The Storyteller's Box
Traditional storytellers in India often use props, and one of the most elegant and striking is the kavad, or storyteller's box. Part of Rajasthani rural tradition, the kavad is a portable shrine depicting stories from the lives of Rama and Krishna, avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu. It folds out into multiple spreads each with a series of pictures. It's the low-tech precursor to today's PowerPoint or Keynote presentations. The teller points to a picture with the tip of a feather as he tells his tale. Sometime

Tom Greene on Writer’s Envy
Here's a post that got caught in limbo while I was crossing the date line and watching the koi swim in circles at Singapore's Changi Airport. If I had to pick an airport to live in, this could be it.Tom Greene

Tea With Chachaji
In the small world department: last month, in Albuquerque, I had the pleasure of meeting Robin Burrows (in the picture) and her husband Jeff. They're the parents of Raja Burrows, who's playing the male lead in

Updates and Downloads
Cynthia Leitich Smith interview with Alan Cumyn:I don't pre-sell a book--I write it for the love of writing it, because it's the book I really want to read that hasn't been created yet. I try to be true to the characters and the problems they're faced with.I could live by this. I should mention that Alan's Owen Skye is a wonderfully funny, engaging character, with a mind that run

How To Write About...(Pick a Place or People)
Back in 2005, Binyavanga Wainaina http:// www.africanbookscollective.com/authors-editors/binyavanga-wainaina wrote a wonderfully funny satirical piece in Granta magazine called "How to Write About Africa". Here are just a few gems from it:"In your text treat Africa as if it were one country.""Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat.""Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love