Author Archives: mabujones

Who are you talking to? It was the question I would get asked when I was small. So I learned not to talk out loud, but to keep my stories inside. Then I learned to write. But the thing is, … Continue reading →

For the past eight years I have taught a two-week, summer poetry class for high school students. Every summer I watched them interact, share jokes and music, the bolder ones including the quieter ones, the romantics entrancing the skeptics. Last … Continue reading →

I had the privilege of writing with a group of middle school students recently. As soon as the two leaders of the group began their Power Point presentation on plot, I knew I was going to learn something. According to … Continue reading →

When I wrote Maud & Addie I did not identify a particular audience or age range. I wrote out of the joy of keeping company with characters who asked good questions and tried to solve their own dilemmas. If they … Continue reading →

Two sisters arrived one afternoon, in the middle of an argument with each other. I didn’t know it then, but their argument was taking place on an island at the heart of their story. Around the same time that I … Continue reading →

When I was fairly new to falling headlong into creative writing, I complained one day to a group of more seasoned writers that I kept repeating the same scenes or stories. Many of those scenes and characters were based on … Continue reading →

We’ve been at home with ourselves for a long time now. Some of us have cleaned out that storage closet, some of us have established new exercise routines and some of us have learned to play the flute. Many of … Continue reading →

When we write, we create main characters. They are the lens through which we experience the story, the sensibility that readers identify with. In traditional terms, this character is the protagonist. In even more traditional terms, they are the hero, … Continue reading →

In this season of starlight, in this year of isolation, a great deal has been asked of us. We have managed and survived by finding our stamina, being inventive, determined, introspective, and outreaching. I have unwrapped, unpolished, unassuming gifts for … Continue reading →

In this pandemic we are gripped by the vast and the invisible and the chaotic. We feel the largeness that makes us feel small, our days confined to repetitions. What does this kind of existence do to our writing life? … Continue reading →