monkey · Andi’s Kids Books · Anita Brown Bag  · Austin Gilkeson · Barbara Ann Mojica ·  Books My Kids Read · Bottom Shelf Books · Cats Eat Dogs · Chasing The Donkey · Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac · Children’s Books Heal · Church o Books · CitizenBeta · Crafty Moms Share · Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes · Early Words · Flowering Minds · Franticmommy · Gathering Books · GEO Librarian · Gladys Barbieri · Going in Circles · Growing Book by Book · iGame Mom · I’m Not The Nanny · InCulture Parent · Itsy Bitsy Mom · Kid Lit Reviews-Kid World Citizen · Kristi’s Book Nook · Mama Lady Books · Mama Smiles · Mission Read · Mother Daughter Book Reviews · Mrs AOk · MrsTeeLoveLifeLaughter · Ms. Yingling Reads · Multicultural Kids Blog · One Sweet World · Open Wide The World · P is for Preschooler · Rapenzel Dreams · School4Boys · Sharon the Librarian · Spanish Playground · Sprout’s Bookshelf · Squishable Baby · Stanley and Katrina · Teach Mama · The Art of Home Education · The Brain Lair · The Educators’ Spin On It · The Family-Ship Experience · The Yellow Door Paperie · This Kid Reviews Books  · Trishap’s Books · Unconventional Librarian · Vicki Arnold · We3Three · World for Learning · Wrapped in Foil 

The bestselling Tiny Book of Tiny Stories series continues with The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories Vol. 3, out now and available for purchase at most major bookstores and on Amazon here. The series comes from hitRECord, the multi-media collaborative spearheaded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Looper). The books feature a series of beautiful illustrations and matching micro-stories.

What makes this book really special though is that it features art from two Underneath the Juniper Tree alums, Soju Shots (who is an image curator at hitRECord) and Ken Lamug (who illustrated my last two Mab Ipswich stories). It’s so exciting to buy a major book release and see the art of two artists I know in there. So, go buy the book! And remember to check out hitRECord and Underneath the Juniper Tree to find more amazing art and artists!

The bestselling Tiny Book of Tiny Stories series continues with The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories Vol. 3, out now and available for purchase at most major bookstores and on Amazon here. The series comes from hitRECord, the multi-media collaborative spearheaded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, Looper). The books feature a series of beautiful illustrations and matching micro-stories.

What makes this book really special though is that it features art from two Underneath the Juniper Tree alums, Soju Shots (who is an image curator at hitRECord) and Ken Lamug (who illustrated my last two Mab Ipswich stories). It’s so exciting to buy a major book release and see the art of two artists I know in there. So, go buy the book! And remember to check out hitRECord and Underneath the Juniper Tree to find more amazing art and artists!

Underneath the Juniper Tree is back, and just in time for Halloween! The Fall 2013 Issue is Halloween themed, from the cover by comics master John Rozum (DC Vertigo, Milestone, Marvel) to all the spooky stories and creepy art inside.

My story in the issue is “The Ghost of Grammy Goneril” with awesome art by Rabble Boy Ken Lamug (see above). The story? Well, it’s All Hallow’s Eve and Mab Ipswich is grounded and alone at home. Then her dead grandmother comes visiting from the afterlife and things get weird…

It’s the newest (and best, in my opinion) Mab Ipswich story. It’s also the first Mab story written from Mab’s point of view, and in the first person perspective (also, the first story to reveal Mab’s middle name and ethnicity)!

I’ve actually been trying to write from Mab’s POV for a while now, but struggled to find her voice. Mab is… different. She’s 11, a girl, a witch, socially awkward, and kind of evil… which are the qualities that make her a fun character to write from other perspectives (her friend, her teacher, her classmate, the school bully) but make it hard to get her voice right. I tried, but could never sustain it beyond a few lines of dialogue.

I was thinking about what kind of Halloween story I wanted to set in Mab’s world for this issue of Juniper Tree, and decided to do something inspired by the Japanese Obon holiday and the Mexican Day of the Dead (in which the spirits of the dead are welcomed home and honored). I had a vague idea of the witches having a holiday where their dead ancestors physically return, but couldn’t quite find a through line for the story. And, as always, I struggled to find Mab’s voice.

