characterization

Fun with Fan Mail: I can tell you about my characters because they live in my brain

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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 →

Learn to empathize with real people…and fictional ones

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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 →

In the Courtyard of the Novelist: An interview with Ruchama King Feuerman

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I’ve got a treat here today: an interview (conducted via email) with award-winning author, Ruchama King Feuerman. Her latest book, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, just came out in September as an ebook. Recently, she signed a contract to expand the release to paperback. I became acquainted with Ruchama through Tablet Magazine online, where both of us have published essays. She was gracious enough to send me a copy of her new book and even more gracious to answer a few questions the novel left me with.

R.K. – In your first book, Seven Blessings, the central figure is a very strong female character. In this new book, you primarily follow two male, unmarried characters. What was that like for you as a married woman?

new book from Ruchama King Feuerman

In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, now out from NYRB LIT

R.K.F. – I prefer writing from the male point of view. This way I don’t worry about slippage, about parts of  my personality leaking into my characters, it’s just cleaner — what’s me is me, and what’s them is them.  I feel much freer to invent and have fun when I write as a man.  I do tend to prefer singles maybe because they are inherently dramatic. Continue reading →