Author: beccakinla

Is poetry as we know it dead? Goldsmith speculates the “meme machine” has taken over.

beccakinla art, authors, literature, poem, poetry, publishing, self-publishing, words, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This week, The New Yorker book blog published a post by Kenneth Goldsmith about the proliferation of rather un-poetic  “poetry” spreading across the internet. He writes:

[T]he Canadian media scholar Darren Wershler…has been making some unexpected connections between meme culture and contemporary poetry. “These artifacts,” Wershler claims, “aren’t conceived of as poems; they aren’t produced by people who identify as poets; they circulate promiscuously, sometimes under anonymous conditions; and they aren’t encountered by interpretive communities that identify them as literary.”

…It’s not uncommon to see blogs that recount someone’s every sneeze since 2007, or of a man who shoots exactly one second of video every day and strings the clips together in time-lapsed mashups. Continue reading →

What? No love triangle? How books for Jewish teens fit into current YA trends

beccakinla advice, book, books, fantasy, fiction, frustration, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, kosher, librarians, library, literacy, literature, novel, novels, stories, teens, wholesome, writer, writing, ya novels Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

If you ask observant Jewish teens here in the U.S. whether they overall prefer Jewish books or secular ones, most of them will tell you secular books (trust me, I write for teens, so I’ve asked). Sad, but true.

Why most Orthodox teens prefer secular books

Interestingly, some of these teens will tell you that they wish there were more Jewish books for teens that suited them. Others will tell you they don’t like either Jewish or secular novels — the former don’t engage them, and latter conflict with their religious beliefs.

Thursday, I caught an excellent article on CNN about the history of YA novels in the U.S. You can read it here. There was little that was news to me in the article, but it did make me think about something that’s troubled me for a while — namely why so many Jewish teens are enthralled by secular books that don’t necessarily reflect the values of their families.

Let’s consider why secular YA books are currently selling like hotcakes. Continue reading →

How to optimize your Goodreads “To-Read” list

beccakinla advice, award, book, books, boring, clean, comments, failure, friendship, habit, kosher, labeling, librarians, library, lists, literacy, literature, modesty, novel, novels, research, review, reviews, stories Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

A few weeks back, I posted about how we select the books we want to read now, next and never.

On a related theme, I just spent an hour culling unwanted books from my Goodreads “To-Read” list. 

Because what good is a “To-Read” list if you don’t really want to read the books on it?

After my very well-intentioned husband took the aforementioned list to the library and returned with many of the books it contained, I discovered few were readable in the land of Mrs. Rebecca Klempner. Three offended my (admittedly rather sensitive) sensibilities so much that I immediately took them out to our van and left them there to be returned to the library. Ugh.

How do such books get on my “To-Read” list in the first place? Continue reading →

November Is Picture Book Idea Month | Guest Post by Tara Lazar

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In case all you people who prefer writing picture book format are jealous of the NaNoWriMo hype…

Barbara Krasner's avatarThe Whole Megillah

taraauthorpolaroidWhen I finally decided to write for children with the intention of becoming published, I got online. I made writing friends. And I listened to them talk.

In the fall of 2008, everyone got loud about an event: NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month. Sounded great! Write a 50,000 novel in a month, join a community of writers doing the same, talk shop every day, and become immersed in the work. I’d feel like a REAL writer.

Except I didn’t write novels. And the thought of writing one? Daunting.

You see, my entire life I’ve been a fan of the short form. I prefer the brilliance in its brevity. I understand how every word must be carefully selected, how every action and scene must contribute to the “single effect,” as dubbed by Edgar Allen Poe. I studied short stories in college, I read short stories voraciously and I began my writing career…

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Creating convincing inner conflict in characters

beccakinla advice, fiction, literature, writer, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Literary inspiration comes from some weird places.

Case in point: What I learned about writing from mussar

On Shabbat, I mostly stick to reading materials with Jewish content. This is just one of the ways I make it distinct from the other days of the week. Over the last several months, I’ve been nickel and diming it through Strive for Truth, Rabbi Aryeh Carmell’s English translation of the Michtav Me’Eliyahu by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler. This book is considered a classic of mussar, the refinement of character through the lens of Torah.

When I say “nickel and diming it,” I mean this: read a couple pages, realize I didn’t really get it, re-read. Take a nap, shmooze with my husband, or hang out with the kids; pick up the book again. Realize I don’t remember how we got to this part of the essay, then backtrack and again re-read the last couple paragraphs before hitting some new material and starting all over again.

Kinda like reading Durkheim. Really heavy stuff.

Anyway, this week, when I picked up Strive for Truth after Shabbat dinner, I was forced to re-read the first half of the essay I’d begun last week. The essay is about free will. Continue reading →

The Rejection Letter that’s Good for You

beccakinla advice, authors, editing, publishing, rejection, rejection letters, relationships, revision, writer, writing, writing groups, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Yesterday, I got a rejection letter.

Yes, it happens a lot.

I’ve argued in the past that rejection letters are good for you, and I’ve gotten better at taking them in stride, but this one went even further. Its timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

You see, last night was my monthly writers’ workshop. All morning, I’d been trying to decide on a piece to bring and share. When that rejection letter appeared in my inbox around noon, I decided it was a sign.

No, not that kind of sign.

Not just a sign, but a Sign — “This is the piece you should bring to your writers’ workshop tonight.”

So, I did.

And it was magical.

Our group was smaller than usual, consisting of just three of us (usually, we’re four or five). But the two other ladies present gave me so much insight about what worked in my story and what did not, feedback that I might have been less open to, had I not just received the rejection letter. I spent a good chunk of this morning working on revisions, and plan to wrap them up tomorrow in between baking my challah and roasting my chicken.

I’m still hoping that the next time I hear from an editor, they send an acceptance letter. (To say that I pray for acceptance letters is no exaggeration.) But this experience is definitely going to help me embrace the next rejection letter.

Because another will surely come.