Then one night I woke up to pee at 3:00 AM and this line popped into my head: “Dead grandparents give the worst candy.” And then I had it. I had Mab’s voice: sardonic, sharp, unsentimental. The story flowed out from there, a flood of words my fingers could barely get down on paper fast enough. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed writing a story this much, and I’m looking forward to getting back in Mab’s head (or is she getting in mine?) soon.

You can read the story here: http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree/docs/october_2013/56

Ken Lamug also has a blog post about how the illustration for the story came together. You can read that here: http://www.rabbleboy.com/digital-painting-for-mab-and-free-source/

Enjoy, and happy Halloween!

Underneath the Juniper Tree is back, and just in time for Halloween! The Fall 2013 Issue is Halloween themed, from the cover by comics master John Rozum (DC Vertigo, Milestone, Marvel) to all the spooky stories and creepy art inside.

My story in the issue is “The Ghost of Grammy Goneril” with awesome art by Rabble Boy Ken Lamug (see above). The story? Well, it’s All Hallow’s Eve and Mab Ipswich is grounded and alone at home. Then her dead grandmother comes visiting from the afterlife and things get weird…

It’s the newest (and best, in my opinion) Mab Ipswich story. It’s also the first Mab story written from Mab’s point of view, and in the first person perspective (also, the first story to reveal Mab’s middle name and ethnicity)!

I’ve actually been trying to write from Mab’s POV for a while now, but struggled to find her voice. Mab is… different. She’s 11, a girl, a witch, socially awkward, and kind of evil… which are the qualities that make her a fun character to write from other perspectives (her friend, her teacher, her classmate, the school bully) but make it hard to get her voice right. I tried, but could never sustain it beyond a few lines of dialogue.

I was thinking about what kind of Halloween story I wanted to set in Mab’s world for this issue of Juniper Tree, and decided to do something inspired by the Japanese Obon holiday and the Mexican Day of the Dead (in which the spirits of the dead are welcomed home and honored). I had a vague idea of the witches having a holiday where their dead ancestors physically return, but couldn’t quite find a through line for the story. And, as always, I struggled to find Mab’s voice.

Then one night I woke up to pee at 3:00 AM and this line popped into my head: “Dead grandparents give the worst candy.” And then I had it. I had Mab’s voice: sardonic, sharp, unsentimental. The story flowed out from there, a flood of words my fingers could barely get down on paper fast enough. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed writing a story this much, and I’m looking forward to getting back in Mab’s head (or is she getting in mine?) soon.

You can read the story here: http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree/docs/october_2013/56

Ken Lamug also has a blog post about how the illustration for the story came together. You can read that here: http://www.rabbleboy.com/digital-painting-for-mab-and-free-source/

Enjoy, and happy Halloween!

I’m very happy to announce that the fall issue of SPELLBOUND, themed “Creatures of the Deep, Dark Woods” is out! Inside you’ll find great stories, art, and poems for children, including my short story Fangs.

The story is about a Japanese elementary school camping trip gone terribly, horribly awry, and a young girl who has to use her wits, and a dull vegetable knife, to survive. The story also features the return of the dread princess, Kuwa Ibukishita, last seen lurking in my story The Web at the End of the Woods in the April 2012 issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree.

Fangs earned my first writer’s paycheck, so it will always hold a special place in my dark heart. It’s also fitting since that it did so, since it’s a sort of spin-off story from my still-in-progress YA novel Kumiko, which started me down the road of writing for children and young adults and new adults, whatever those are.

You can download Fangs as an ePub magazine for your Amazon Kindle, Adobe Digital Editions, B&N Nook, and other formats. Go here to order it (it’s $5.00 a pop, or $20 for a yearly subscription): http://eggplantproductions.com/spellbound-magazine/spellbound-creatures-of-the-deep-dark-woods/

Or you can get it for your Kindle from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EX5PYWC/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Happy reading!

I’m very happy to announce that the fall issue of SPELLBOUND, themed “Creatures of the Deep, Dark Woods” is out! Inside you’ll find great stories, art, and poems for children, including my short story Fangs.

The story is about a Japanese elementary school camping trip gone terribly, horribly awry, and a young girl who has to use her wits, and a dull vegetable knife, to survive. The story also features the return of the dread princess, Kuwa Ibukishita, last seen lurking in my story The Web at the End of the Woods in the April 2012 issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree.

