Dear Readers,
These past few days I have been able to do what I love best in my writing life: go back in time. I was
reading through my grandmother's memoirs to find more details for an essay that O Magazine is interested in. It is about my visit to my great-great-grandparents' mill in the Bohemian countryside where my grandmother spent her childhood summers. I got sidetracked trying to match the German town names she mentioned with the Czech names on contemporary maps, but I love that kind of detective work. Thanks to Google Maps, I was thrilled to find images of specific locations such as
the "103 steps" up to a chapel on a hill opposite the mill that my grandmother loved to climb as a kid. I wish I'd dug into her memoirs in more detail before my sister and I visited there last fall!
My great-great-grandparents' former mill in Hamr Na Jezere, Czech
Republic
One tip if you're about to look at such documents yourself: Retype them! This forces you to really look at what's there. For example, for my workshop at the Hemingway House I translated the letter my grandfather wrote about the events from 1945-46 when the family was expelled from Czechoslovakia. I was astounded to find
that the mention of the Flying Dutchman, which I used for the related chapter in Jumping Over Shadows, was only a reference in parenthesis. In the original document, it was an aside; in my mind, however, it had grown to an entire scene. Goes to show my grandfather was a skilled
writer! The train station in Liberec (Reichenberg), 2009
This is
where the train in the Flying Dutchman departs.
Mining family history for rich story details (such as the fact that my great-great-grandfather, the miller, always wore a carnation in his lapel, because "he loved flowers"?!), as well as going with what I know from the stories people told me, and filling out the blanks with research is the subject of my article on Rivka's Yiddish, published today:
The "Family Knina" grave in Liberec (formerly Reichenberg) harbors a lot more
than you would know from its simple inscription, see my article.
But even with all the filling out, I am very conscious of the fact that the story and circumstances I have been able to reconstruct are most certainly only part of the story. This is why the subject of family history is ever fascinating not only to me. And,
therefore, I've been teaching, based on my experience writing Jumping Over Shadows, a workshop on how to create compelling stories from family history: My recent workshop at the Hemingway Birthplace Home in Oak Park, IL - It was great to be back!
Upcoming workshops:
The American Writers
Museum opened this past week in Chicago--the first museum of its kind in the U.S.--and I am super happy to be teaching there next month:
June 20 &
27 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. I am also thrilled to announce that I will be teaching the same workshop as a one-day seminar in Jerusalem this summer--teaching in Israel is a dream come true for me:
July 6 9:30 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.
I will be in Israel the first two weeks of July; if you're reading this newsletter there, and would like me to speak with your book club, or if you have other ideas for book events, please email me! I love nothing more than talking to readers, and that goes, of course, not only for Israel! I've been arranging book club events in
Chicagoland, but I am also happy to do Skype sessions, so let me know if you'd like me to talk to your group or refer me to one! In Tel Aviv, I'll be exploring a slightly different angle, namely that of bringing a lot
of different source material together in one story: July 13, 2017 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. I elaborated on one aspect of this, namely dealing with source material in many different languages, in my recent Behind the Book post on
Writing the Multi-Lingual Memoir. Thank you notes from 3rd/4th graders for talking to them about my memoir
As my wild
ride of book publicity continues, one of my "funnest" events so far was talking to a 3rd/4th grade class at Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School about my memoir. They had just put together a short memoir for their moms as a Mother's Day gift and, contrary to many adults, they knew the difference between memoir and autobiography! And they asked great questions, such as how can you research a person from the past when he/she wasn't famous? They
also wrote me the most heart-warming and sweet thank you cards, see above. For notes like these alone, it's worthwhile talking to kids about what you do.
Best author feeling yet: Spotting my book on display at the Book Table in Oak Park I will also be at the
Sunday, June 11 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Chicago Writers Association Tent
Stop by for a chat, buy a book, have it signed!
Printers Row is great fun, not only for the literary events but the book fair. Last year my daughter and I enjoyed rummaging through the antique book stalls and found some great Chicago Art Deco posters as well as old maps (Palestine, 1922) and
advertisements.
So much from my post-book-launch front! Thanks to all of you who have bought my book, sent me messages, recommended me for events, and made other
connections for me. This is what an "author platform" is all about! Special thanks to all who have taken the time to post a review to amazon; this truly is the second best and simplest thing (after buying the book) you can do to support me as it helps tremendously in my ability to promote the
book.
I hope your writing and creating endeavors are going well, and I wish you a productive early summer.
Greetings, |
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