Penguin Canada to publish My Heart Is Not My Own September 26, 2012 (Toronto) – Penguin Canada is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Michael Wuitchik’s compelling novel, My Heart Is Not My Own (previously Three Stone Fire), set to publish in Summer 2013. The book was acquired in a competitive bid by Penguin’s Commissioning […]
Sierra Leone
Back to the beginning….
Thanks to my agent, Drea Cohane, My Heart Is Not My Own is finally getting into the hands of acquiring editors. And so my thoughts return to the beginning…. In 2000, during the civil war in Sierra Leone, I visited a refugee camp in Freetown. I remember several images from that trip, but one in […]
A walk unspoiled….
‘We are making palm oil,’ Christian says, ‘would you like to see?’ He leads me through a landscape of palm, elephant grass, and smoky patches of last week’s slash and burn. Young girls from the village, Beautiful faces, giggles, hands waving like flags. You snap me! You snap me! Christian points to a tree that […]
On standing out….below the radar, in Sierra Leone
I’ve often been asked if I’ve ever felt uncomfortable in Sierra Leone. The answer is yes, when I was there in 2000, during the war. It was a year after ‘the second coming of the demons’, which is how Sierra Leoneans often refer to January, 1999, when the rebels retook most of Freetown. When Joseph […]
In memory of a good friend…
Two years ago I returned to Sierra Leone (Return to Freetown, Salone 2010). I made it through the chaos of Lungi Airport at night, stumbled onto a helicopter, and landed on the other side of the estuary. Waiting for me was the welcoming face of Kenawa Bernard, the brother of my good friend Betty Tenga. […]
New Used Shoes
Today I took Maserai, Lucia and Mamie shopping. The second hand shoe seller was in town. I got permission from the principal to take the girls out of school and off we went. I could tell it was a Big Day for the girls when they insisted on changing out of their school uniforms and […]