Fangs earned my first writer’s paycheck, so it will always hold a special place in my dark heart. It’s also fitting since that it did so, since it’s a sort of spin-off story from my still-in-progress YA novel Kumiko, which started me down the road of writing for children and young adults and new adults, whatever those are.

You can download Fangs as an ePub magazine for your Amazon Kindle, Adobe Digital Editions, B&N Nook, and other formats. Go here to order it (it’s $5.00 a pop, or $20 for a yearly subscription): http://eggplantproductions.com/spellbound-magazine/spellbound-creatures-of-the-deep-dark-woods/

Or you can get it for your Kindle from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EX5PYWC/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Happy reading!

The newest issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree is out! In it you’ll find all sorts of creepy stories and poems designed to give children (and adults) all sorts of new nightmares.

One of them is my short story Taiga, about a brave girl named Gerty who goes off into Alaska’s boreal forest to hunt down the grizzly that killed her horse… but comes across a creature much more terrifying instead.

You can read Taiga here: http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree/docs/spring_2013/68

And here’s a cool video of artist Ken Lamug (aka Rabble Boy) drawing one of the illustrations from Taiga, showing Gerty with her gun as she heads off into the woods.

The newest issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree is out! In it you’ll find all sorts of creepy stories and poems designed to give children (and adults) all sorts of new nightmares.

One of them is my short story Taiga, about a brave girl named Gerty who goes off into Alaska’s boreal forest to hunt down the grizzly that killed her horse… but comes across a creature much more terrifying instead.

You can read Taiga here: http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree/docs/spring_2013/68

And here’s a cool video of artist Ken Lamug (aka Rabble Boy) drawing one of the illustrations from Taiga, showing Gerty with her gun as she heads off into the woods.

The Underneath the Juniper Tree 2012 Anthology has at last taken physical form and will soon be slouching towards mail boxes across the dark confines of the earth (including those of horror masters Wes Craven and R.L. Stine).

Marjorie Merle and Tex, the mysterious and terrifying ghouls behind Underneath the Juniper Tree, have done a fantastic job of collecting the scariest and sickest art and stories from last year’s issues. And I’m proud to say that my story The Monster and Mab Ipswich is among them.

The anthologies are a limited print run, so get your claws on one quick by sending an email to: tex.junipertree [at] gmail [dot com]. Copies are $13 a pop. The Anthology collects some truly amazing artwork and stories by award-winning artists and writers from all over the world, so do your inner-demon child a favor and order one today! Your inner-demon child will thank you, just before setting your brain on fire.

The Underneath the Juniper Tree 2012 Anthology has at last taken physical form and will soon be slouching towards mail boxes across the dark confines of the earth (including those of horror masters Wes Craven and R.L. Stine).

Marjorie Merle and Tex, the mysterious and terrifying ghouls behind Underneath the Juniper Tree, have done a fantastic job of collecting the scariest and sickest art and stories from last year’s issues. And I’m proud to say that my story The Monster and Mab Ipswich is among them.

The anthologies are a limited print run, so get your claws on one quick by sending an email to: tex.junipertree [at] gmail [dot com]. Copies are $13 a pop. The Anthology collects some truly amazing artwork and stories by award-winning artists and writers from all over the world, so do your inner-demon child a favor and order one today! Your inner-demon child will thank you, just before setting your brain on fire.

So, the Underneath the Juniper Tree print anthology is a go! Thanks to generous donations from various contributors and Goosebumps author R.L Stine, a print edition of the magazine’s best macabre stories and artwork will soon be released upon the world. It’s especially exciting that Stine, the godfather of scaring American children via the written word, is helping to fund the anthology.

And my short story “The Monster and Mab Ipswich” will be appearing in the book! Thanks to all who voted for it, I appreciate your support! The anthology should be out by the end of February. I am eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on it and seeing Mab on the printed page. So excited that, in fact, that I will probably shout… well, you know…

So, the Underneath the Juniper Tree print anthology is a go! Thanks to generous donations from various contributors and Goosebumps author R.L Stine, a print edition of the magazine’s best macabre stories and artwork will soon be released upon the world. It’s especially exciting that Stine, the godfather of scaring American children via the written word, is helping to fund the anthology.

And my short story “The Monster and Mab Ipswich” will be appearing in the book! Thanks to all who voted for it, I appreciate your support! The anthology should be out by the end of February. I am eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on it and seeing Mab on the printed page. So excited that, in fact, that I will probably shout… well, you know…

The Monster by Marcela Vargas

It’s Halloween. The veil between our world and the Other World has been rent. Dark things are stirring in dusty corners. The shadows are creeping into this petty place.

