I already posted once this week, so I’ll probably keep this one short, but I wanted to make sure I do my new little Wednesday thang so I don’t lose my groove.
I mentioned in my last post that while reviewing the proofs of my soon-to-be published middle-grade novel, I had an impulse to write a sequel. You know that old tune sung by Marlene Deitrich, “Falling in Love Again?” That’s how I felt about my characters on this weekend’s run-through. Continue reading
Usually, when I get fan mail for my work in print magazines, it’s from other writers. Occasionally, fans will stop me in the street. However, no fan mail for my serial in Binah BeTween had been printed in the magazine until last week.
At some point last Shabbos, my kids ran over to me to show me that I’d received a letter about Glixman in a Fix in last week’s edition. And then yesterday morning — lo and behold! — I got a letter from two more young fans forwarded to me by my editor so that I could reply before they go to print.
What was funny about the second piece of fan mail was the question. Continue reading
One day early in my marriage, I found my husband reading the autobiography of John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach.
Martin Greenfield’s new book about the Shoah and after inspires readers to rise to greatness.
“Why are you reading that?” I asked. My husband did not follow sports, and he rarely read a book that wasn’t overtly “Jewish.”
“My rabbi once told me that if you want to learn good middos (character traits), you should read about the lives of people who have achieved genuine greatness.”
In that vein, I’m going to recommend that my husband read Measure of a Man, Martin Greenfield’s new memoir of survival and character. If you want to learn why, check out my review of Measure of a Man in last week’s Jewish Home L.A.
So, I was having one of those days when it’s not yet 10 a.m., and I was already having a pity party for myself. There was something I’d really wanted to get…and I didn’t get it. I was dragging myself down the street, and I realized that I was fixating on all the things that I wanted out of life. And the truth was that what I didn’t get…maybe I wanted it, but I didn’t really need it. I thought about the things that other people wanted and how often what they didn’t have was a need. Or something that I personally did have. And that I should basically stop feeling sorry for myself.
How I Emerged from the Fog
As I mentioned, as this mental inventory was taking place, I was walking down the street. Continue reading
I’m still reading STORY and have so much to say on its utility that you’ll just have to bear with me for a few more posts on it.
Writer! Mind the gap!
McKee has a theory that the material a story is made of is not words, not paper and pen (or computer) but something he calls the GAP. The Gap develops when a main character acts and discovers that his/her expectations regarding the response s/he’s going to get conflict with the reaction s/he really gets. This discrepancy forces the character to adjust and change.
Okay, so I’ve written about rejection a lot of times. Like, a whole lotta times. But since the story I revised and returned to my wonderful editor is still deemed insufficiently engaging by her, I’m coping with rejection again. (Honestly, she gave me the option of cutting half its length, but I have officially washed my hands of the whole situation.) If I have to cope with it, I might as well post about it. Continue reading
Rebecca Klempner 