WATCH: Book Chat and Reading with Hidden Timber

I had a lovely chat with small press publisher Christi Craig of Hidden Timber Books yesterday.  We talked a lot about the devastation of elephant poaching for all of us and why it was so important to me to get that message out there, how ironic it is that perhaps in today's Covid-19 world we can really understand how connected we are, not just as humans but as a whole planet. 

We discussed writing my young adult novel No Entry, and my sequel No Fly Zone.  I had a chance to read a scene from chapter three of the novel, which puts you in heroine Yael Amar's place on her first dramatic day in South Africa's Kruger National Park and the first time Yael meets a cobra, as well as her soon-to-be best friend, Nadine Young. We talked about the importance of creating a Jewish environmental heroine (it's about time, right?). Most importantly we highlighted why it's critical to work toward the end of the blood ivory trade in a world where 55 elephants are murdered daily by people who feel they have the right to wipe out an entire species. One of the hardest things to get your head around is that elephant extinction works for poachers; the increasing rarity of elephants hikes up the price of their blood ivory. 

Thanks so much, Christi for having me on your small press series. You've been a great support, hosting me on your site when my novel Passport Control came out in 2018 and now including me in your wonderful series for No Entry. I hope we get to collaborate more in future and I encourage all of you to support small and independent presses.