Allow me to get you in the mood.

As you probably know, I tend to write a lot of Halloween-esque stuff. Witches and spiders are my bread and butter, and nothing tickles my twisted fancy more than an especially creepy and deranged Japanese monster. I plug away at my dark stories year round, even in the bright and cheerful summer sun, but today is the day of all days when they seem most fit for reading. The day when the world is draped in cobwebs and monsters prowl the streets.

You see, it’s always Halloween Underneath the Juniper Tree. What better way to get in the spirit of Samhain than reading the creepy, spooky, and macabre tales in its dark pages? The full issues can be read here: http://issuu.com/underneaththejunipertree.

Now, if you like your Halloween spirits more mischievous and magical, then you’ll enjoy the misadventures of the wicked witch Mab Ipswich that have been published in Underneath the Juniper Tree over the past year. It all begins with Mab Ipswich: The Wickedest Witch, continues in Mab Ipswich & The Stinking Storm, gets especially monstrous in The Monster & Mab Ipswich, and comes to a chilling, thrilling conclusion (so far) in Mab Ipswich Vs. Principal Goblinson. 

Those of you more into pure horror of the fanged, eight-legged, Japanese variety, should chill your bones with The Princess Who Loved Spiders up at figment.com, and its sequel published earlier this year in Juniper Tree, The Web at the End of the Woods.

And though Halloween isn’t a Japanese holiday, the Land of the Rising Sun has a rich tradition of monsters (as you’ll find if you read the cell phone ghost and spider stories above), some of whom I have chronicled on this blog. Click on the Japanese Monsters tag below and you’ll find where they lurk.

Even if you think I suck, definitely check out all the scary, spooky stories in the issues of Underneath the Juniper Tree! They’re the perfect thing to read tonight as the ghosts and ghouls come a-calling.

As the monsters, ghosts, and ghouls crawl out the shadows to drink blood red cocktails and eat bite-size bits of candy this weekend, I’m marking the birthday of my favorite wicked witch, Mab Ipswich.

Two years ago today, I sat in the Piper’s Alley Starbucks, before the inaugural meeting of the NLB, and scribbled out a short story about a wicked young witch. The story was inspired by the spooky, supernatural Halloween spirit in the air, and especially by memories of a particularly mischievous elementary school student I had in Japan named Yuka.

A few days shy of a year ago, that story, “Mab Ipswich: The Wickedest Witch,” was published in the November 2011 issue of the children’s macabre magazine Underneath the Juniper Tree. Since then, three more Mab stories have been published in Juniper Tree and a couple more on this blog. The stories published have been illustrated by amazing artists from around the globe, and Mab even has merchandise.

I’ve managed to write 19 Mab stories in these two years. And I’m currently working on a full Mab Ipswich book, a novel-in-stories about Mab’s magical misadventures at school, told from the perspectives of Mab’s teacher, her best friend, the boy who has a crush on her, the school bully, and finally Mab herself. My goal for the book is 19 stories (not including some of the stories I’ve written which aren’t set at school, and may go in future books) and at least 30,000 words. I’m currently at 13 stories, with 3 more in progress, and over 20,000 words. I have the remaining stories sketched out. There’s still a lot writing and revising to do, but for the first time in a long time on a writing project, I feel like I’m close. And I’ll raise a glass of pumpkin ale and a fun-fized Reese’s to that.

Over the 10 months, I’ve had the privilege to be part of the wonderful, demented group of writers and artists at Underneath the Juniper Tree. The magazine gave me my first fiction publishing credit and is where Mab Ipswich and Kuwa Ibukishita made their wicked debuts.

Underneath the Juniper Tree is first and foremost a macabre children’s literary magazine dedicated to traumatizing the world’s young with, as the motto goes, “the stories your grandpa wouldn’t tell you.” Think of the stories that frightened you as a kid – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Edward Gorey, or Dr. Seuss’s infamous snuff book Horton Hears a Who Being Brutally Murdered with an Chainsaw, and Enjoys It!

But it’s also a great community of like-minded weirdos, people who like to lurk in the shadows and pick up rotted logs to see what crawls and squirms in the dark earth. Not only do we have similar, twisted tastes, but Majorie Merle and Tex, the shadowy caretakers of the Juniper Tree, have cultivated a wonderful network, and sense of support and camaraderie among the many contributors.

