Learning Lessons from the Red Witch by Wil Hough

Lessons I Gleaned from Wake of the Red Witch by Garland Roark
Little, Brown, and Company – Boston


Every once in a while in this plastic world with its break neck pace, I come across something that makes me sit back and chew every bite a hundred times before swallowing. In this case, it was a classic novel written back in 1946, Wake of the Red Witch, which I discovered in an antique mall. It is a perfect example of why we should never discard the classics. It’s not just about the masterful twists of plot. Modern novelists are just as adept at such things. No, what sets apart the classics in general and Wake of the Red Witch in particular is how careful development of character serves as the engine for such plot complications. Without such development, readers have no opportunity to identify with an author’s character. And if we do not care what happens, we quickly lose interest and put the book down. OUCH!


To read more of Wil's article, visit: http://blog.roseandthornjournal.com/2009/12/02/learning-lessons-from-the-red-witch-by-wil-hough.aspx

National Novel Writing Month - It's Not Too Late! by Yu-Han Chao

How could we on this forum let November go by without a NaNoWriMo post, shout out, tribute, or rant?

I used to mention NaNoWriMo to all of my college students and dangle extra credit like candied carrots before any brave students willing and leisurely enough to attempt this prodigious challenge. But now that I’ve been teaching basic English at a community college for three years, where each little three-page, double-spaced rhetorical analysis is like pulling teeth, I am keeping my private, secret, almost-shameful-and-may-possibly-be-seen-as-insane noveling activities to myself this November.

To read more of Yu-Han's article go to: http://blog.roseandthornjournal.com/2009/12/02/national-novel-writing-month--its-not-too-late-by-yuhan-chao.aspx

Author Interview: Vanessa Gebbie by Kat Magendie

Interview: Vanessa Gebbie


A full time writer, editor, and writing teacher, Vanessa Gebbie is widely published. Her credits include top awards from literary competitions including Bridport and Fish Short Story Prizes among some forty other short story competition successes. Many of her prize-winning stories are gathered together in her debut collection, Words from a Glass Bubble (Salt Modern Fiction 2008). A second collection of micro-fiction, Ed’s Wife and Other Creatures, is forthcoming.

Gebbie is an experienced teacher of creative writing, working with literary festivals, with adult groups and with young people. Her work in the community has included tutoring groups of marginalised adults and has led to two anthologies: Refuge, stories from refugees and asylum seekers, and Roofless, writing by the homeless. (QueenSpark Publishing.)

She is contributing editor to Short Circuit, A Guide to the Art of the Short Story (Salt Publishing 2009) and contributor to the text book A Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (Rose Metal Press 2009). She is founder-editor of the specialist ezine, Tom’s Voice, and was also sub-editor of Cadenza Magazine.

Gebbie is Welsh. She is married with two sons and lives in East Sussex, UK. She is also a reader and a final judge for short fiction competitions and has just accepted an exciting invitation - to teach creative writing at Stockholm University, Sweden.



R&T: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us, Vanessa. So, how does it feel to hold WORDS FROM A GLASS BUBBLE in your hands and to know many others will read your story collection? And, have you curled up and read GLASS BUBBLE as if it were written by someone else?

Gebbie: The first time I saw my books, in a box delivered from the publishers, I sat on the floor in my hallway and just looked at them. I couldn’t quite believe it. Here was a beautiful book, hardback, a stunning cover, and my name on it. It felt totally unreal. I lifted one out and turned it over and over, just feeling the weight of it. I even smelled it!

There was also sadness. My mother was a librarian for most of her life, and she died several years before I even started writing seriously. She would have been very proud –

Now, it is eighteen months later. The book is now out in paperback and according to the publishers, sales in those eighteen months have pushed the book into their top 20 all time sales. That feels extraordinary. But at the same time, I am now on to different things – a second collection coming out soon, a textbook as well, a novel. GLASS BUBBLE will always be an important foundation stone, but the building is growing higher by the day.

And your last question here is great! The answer is yes. I do lots of readings in public, and I always try to approach a story as though it is new to me. And I do sometimes think – ‘wow. Where did that come from? Did I really write that?’ And er- that doesn’t always mean I think it is good! We move on, and sometimes I see something I would like to change . . .

To read the rest of the interview with Gebbie, visit the Rose & Thorn Journal Blog.

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