Articles
On Writing & Illustrating:
When my publisher asked if I was interested in revising my young adult novel, The Great & the Small, for a second edition, I said a resounding, “YES!” Authors never get the chance to revisit a published novel…until now. My other projects got pushed aside, and for the next eight months I was all in—weaving a new story into the first edition—a story that had been on my mind a long time.
Yesterday, author and illustrator Andrea Torrey Balsara sat down with us to talk about her latest YA release The Great and the Small. Today, she's kind enough to share her thoughts and art and she explores the hero's journey:
.png)
On Mental Wellness:
When something precious is lost whether it’s a loved one, or in my case, the innocence of childhood it’s hard to let it go. Grief shrouds every part of us with dust, smothering joy, light, and colour, turning life bleak and grey.
How do we release it?
I’ve become a student of the effects of shame, and I’ve had plenty of study material: myself. As I prepared for the book promotion of the second edition of my young adult novel, The Great & the Small, I grappled with waves of terror that exceeded mere stage fright and dived deep into shame. This new edition, told through the eyes of teenaged Ananda, reflects my journey of reclaiming memories from buried childhood trauma.
On Spirituality & Religion:
I held Darwin’s food bowl out to him. It was breakfast time at PrimRose Donkey Sanctuary, usually Darwin’s favorite time of day. He hung his head and turned away.
I sat in front of the cabin on the rocky shore and clutched my head in my hands. Once again, the terror that had haunted me from as far back as I could remember burned through my chest like a blast furnace.
I had been struggling with a buried memory of being molested by a trusted member of my grandparents’ church as a young child. It had been so traumatic that I had disassociated from my body and buried the memory deep within.
Now, in my late 20s, the memory was resurfacing with a ferocity that was almost unbearable. My chest squeezed, and I gasped for air as I slid yet again down into the abyss, and the phantoms from the past took hold of me.