It’s a truly global community, too. Just the stories I’ve had published in Juniper Tree have been illustrated by artists from the U.S., Grenada, Colombia/Canada, and the Philippines. It’s a great group of truly creative people and I feel very lucky to be among their dark number.

Now, after a year of being an online only magazine, Juniper Tree is ready to make the leap to the printed page.

Majorie and Tex are putting together an anthology of the best of the best art and writing from the past year of issues. The anthology will be printed in book format with a beautiful embossed cover. What I’m saying here is, it’ll be snazzy. They haven’t said what stories will be included, but I’m guessing/hoping/blackmailing that Mab will be among them.

As Juniper Tree is a free, non-profit, all-volunteer publication, we need your help to get the anthology on the page and on the shelves. To that end, Majorie and Tex have launched an indiegogo (like Kickstarter) campaign to raise money to make the anthology a reality. Contributors will get goods based on their donation: art postcards, posters, a Juniper Tree calendar, a signed copy of the anthology, ad space, etc. There are even discussions of the anthology being promoted by Hot Topic and Spencer’s Gifts, bringing me one step closer to achieving my life goal of having sullen Goth preteens putting Mab stickers on their hover-boards.

The campaign website is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/UnderneathTheJuniperTree

If you’ve enjoyed my Mab and Kuwa stories and the amazing art that has come with them, I’d humbly ask that you make a donation and make this anthology a reality. With every dollar you give, a child in desperate need of being traumatized will be traumatized. Your generosity will inspire nightmares for years to come.

Last night, I finished reading Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago that introduced the ferris wheel, alternating electrical current, Shredded Wheat, and Juicy Fruit, and gave Pabst Beer that blue ribbon they’re still so proud of. Also, it’s about a serial killer.

I am about eight years late in reading the book. I feel like I’m one of the last people to have picked it up, which is strange since it’s set largely in parks and neighborhoods with which I am quite familiar. I have my dumb reasons. When I first moved back to Chicago in 2006 and was engaged in a bout of e-dating, everyone’s profile listed their most recently read book as The Devil in the White City. Everyone on the L was reading it on the way to work. And I am enough of a stubborn, myopic literary contrarian that I refused to read it on principle (this may partially explain why none of my online dating attempts ever went past the third date). It’s the same reason that I won’t be reading The Hunger Games until roughly 2034.

But then my parents and sister came up to Chicago a few weeks back and, having all read the book, wanted to see the sites mentioned therein. Fortunately for them, I used to live mere blocks from the site of the World’s Fair, so we trekked down to Jackson Park and walked the same grounds where, 119 years ago, the Fair’s famed and fabled White City stood gleaming by the lake.

Next to the White City ran the Midway Plaisance, which is where the more carnival-esque attractions were located (and which is why, to this day, the main thoroughfare of any carnival or state fair is called “the midway”). Anchoring the Midway was George Ferris’s Wheel, an almost 300 ft. tall revolving wonder that could take over 2,000 people into the sky at a time (the London Eye is only slightly larger than the original Ferris Wheel). It was to the 1893 World’s Fair what the Eiffel Tower was to the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris – the central engineering marvel. Both achieved immortality: Eiffel’s tower by remaining right where it is and becoming the preeminent symbol of Paris; Ferris’s wheel by spawning millions of imitators across the globe.

I was curious what the first Ferris Wheel looked like, so I went Google Imaging and found the photo at the top of this post. What surprised me most about the photo wasn’t so much the size of the wheel, as the gray gothic building in the foreground on the right side. It’s Foster Hall at the University of Chicago. It surprised me because I once had a class in that building, in the very tower whose witch-hatted spire stabs toward the Wheel.

The photo presents a weird juxtaposition to me. The founding Ferris Wheel and fair Midway in all their gaudy glory right next to an institution (but three years old at that point) widely known as the place “Where Fun Comes to Die,” a school whose name and image conjure in its students and alumni not “fun!” but “suffering” (followed by “good friends,” and then “further suffering” [incidentally, while "Where Fun Comes to Die" is the University's unofficial nickname, its official nickname is "The Gray City," a moniker that both attempts to claim the legacy of the White City and also manages to somehow sound even more depressing than "Where Fun Comes to Die"]).

