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Jewish Fiction Editors Speak Out | A Cyber Roundtable

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The Whole Megillah posted this extremely useful piece today, one that should be essential reading by writers of Jewish literature for the mainstream (meaning not-exclusively-Orthodox) audience. Still not up to posting myself, but I thought I should give my readers something to think about while I’m still on hiatus.

Barbara Krasner's avatarThe Whole Megillah

About our panelists:

Yona Zeldis Yona Zeldis

Yona Zeldis is the author of six novels for adults, including You Were Meant for Me, which came out from New American Library/Penguin in October, 2014.  She is also the author of 25 books for children and is the Fiction Editor at Lilith Magazine.  Visit her at: www.yonazeldismcdonough.com.

Nora Gold Nora Gold

Dr. Nora Gold is a writer, activist, and the creator and editor of the prestigious online literary journal, Jewish Fiction .net. Her first book, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Canadian Jewish Book Award and the title story was praised by Alice Munro. Gold’s second book, Fields of Exile, the first novel about anti-Israelism on campus, received enthusiastic praise from Cynthia Ozick, Ruth Wisse, Phyllis Chesler, Irwin Cotler, Steve Stern, Thane Rosenbaum, Naim Kattan, and Alice Shalvi. Dr. Gold is the Writer-in-Residence and an Associate Scholar at the Centre…

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Long time, no write

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You might have noticed that I haven’t published anything in about three weeks. There are reasons for that.

Life is complicated. Sometimes that adds spice to my writing. And sometimes it pretty much shoots any attempts at writing at point blank range.

I haven’t posted in a while because of life. There has been more craziness in the Klempner household than usual, and that’s kinda saying a lot. There have been positive sources of craziness (mostly involving Purim), neutral sources of craziness (jury duty and household repairs that involve lots of sawing and banging), bad sources of craziness (small, cute people with fevers and our third battle with lice this school year), and very, very bad sources of craziness.

The number one very, very bad source of craziness is that a week before Purim, my sister and I learned of our father’s death.

The only writing I’ve really done since then has been letters to relatives and writing about my father and so on.

Right now, I’m in a bit of a muddle. I’ll be posting again soon, I hope.

Anyway, usually I close out posts with requests for comments. This time, I ask you do not comment. However, if you have a relative with whom you’ve been out of touch — and the reason is unrelated to actual abuse of any kind — I would very much appreciate it if you made peace with the person. Please do it in memory of Dovid Pesach ben Avraham Avinu. Thanks.

Three in one shot!

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Readers of Binah this week will see a lot of me.

This week’s Binah Magazine contains three pieces by yours truly:

  • My regular episode of Glixman in a Fix inside Binah BeTween
  • A stand alone for tweens and teens in the same supplement, entitled “A Sweet Find”
  • A personal essay in the main magazine, called “Hitting the Road.”

“A Sweet Find” was inspired by the antics of my grandmother, may she live to 120. She’s one of those people who saves things, and has been digging through her treasures a lot recently. As a person who doesn’t generally get sentimental over objects, it’s sometimes hard for me to identify with Grandma’s feelings. But once in a while, something Grandma finds in her stash touches me, and I wrote a fictional story about a character who shares this experience.

In “Hitting the Road,” I confess my driving phobia and explain how I finally conquered it. Next week, I’ll be completing my first year of driving carpool!

Has anyone out there had a phobia and written about it? Please share in the comments.

How writing a novel differs from writing a screenplay: my last post on STORY

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After reading my earlier posts on STORY, you might think I’m 100% sold on the book. I have to admit that I’m a fan, but I do have some quibbles, largely on the adoption of screenwriting techniques for short story or novel writing.

Differences between writing for readers and for viewers that limit the utility of STORY:

1) (The only one I noticed pointed out by McKee) You may get inside the characters heads and explore their thoughts in literature. This creates a greater intimacy between the narrator and the reader. It also means the conflict can be much more subtle and much more interior.

2) Some readers like descriptive, sensory details that can’t be experienced with film — smell and touch can be better evoked, for example (unless you’re viewing in smell-o-rama).

3) The audience must work harder when reading print–in a good way.

4) When contrasted with other useful literary guides, you see some shortfalls. Continue reading →