Posts by slthomson@earthlink.net

New Book Deal!

Posted by on Sep 14, 2023 in Fantasy, Uncategorized | 0 comments

I’m so happy to report that the book I’ve posted about a few times–full of delightful legendary creatures–will become a reality! My agent and editor are hashing out the details, but The Griffin’s Boy will be hitting the shelves in…oh…two years or so, if everything stays on track. (I know, the dizzying pace of modern publishing has you breathless.)

As well as the amphisbaena and wyvern and many others (including the ever-so-cute vegetable lambs and ferocious tiger lilies), it will feature, of course, a griffin. Can’t wait!

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Happy Pub Day, Save the…Rhinos!

Posted by on Sep 7, 2023 in Animals, Children's Literature, Nonfiction, SERIES: Save the... | 0 comments

Delighted to announce that Save the…Rhinos! is now available. Each of the books in these nonfiction series has an intro by Chelsea Clinton and is full of fabulous animal facts and true stories of conservation success.

The best rhino fact–a contented rhino (lots of grass, plenty of warm sun, no other bothersome rhinos around) makes a noise like this: mmmmmwonk.

May your day be full of mmmmmmwonk!

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The Wyvern

Posted by on Aug 31, 2023 in Children's Literature, Fantasy | 0 comments

Another delightful creature that I hope will be featured in a new chapter book (still waiting to hear back from the editor who’s interested): the wyvern. Yes, it looks like a dragon, but you can tell the difference by counting the legs–a dragon has four, and a wyvern has two.

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Can Reading Be Stealing?

Posted by on Aug 24, 2023 in Children's Literature | 0 comments

If someone takes your book off a shelf in a bookstore without paying for it, that’s theft.

If someone reads your book online without paying for it, ditto. They may not have a physical book in their possession, but they’ve taken hard creative work without paying a dime. And writers cannot live when readers do that.

But if an AI sweeps up your online book and reads it without paying for it, that’s…innovation?

When the AI reads your book and uses it along with many, many others to create new works that nobody needs to pay for because, hey, nobody actually wrote them, that’s…

I don’t now what that is. Nobody does. But I’m worried that it’s the beginning of the end of a world where writers work hard to knit words together to create characters and plots and worlds and visions that we can share.

Stephen King has some thoughts about this too.

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