The White City and the first Ferris Wheel are over a century gone. The Midway Plaisance is now just a long, infinitely quiet expanse of grass running beside the University. This is a view of that building and the Midway as they are now:

These days the common complaint among Hyde Park’s denizens is the lack of anything fun to do in the neighborhood. It’s strange to imagine what it must have been like as a U of C student in those days, at a school so new it must have smelled it, trying to study with the greatest and gaudiest collection of entertainment in human history right out your window.

It’s a wonder anyone got anything done at all.

Among the NLB, we call getting a piece published “getting it into college.” This is because by the time a piece of writing is ready for the withering gaze of editors and agents, it does feel like a child we’ve given painful birth to (writing) and then raised through a litany of temper tantrums and tedium (revising and rewriting). By the end, though we love the piece and have a hard time imagining not working on it, we feel relieved to send it out into the world… usually to be summarily rejected over and over again. Our babies grow up so fast, and then unfortunately, they often have to move back home and live in our hard drives.

I tend to take this to even more absurd levels by imaging my characters themselves being judged and admitted/rejected. Mab Ipswich, in my weirdo imagination, has proudly matriculated at the University of the Juniper Tree. My other published character, Kuwa Ibukishita, is harder for me to love seeing as she is my worst nightmare made flesh, but I’m trying to get her a very nice scholarship.

Over at Figment, they are having a contest called Defy the Dark for short stories that take place primarily at night/in the dark. The winner gets published in a YA anthology of the same name put out by Harper Collins.

My entry, The Princess Who Loved Spiders, is currently up on the site and entered into the contest. I have no illusions about winning, though I like the story a lot and think it has a decent shot. You can read it here: http://figment.com/books/409482-The-Princess-Who-Loved-Spiders.

The story is a prequel of sorts to my short story The Web at the End of the Woods, which was published in the March 2012 issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree.

Kuwa may or may not win the “scholarship,” but give her two stories a read and you’ll see she’s good for a shiver and a scare.

The world’s best bookstore is not closing, but it might as well be. The Seminary Co-Op, the famed and infamous academic bookstore of the University of Chicago, is moving across the street. Worse, it is moving above ground. What was once a dank, dark, confusing, claustrophobic place that smelled of moldy paper and ancient farts, will soon be bright, airy, clean, and well-ordered. This is a tragedy.

The Sem Co-Op is where U of C students have bought their books for decades. It is a labyrinthine series of what I can only guess are former utility tunnels buried beneath the Chicago Theological Seminary’s gothic enormity. The ceiling is low and pipe-spangled. The stacks are narrow and confused, twisting around and leading to sudden dead-ends, or other, darker tunnels. Some shelves are hidden around blind corners or behind one of the mysterious, old turbines (see photo above) that lay rusting in odd coves.

People often say they get lost in bookstores, but the Sem Co-Op is the only bookstore where I have gotten legitimately lost and not known where I was or how to get out. In most good bookstores, the pleasure is in randomly stumbling across a rare signed first edition or something. In the Sem Co-Op you stumble across those, plus the weird old rusted machinery, random furniture, and the cobwebbed skeletons of ’70s grad school students who wandered in looking for the Chinese translation of Phenomenology of the Spirit and never found their way back out.

The selection, though, makes the danger and frustration worth it. It feels as if you can find any book down there. That, like in Borges’s Library of Babel, if a book can possibly exist, then it must exist somewhere in the dark recesses of the Sem Co-Op. And it’s yours, if you dare to find it.

So, the news that the Sem Co-Op would be moving above ground came as a blow to all of us who have happily plumbed its depths.

The NLB went back to Hyde Park this Saturday on a sort of dark nostalgia tour, revisiting the places where, eight years ago, so many legs, hearts, dreams, and brains were broken. And knowing that the Sem Co-Op’s subterranean days were numbered, we paid a final visit.

The bookstore isn’t closing, but there is a sense of mourning with its move. A documentary is being filmed about the place. A photographer was on hand to take pictures of people perusing the shelves. And a large poster invited the public to record their thoughts on what “the Seminary Co-Op is” on flyers that were displayed in the cloisters. There were dozens already out when we stopped by. The best one, written in pink marker, summed up the place perfectly: “The Sem Co-Op is a pretty little dungeon.”

The Sem Co-Op is coming up into the light. It will still be a great bookstore. But I think I will always fondly remember it as the endless, terrifying catacomb it once wondrously was.