Astute followers of this blog will notice this logo now graces the website. I am so excited to announce that I have received a Recommender Grant for Writers from the Ontario Arts Council! The way the grant works: I sent a writing sample along with an application to recognized publishers in Ontario who then recommendedContinue reading “Project Update: Granted Grants!”
Author Archives: Sonia Sulaiman
Bible Tales in Arab Folk-Lore, 1928
My newest acquisition! Bible Tales in Arab Folk-Lore by Joseph Meyouhas, translated from Hebrew by Victor N. Levi. Once again, it is quotation time and once again, there is some disturbingly racist material in the introduction: The modern Syrian Arabs are descended in unbroken, if not in racially pure, lineage from the Philistines, Canaanites andContinue reading “Bible Tales in Arab Folk-Lore, 1928”
#AuthorToolboxBlogHop and… Poetry
Have you ever noticed that while there’s a seemingly endless amount of books on the craft of writing novels there’s comparatively little about poetry? Now, I suppose one reason for this is that many new writers imagine that novel writing will be their ticket to fame and fortune, while poets are unfortunate souls who liveContinue reading “#AuthorToolboxBlogHop and… Poetry”
Writing the Other: a book recommendation for #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop
I have a book to recommend for this month’s #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop. I’ve lost count of the number of times this month I’ve come across some variation of anxiousness over a writer who earnestly wants to do right by cultural material and characters that are not their own. I always recommend this book: Writing the Other byContinue reading “Writing the Other: a book recommendation for #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop”
Writing with Tarot Masterpost for #AuthorToolboxBlogHop
Welcome to my first post for the Author Toolbox Blog Hop! Today I am going to be presenting some of my all-time favourite tips for generating writing prompts: using tarot cards. I’ve already shown you how to use them to create three-act plot structures and expanding upon that into Freytag’s Pyramid but there’s so muchContinue reading “Writing with Tarot Masterpost for #AuthorToolboxBlogHop”
Folk-lore of the Holy Land Moslem, Christian and Jewish, 1907
Folk-lore of the Holy Land by J.E. Hanauer is available in full at the wonderful Sacred Text Archive where it was digitized in 2006. Both the archivists commentary and that of the author himself are very fraught and racist. It is a difficult read for this reason, and yet there is some fantastic material here.Continue reading “Folk-lore of the Holy Land Moslem, Christian and Jewish, 1907”
Pearls on a Branch, 2018
Today we’re looking at the youngest collection of tales that I’ve come across so far: Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales by Najla Jraissaty Koury, translated by Inea Bushnaq. As with some other collections, it is unclear which stories originally had Palestinian tellers. The tales were gathered via a traveling theatre troup who toured PalestinianContinue reading “Pearls on a Branch, 2018”
Freytag’s Pyramid Tarot Writing Prompt
The other day, we looked at a basic tarot trick for creating writing prompts. You can make an Aristotelian three-act story structure from the cards. Now we’ll take it a step further and look in depth at expanding our structure to incorporate what’s known as Freytag’s pyramid. Here is today’s sample spread. Instead of threeContinue reading “Freytag’s Pyramid Tarot Writing Prompt”
Palestinian Folktales Project Update
Two years ago I began writing a collection of Palestinian folktales. I finished the rough draft of volume one: retellings of Palestinian fables and animal stories when I had to change computers. I was using Scrivener and *thought* I had responsibly backed up the file. I had not. It was gone. Undaunted, I started over.Continue reading “Palestinian Folktales Project Update”
Abu Jmeel’s Daughter and Other Stories: Arab Folk Tales from Palestine and Lebanon, 2002
The teller of these tales is Jamal Sleem Nuweihed, but we are also given a lineage of tellers she received the stories from over the course of her life, with each given a short bio! The Palestinian Lady: Sitt NuzhaAunt Jamal wrote:This lady was the most entertaining of all the storytellers. Her memory was extremelyContinue reading “Abu Jmeel’s Daughter and Other Stories: Arab Folk Tales from Palestine and Lebanon, 2002”