Triggers, Critics, and Rosh Hashanah
It is two days before my newest novel, Strength to Stand, is released to the public, and I would have expected myself to be ecstatic. The book and I have both overcome so many odds to get to this point that the very fact some interested reader can hold it in his or...
The Ups and Downs of Being an Author OR Check Your Ego at the Door
Be careful what you ask for, the saying goes, because you might just get it. That can be a problem.The problem isn't getting what you want. The problem is that once you have what you want, you want something different, something more.In an author's world, there is no...
Please join my street team!
I'm looking for a few good people. Or maybe a lot of good people. I'm looking to form a "street team," a roving gang of readers who can do things I can't for David, Sara, Batya, Arik, and the rest of the folks in the series. Here's how it works:What you get:Your very...
Fiction: to describe or not to describe is the question
Less than a week ago, I had a conversation with another author in which she asserted that she can always identify an amateur author by the fact that they describe their characters upon introduction. I didn't respond. I was a little shocked and I didn't know what to...
Destined to Choose named award finalist!
I'm super-thrilled to share that my first book, Destined to Choose, has been named a 2015 National Indie Excellence Award finalist!Here's two things I've learned from this:1. CELEBRATE! To celebrate this win, Destined to Choose is being offered for FREE as an ebook...
Finding the Good: Parshat Vayechi
Today is my oldest son's birthday. This week's parsha (also spelled parasha) — Vayechi (Genesis 47:28 - 50:26) — was his Torah portion for his bar mitzvah, and he and I spent months examining and re-examining it, talking about it, occasionally arguing about it. He...
Counting What Counts
Image: Flickr/Christine UriasLast night, while at a small and lovely New Year's Eve party with friends, we counted down to 2015 three times. Once, at about 10:30pm, to King Julien's (Madagascar movies) New Year's Countdown on Netflix. Once, at 11:00pm, to one of the...
Mystical Judaism
This past weekend, Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN hosted Rabbi Art Green as their scholar in residence, to teach about Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidism. Jewish mysticism is enjoying a resurgence in interest, due in part to the Jewish Renewal movement,...
BUT
Buffy: [to Giles] Uh-oh, you have but-face.[Giles looks confused]Buffy: You look like you're gonna say 'but'. —Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "A New Man" (2000) Words are important to me. I'm a writer; words are my life. As far back as I can remember I've enjoyed some...
Purim: Legislating Joy?
It's almost Purim.I've been invited to costume parties, drinking parties, dancing parties, book parties, and one Lent observance. All I really want to do is burrow under the bedcovers with a pint of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream and not think....