The Wyvern
Another delightful creature that I hope will be featured in a new chapter book (still waiting to hear back from the editor who’s interested): the wyvern. Yes, it looks like a dragon, but you can tell the difference by counting the legs–a dragon has four, and a wyvern has two.
Read MoreCan Reading Be Stealing?
If someone takes your book off a shelf in a bookstore without paying for it, that’s theft.
If someone reads your book online without paying for it, ditto. They may not have a physical book in their possession, but they’ve taken hard creative work without paying a dime. And writers cannot live when readers do that.
But if an AI sweeps up your online book and reads it without paying for it, that’s…innovation?
When the AI reads your book and uses it along with many, many others to create new works that nobody needs to pay for because, hey, nobody actually wrote them, that’s…
I don’t now what that is. Nobody does. But I’m worried that it’s the beginning of the end of a world where writers work hard to knit words together to create characters and plots and worlds and visions that we can share.
Stephen King has some thoughts about this too.
The Amphisbaena
While waiting…and waiting…and waiting for an editor to get back to me about a new manuscript, I’m hoping so hard that I will get to write this fantasy chapter book with all sorts of delightful legendary creatures–like the amphisbaena, a venomous reptile with a head on each end of the body. Both heads bite. Avoid at all costs.
Read MoreAmerican Born Chinese
Anybody who is interested in or cares about children’s literature, or graphic novels, or Asian-American culture, or just basically anything should read Jamie Fisher’s article about Gene Wang’s unparalleled American Born Chinese and the upcoming Disney adaptation (for which I cannot wait).
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews