Sarah L. Thomson, Children's Author |

The Wyvern

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 31, 2023 in Children's Literature, Fantasy | 0 comments

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.

Can Reading Be Stealing?

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 24, 2023 in Children's Literature | 0 comments

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

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 17, 2023 in Children's Literature | 0 comments

This amphisbaena is from the Aberdeen Bestiary, a 12th century encyclopedia of rare and often mythical animals. It appears to have wings as well as legs, a nice touch.

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.

Lie? Lay? Help! Part 2

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 10, 2023 in Editing, Grammar, Writing Process | 0 comments

Lie and lay would not be confusing at all if not for the past tense. That’s where it all goes bad.

Lie, remember, takes no object. Chickens do not lie an egg!
Past tense of lie: lay. Past perfect tense (the one that goes with have): lain.
Like this: I lie down today. I lay down yesterday. I have lain down many times.

Lay takes an object. You cannot simply lay; you must lay something. A chicken lays an egg.
Past tense of lay: laid. Past perfect tense: laid.
The chicken lays an egg today. The chicken laid an egg yesterday. The chicken has laid many eggs.

For extra credit: if you are lying, as in telling fibs, none of this applies. You lie today, you lied yesterday, you have lied often. Shape up and start being more honest.

For extreme extra credit: why does the children’s prayer say, “Now I lay me down to sleep?” I’m not a chicken; why am I laying?

Lay is correct in this case (a bit archaic) because it takes an object: me. The speaker is laying something (themselves) down to sleep. Please do not use this as a model in your head when you are trying pick between lie and lay. It’ll just confuse you. Stick to the chickens.

Lie? Lay? Help!

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 3, 2023 in Editing, Grammar, Writing Process | 0 comments

Have I explained lie and lay yet? Don’t stop reading! It’s easier than you think.

All you have to do is remember what my grandmother always said: “Chickens lay. People lie.”

To lie is to assume a horizontal position. And this is the key: It does not take an object. You don’t lie something. You just lie. You lie on the bed, you lie on the floor, you lie on a bench. But you don’t lie an egg.

To lay is to place something on a surface. It takes an object. You lay something somewhere–you lay a book on a desk, you lay a pencil on the book, you lay a paperclip on the pencil. And a chicken lays an egg.

So if you’re doing something to an object, just as the chicken does to an egg–it’s lay.

If there is no egg or equivalent, then it’s lie.

More next week on the complexities of lie and lay!

How To Kill a Tardigarde

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Jul 27, 2023 in Animals, Nonfiction, PIcture Books | 0 comments

I don’t know why you’d want to (they’re kind of cute, if also terrifying), but I’ve been researching tardigrades for a new book. And they are HARD to kill.