Limited knowledge, understanding, and perspective are among the inherent challenges for a novelist employing a child’s point of view, especially in historical fiction. It is additionally challenging, even risky, to draw closely on personal childhood experience. After all, “what happened” doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the arc of story. Yet Sanders successfully navigates these challenges, in part by using memory as inspiration and jumping off point, exposing Mark [the protagonist] “more directly to the dark repercussions” of Kenya’s past than [Sanders] was himself during his much more secure childhood sojourn.

On Saturday, April 20, 7 p.m., Miriam Seidel will read from The Speed of Clouds at Norwescon, "The Pacific Northwest's Premier Science-Fiction and Fantasy Convention," in Seattle. According to the official Norwescon schedule, the reading is rated PG, which means it's suitable for this blogger. The site is the Doubletree Seattle Airport, Cascade 3, and despite what the graphic says, you may not need a towel.