To celebrate the release of the new charity anthology, Children of War (review), I am doing a series of author interviews and guest posts, featuring several of the authors who wrote a short story for this anthology. This multigenre anthology supports the children of Ukraine. All proceeds of this anthology will be donated in perpetuity to the Voices of Children Foundation in Ukraine or another similar charity. This foundation is “a Ukrainian charity providing counselling and other forms of psychological support to war-trauma victims. The charity was established in 2015 and has been working with volunteer psychologists to bring art therapy and mobile psychologists to the most vulnerable in Ukrainian society, victims now of yet another armed conflict.”
The third author I’ve interviewed is C. Borden! Her story in Children of War is Jonah. It tells the story of a young boy who loses his mother when the women of his town are captured and taken away. This fantasy short story is set in the world of the Awakening Series. Check out my review of the anthology for more info!
Author Interview
About the author
Hobbies: Reading, Writing, Hiking, Nature Photography, Gardening
What was your favourite book as a kid? One of my favorite books growing up… Um… There are so very many, but the first book that really captured my imagination in a way that I can remember so clearly is Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. I can only very vaguely recall what it is about, but I remember the emotions it invoked, one being an incredible desire to learn how to live on my own. To be independent and to overcome fear to make things happen when the odds seem stacked against me.
What kind of a book would you love to write one day? I fear it is too late to write the book I imagined I’d write someday. I had always wanted to write a memoir for my Oma. Sadly, she passed away before I ever had the opportunity to write down her memories. However, now I hope to capture my parents memories of living in the aftermath of WWII, both in Europe and in the US. There was so much pain and hardship in their young lives as the world recovered. I think it is important we remember those things in order to keep them from happening again.
What is your motto as a writer? Hmmm…. Just write. ::Shrug::
About the anthology
Why did you decide to write a story for this anthology? Because of my own family history, which is rooted in Germany, Poland, and Russia, everything that happens in those countries touches me, and I feel a need to try to help. Working within the fantasy genre helps me address concerns in a less in-your-face manner. In this modern world, sometimes, that subtlety is what we need to get us to really stop and think about the problems others face that might go against our ideologies and core beliefs. In this case, I feel like most people simply do not grasp the horrors of war. Especially in the United States, war is always far away, out of sight. Even images from on the ground in those places plagues by war do very little to sway us to action. One of my goals with my short story, Jonah, was to touch on just one aspect of the horrors of war and violence as it affects children long past childhood.
If there was one message linked to this that you could pass on to the world, what would it be? One message I’d hope people take away from Jonah, and from the anthology, is that there are NO untouched lives where there is war or violence.
Quick Round
Tropical island or Antarctica? Antarctica
Night or day? Day
Ice cream or pizza? Ice Cream
Coffee or chocolate? Mmm…both
Culture or nature? Nature