I forgot to do something before Pesach!!!

Shortly before Passover hit (I hope everyone had a good one) I had the pleasure of being interviewed by long-time colleague and friend, Merri Ukraincik. Her new Substack newsletter, Days of Rest, has been running for a couple months now, and she chose me as her first interviewee for an ongoing section called, “The Creative Pause.” Merri—who is, like me, an Orthodox Jew—wants to know how other frum artists negotiate the requires respite from creation on Shabbat. We talked about ideas which pop up on Shabbos, parenting as a creative, encorporating faith into our art, my favorite part of Shabbos, and a bit about my forthcoming picture book, How to Welcome an Alien. You can find the full newsletter, including Merri’s interview of me, here.

Photo by Jens Mahnke on Pexels.com

In other writing news:

-I’m scribbing and submitting, scribbling and submitting. I hope to have good news for you soon.

-ARCs—advance review copies—of How to Welcome an Alien are now going out. I got my first review and others are forthcoming. If you’ve got a child, student, nephew, niece, or the like who is 4 – 7 years old, you might want to preorder the book. You can do that on Amazon.

If you read the interview I link to above, I’d love to hear your thought in the comments. 🙂

Erika Dreifus posted a Q & A with me! Wow!

Erika Dreifus is known to many in the book world – especially in the Jewish book world – as an author, social media maven (currently with Fig Tree Books), and advocate for other writers. Her site is a great resource for writers, with interviews, tips, links, and opportunities for jobs and publishing.

I was very excited (and nervous) a couple weeks ago, when she asked if I’d do a Q & A with her about Sliding Doors and other stories. Eventually, I consented. The results are up on her blog and you can mosey along there to see them. 

Thank you, Erika!

I’m on a mission from G-d. (Only half joking, folks.)

Another writing gig landed at my feet, and it connects to the theme of the last article I published: female leadership in the Orthodox community. Meanwhile, half the things I’ve read in the last couple weeks seem to touch on the topic of leadership. I feel like G-d is sending me a little message: WRITE ABOUT THIS.

I wrote about feminism in the Jewish context a while back, in the form of a personal essay. I’ve wanted to write more about the particular spin I have on feminism for a while – a spin that has made me unpopular with some readers and a bit of a heroine with others. Unfortunately, Continue reading

Tables turned: a writer gets interviewed by Fradl Adams for The Lakewood Shopper

Fradl Adams interviews inspirational women, particularly baalos teshuvah, for The Lakewood Shopper. Her column appears weekly. Anyway, she asked to speak to me — focusing primarily on my writing for Jewish teens and tweens — about a month ago, and the interview runs this week. For those of us outside NJ, she provided this link.

I’m much more used to interviewing people than being interviewed. It was definitely WEEEIRD, and I kept thinking, “Do I sound like that?”