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Writing for Children: not for those who want glory, fame, or big bucks

beccakinla chareidi, children, children's books, inyan magazine, Jewish, Jewish writing, joy, Judaism, kindness, klempner, kosher, love, magazines, message, Orthodox, persistence, picture books, publishing, recommended reading, respect, stories, students, success, tafkid, teens, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Last week’s Hamodia/Inyan Magazine had an article by one of my favorite columnists, Rabbi Fishel Schachter entitled “Guided by Tale Winds.” While today Rabbi Schachter is well-known in the Torah world for essays and presentations for adults about the weekly Torah portion, parenting, and other subjects, he first gained popularity as a rebbi and storyteller to students in Jewish day schools.

Rabbi Schachter explains in the article that one of the adults in his audience told him many years ago that he had to choose between teaching grown-ups or kids — and he indicated that the natural choice for a man of Rabbi Schachter’s talent and intelligence was to teach adults.

Turning to his own rebbi for guidance, Rabbi Schachter asked if teaching kids was really beneath him? Were all the silly voices and so on undermining his stature?

Continue reading →

When writing shifts from a hobby to a job: my new essay in Tablet

beccakinla adar, authors, klempner, kosher, publishing, purim, shpiel, tafkid, talent, writer, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Meow.

Meow.

Last year, I wrote on this blog that I struggled with creating the annual Purim newsletter I co-write with my husband. Well, this year, I wrote an essay about it for Tablet. You can read it here.

And if you don’t live in L.A., but do want to see this year’s edition of the newsletter (and other freebies throughout the year), you can fill out this form.  I’ll put you on the mailing list!

 

Writers don’t live on desert islands

beccakinla advice, authors, family, finish that novel, how to write, mother, parenting, tafkid, women, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

A couple weeks ago, a writer I’m friendly with asked in passing if I’d finished revising my novel. I told her that I felt like the rewrite wouldn’t happen until I moved to a desert island. Until that point, there would be distractions: carpool, laundry, cooking, deadlines on other writing projects…and more carpool.

Moving to the desert island is no escape

It kinda got me down.

My writer friend suggested that I apply for a writing retreat. Not quite a desert island, but close enough. Continue reading →

Considering my last year of literary pursuit

beccakinla authors, blogger, blogging, blogs, book, books, chareidi, depression, doldrums, frum, frustration, G-d, God, good news, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, persistence, publishing, rejection, rejection letters, submissions, success, tafkid, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Since there are just two weeks left of the Jewish year of 5773, I’ve been looking back at the last year and evaluating my life on every level: spiritual, physical, and even professional. And one goal still stands out at unfulfilled:

I STILL HAVEN’T PUBLISHED BOOK #2.

This issue depressed me a couple weeks ago, as I sat in front of my journal on Rosh Chodesh Elul (exactly one month before Rosh Hashanah), scribbling about the past year. I’d submitted a few picture books and two novels to multiple publishers and had zilch to show for it.

But then I counted how many times I appeared in print in the last year for pay: over two dozen times (bli ayin hara).

And then, I counted how many words I’d written. Essentially, it was the length of a novel. Wow.

I realized at that point how many more readers — potentially thousands more people — read my work in magazines this year than in my entire previous professional life.

That’s when I felt blessed.

Okay, I still have a major unfulfilled goal. It will be top of my professional goals again for this 5774. But if success is measured in progress, I made a lot of progress last year. And I could only do it with G-d’s help, which makes the year feel very sweet indeed.

How are you feeling about your last year, professionally? What is your top goal for 5774?

What I’m doing for my summer vacation

beccakinla kids, los angeles, summer, tafkid, vacations Tags: Leave a comment

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve got all my kids home with me this summer, and instead of writing blog posts, I’ve been busy staycation-ing with the Kooky Klempners.

I’ve squeezed in a quite bit of writing this summer, but not on this blog.

To help other family camping/mommy camping/staycationing families in the L.A. area, I created a website last summer. This year, I made a lot of improvements over there, as well as posting regularly about various adventures I’ve had with my family. You can check the site out here. I’m quite proud of this project: I’ve helped lots of families, and I think it came out pretty spiffy for a website done on the cheap.

You can expect fewer posts until the kids return to school in the fall. Try to contain your disappointment. 😉

Lights to the Nations: Two Jewish thinkers release their books for the secular–even non-Jewish–audience

beccakinla blogs, book, books, chareidi, frum, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, literacy, literature, matisyahu, message, reading, recommended reading, tafkid, Torah, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Wow.

That’s pretty much all I could say. I read an amazing blog post by Ann Koffsky this morning (thanks Ann for sending me the link!) where she interviews the unforgettable writer Gila Manolson. The interview is chock full of advice to writers, advice to parents, and other neat stuff. But the biggest revelation to me is that Manolson has created a website to promote her upcoming book–her first book for a non-Jewish audience.

Manolson is not alone. Continue reading →