Paul Haston
Paul is a dad, a husband, and a believer in things magical, which is why he loves writing, both for children and for adults.
Recent books for middle grade children include Tinker Tailor Schoolboy Spy, Flying with the Spitfires, and Billy and the Match Girl, which was long listed for the Canadian Society of Children's Authors Illustrators & Performers (CANSCAIP) 2020 Writing for Children Competition.
Paul is an advocate for elephants. Echo and the Magical Whispers and Lost Echo are books one and two in The Whispers Series, a magical realism about elephants written for children aged 9 - 12 and sponsored by Elephants for Africa, an elephant charity based in Botswana with profits from the books going to help the preservation of elephants. Echo won a silver medal at the 2015 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards.
Books for adults include the recently published Flowers for the Bees, set against the bloody backdrop of Indian independence from Britain in 1947. The book was long listed for the 2016 Exeter Novel Prize.
The author's webpage is http://www.paulhaston.com/
Elephants for Africa webpage is http://www.elephantsforafrica.org/
“Leather cut into Usha's flesh and she screamed. She screamed for the soreness in her back, she screamed for the throbbing sensation in her soft belly, she screamed for the hope that was being lashed out of her; multiple screams for the first few lashings then whimpering as blinding pain clouded her head, numbness froze her body. Hope became hopeless. After twenty lashings even the whimpering stopped, only the nothingness of nothing remained.”
“So wise men avoided Usha. The death of her husband ensured that she became inauspicious. The white sari wrapped itself around her shaking body and the lily of her youth wilted before it had even begun to flower.”