While I’m still waiting for Glixman‘s arrival, I’ve got a nice surprise for my readers. The story supplement for Hamodia‘s English edition for Pesach – due out today, I think – contains a short story by me. Continue reading
science fiction
The Top 5 Things I had to cut from “The Force Isn’t With Me Anymore,” my new essay up on Tablet
My new piece up on Tablet, “The Force Isn’t With Me Anymore,” is about how my lifelong love of Star Wars is clashing with my commitment not to go to the movies. Yes, it is true, this fangirl, the child formerly known in some circles as “Chewbecca,” will not be watching “The Force Awakens.”
O Death Star Play Set, how I miss thee!!
Writing the piece was loads of fun: I got to relive many happy minutes of my childhood. In the original draft, I described the scene when I received my beloved Death Star Play Set (from Kenner!) in loving detail, and included all sorts of wacky stuff that I had to cut for length before turning the article into Tablet.
Editing out all that material was painful, and so I give you…
THE TOP 5 THINGS I HAD TO CUT FROM “THE FORCE ISN’T WITH ME ANYMORE:”
Need a little reading material for those long Yom Tov and Shabbos afternoons?
Spring is here, and with it come holidays and long Shabbos afternoons. If you have a tween or a teen who likes to spend them reading, check out my two most recent books!
SLIDING DOORS and other stories
(11-16 year olds)
While home sick, a teen interrupts a burglary in progress…
A mysterious stranger offers a young man an extra hour, for one-time use…
Slipping into an alternate universe, a girl discovers a few surprises…
A teenager lacking social skills adjusts to his new yeshiva…
Sliding Doors and other Stories features 17 of my finest stories for tweens and teens and one essay in a single volume sure to please old fans and new ones.
(8-11 year olds)
Do you think of yourself as lucky? Mazal always did – that is, until her luck ran out.
Mazal Tehrani is an 11 year-old girl living in Los Angeles’s bustling Jewish community. Her first name means “luck,” and she’s always been just that: lucky. Mazal has great parents, adorable siblings, and her best friend, Bluma, really is the best! But when one thing goes wrong after another, she starts to wonder, is she lucky after all?
Both titles now available on AMAZON!
They loved it, they hated it: Feedback on my story from Binah’s Sukkos Supplement, “From the Furthest Reaches of the Heavens”
I have emerged from the semi-hibernation of Sukkos (if you can call a holiday that involved cooking 10 fancy meals – many with with guests – hibernation) and am looking forward to a week chock full of work. I’ve got a personal essay to write for one of the sites I frequent, another to revise for a literary journal, and spent most of today editing. That’s on top of some work I want to do on one of my ongoing projects. And did I mention I still have to market the two books I recently self-published?
Earth on 1967-11-09, as seen from Apollo 4.
But I’d like to take a moment to look back on the story I published in Binah Magazine’s Vistas story supplement, “From the Furthest Reaches of the Heavens.”
SUMMARY
In case you haven’t read the story (and I’m assuming many of my blog readers haven’t), I’ll summarize it: Continue reading
Have you picked up the Sukkos edition of Binah Magazine yet?
Even if you aren’t usually a Binah reader, you might want to take a look-see at the special, expanded Sukkos 5776 issue. The “Vistas” story supplement features a story by yours truly. It’s my first adult fiction appearance with Binah, so I’m very excited.
“From the Furthest Reaches of Heaven” originated as part of a sci-fi novel I’ve been working on for many years. (It gets mentioned every now and again on this blog.) Eventually, I decided that this particular part of that story had more power in an abbreviated format. Shortening it to a 3500 word count was a challenge, but I’m already getting positive feedback on the story, so I’m pleased with the results.
Have you read “From the Furthest Reaches of Heaven” yet? If so, I’d love to hear what you think. Please share it in a comment.
Oh, all right, I’ll spill the beans.
So, yesterday’s post mentioned that I’ve been working on a few big projects. I can’t tell you about all of them, but I can tell you about two:
- I’ve compiled several of the stories I have published previously in international Jewish kids’ magazines into an anthology, selecting the ones that got the most fan mail, and which teachers have mentioned they’d like to use in their classrooms. I’m self-publishing it, IY”H. Target audience: readers age 10-16. We’re just waiting on the proofs – which I’ll have to proofread – before they will be up for sale.
- Also on the self-publishing front, many years ago, I had a number of stories starring two characters, Esti and Bluma, which ran in a local-to-L.A. Jewish magazine. Those stories got lots of fan mail here in L.A., so I started to shop around for a publisher. I had a couple near-misses, where a publisher said they were very interested, but then backed out pretty late in the game. After that, I added some more material, changed some things around to make it more like a middle-grade novel, as opposed to a short story collection, and tried yet another publisher. As they say in Yiddish: gornisht. My husband, though, really believed in the book, and my beta testers – kids from around the neighborhood – enjoyed it thoroughly. Doing Maker Camp over the summer really inspired me, as well as this post on Positive Writer, so after working on the anthology, I pulled out this older manuscript and started editing that one.
G-d willing, I’ll have news for you soon about these upcoming releases. I’m hoping to have them available online and at bookshops in L.A. Keep your eyes peeled for updates! (And prayers for the success of this project are welcome.)
Rebecca Klempner 