Later Bloomer by Debra Eve

Why Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Did you know that specialization is a relatively recent compulsion?

During the Middle Ages, you could only study law, medicine, or religion.

The Renaissance resurrected what we now call the humanities — classics, languages, literature, philosophy, arts of all types.

This “rebirth” lauded well-rounded individuals — those who painted, sculpted, wrote poetry, mastered a weapon, studied the cosmos, spoke several languages, and played a musical instrument.

Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci epitomized this movement. But so did Queen Elizabeth I. She played the lute, rode into battle, spoke fluent Latin, and ruled for 44 years. The Renaissance tradition continued for centuries. {Read on…}

Madeleine L’Engle: Tenacity and The Tesseract

by Debra Eve | @DebraEve

You have to write the book that wants to be written…if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.

Last year, Amazon US announced that The Hunger Games had outsold Harry Potter as its all time bestselling series – not just in the young adult category.

Both Hunger and Harry feature teenagers who battle evil and must make decisions that affect the lives of others. Katniss Everdeen takes on a murderous system and Harry Potter defeats a deadly sorcerer.

Yet twenty-six publishers rejected one of my generation’s most beloved books because (according to the author) it “dealt overtly with the problem of evil, and it was really difficult for children, and was it a children’s or an adults’ book, anyhow?”

It seems laughable now, the idea that teenagers can’t fathom evil or that adults don’t want to read about their struggles. But last year also marked fifty years since A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) almost wasn’t published. {Read on…}