“My name is Mirka…”
My friend Rachel Swirksy, who is a wonderful writer and a major help to me in creating Hereville books, just sent me this snippet:
My name is Mirka, and I grew up in a small town where all the women wore long sleeves and all the men wore beards, where everyone spoke Yiddish and prayed to Hashem, where almost no one watched TV, and the men studied books all day while the women worked and took care of the children.
Most didn’t know it, but there was a troll there, and a witch, and a talking pig, and a wishing fish, and a time eater, and a demon, and there were other things, too.
I wanted to be a dragonslayer, but instead I learned that the world needs a lot of things other than dragonslaying. Cooperation, and clear-thinkingness, and mercy, and willingness to do the right thing no matter the consequences.
That doesn’t mean the world doesn’t also need dragon-slaying.
My name is Mirka, and I am a dragon slayer.