Category: Books

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Books Israel

Worlds Apart

My world and your world. Their world and our world. Where am I? Where are you? Where are they?

Somewhere, further down in this post, I will talk about tomorrow’s book launch. If you don’t want to read my prattle, you can go there now.

Things used to be easier in the old days. Worlds kept themselves separate. Facebook brings them all together. It’s hard.

One minute I’m reading about the topic that’s uppermost in the mind of all Israelis. Three teenagers were kidnapped by terrorists. Parents look at their children, knowing it could have been them. How can a sixteen-year-old cope with being held by people who want us all dead?

The next minute, without even scrolling or clicking, I see a joke and I try to laugh. Then there’s a beep and I have to read and comment on a totally unrelated topic. Yes, have to, because it’s part of my job of being a writer. I have to look away from my world and become part of yours for a while.

Yes, I know it’s happened to you, to. There was 9/11, 7/7 and all the rest. But when those things happened, all the worlds were feeling similarly shocked. Now, it’s just us. For everyone else it’s business as usual. Who cares about three boys?

Then there’s their world: the world of those who are euphoric over the news. I see that, too, when people post their pictures and comments, before I look away in disgust.

But I really wanted to talk about another world, one that is right here in Jerusalem. The other day, I walked into the haredi world to take pictures. But when I was there, I didn’t feel good about photographing them, even though no one took any notice of me at all.

Signs that make me feel unwelcome, Mea Shearim
Signs that make me feel unwelcome, Mea Shearim

I hurriedly snapped a few photos and escaped from another world where I don’t belong.

A street in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem
A street in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem

Esty, the heroine of Neither Here Nor There, did belong there. She grew up there. Her family and friends and everyone who knew her expected her to remain in that world for the rest of her life.

And they expected her to meet her future husband two or three times, sitting far apart from him so as not to touch him by mistake, before making a decision about whether to spend the rest of her life with him.

If you look carefully below the Old City walls that are lit for the Jerusalem Festival of Lights, you can make out the man on the left and the girl on the right
If you look carefully below the Old City walls that are lit for the Jerusalem Festival of Lights, you can make out the man on the left and the girl on the right of the bench

In my novel, I don’t make any judgements. My characters make judgements occasionally, but mostly this is a novel of discovery. The characters find out about the other world on their doorstep.

I’ve said enough for now. If you want to join in tomorrow’s festivities, which will include a competition, go to this Facebook page. You can join it now.

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100-word stories Books Bullying

100 Word Challenge – Week #136

Click on the image to join in the challenge

The task this week is to write 105 words including:

…. it was 50 years ago…

For the first time, I think, I’ve decided to write non-fiction for this challenge.

The Last Day

The last day of primary school. I remember it vividly, even though it was 50 years ago. Teachers and children actually wrote nice things in my autograph book. I strolled round the playground with one of the girls. She said, “I’m sorry we were so nasty to you.” I said, “It’s easy to say that now,” to which she replied, “But I mean it.”

If only she’d said that earlier, and followed her words with a change in her attitude, and encouraged her friends to do the same. I believe I would have been a very different person today, even though 50 years have passed.

***

Only 15 days to the launch of my book.

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Books

Crooked Cats’ Tales

The people at Crooked Cat (who are going to publish my novel, NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, in 20 days’ time) have produced an anthology of 20 short stories written by 20 Crooked Cat authors.

The wonderful thing about anthologies is the way they are so varied. Each story is written by a different author in a different genre with a different theme and set in a different place. And all of these are interesting, well-crafted stories.

I came to a decision about short stories: they need to be read in one go. Fortunately this is not hard, because each story takes only a few minutes to read. But it’s no good starting a story last thing at night when sleep will probably take over before I’ve reached the end. When I pick it up again in the morning, or later, it’s hard to remember what went before. Short stories are great for bus or train rides, as long as you’re going further than one stop.

Anyway, this anthology is free from Crooked Cat Books and Smashwords, and definitely worth a download.

 

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100-word stories Books

100 Word Challenge – Week #135

Click on the image to join in the challenge

What a beautiful picture for this week’s prompt:

Following Instructions

“Which way now?”

“It says to cross by the bridge.”

“Erm, that might be a bit hard.”

“I see what you mean. We’ll just have to take our shoes off and wade over.”

***

“Here we are, on the bridge. Pity you fell in.”

“I’m cold and wet through. My sandwiches must be soaking. And now we’re here, I see this bridge doesn’t lead anywhere.”

“That’s true. We’ll have to wade to the other side.”

“Look! Over there. Do you see what I see?”

“That long, sturdy metal bridge? Must be the one we should have taken.”

“Great. Just great.”

.

Just 22 days to my book launch…

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100-word stories Books

100 Word Challenge – Week #134

Click on the image to join in the challenge

This is what Julia said:

I am very lucky to have a garden and even luckier that a variety of birds visit each day. At the moment we have 2/3 blackbirds who are really ruling the roost so to speak. They are beautiful song birds I know, but they are having a conversation. You can tell with the intonation of the sounds and the responses from another birds.

So, your prompt this week is to write that conversation!

Cherry Ripe

“Phew! My wings are aching. All that flapping. Whose garden have you brought me to now, then?”

“It’s Julia’s place – she of the hundred word challenge.”

“What good are words to me? I need food.”

“Coming from one who doesn’t stop talking…”

“I have a lot to complain about. We were just settling into our nest and now I have to build a new one.”

“But we finished the cherries in the old place. Remember? And look at those delicious cherries over there.”

“The ones that are protected with a net?”

“Didn’t you see what I brought?”

“Scissors! Oh darling!”

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Books

My story in a podcast

While I was away, the wonderful Morgen Bailey produced a podcast that includes my story, The View From Heaven.

You can listen to it here or read it here.

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Books

2014 A to Z Challenge: Reflection

2014 Blogging from A to Z: reflection

My fourth A-Z blogging challenge. How did it go?

  • I completed the challenge.
  • I learned things about the lives of authors.
  • I introduced readers to new authors, most of them fairly new to me, as I met them through Crooked Cat Publishing, who are going to publish my novel next month.
  • I read and enjoyed posts by other A-Z bloggers.

But, as always, I was constricted by time. Other activities got in the way.

  • I didn’t write all the posts in advance.
  • I didn’t read enough posts by other bloggers.
  • I didn’t comment enough.

Then, like last year, I went away towards the end of the month. I had a wonderful time, but it wasn’t so good for my A-Z Challenge experience. Maybe next year I’ll do better. And maybe not. I have my priorities. I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to go away for the sake of blogging, important as it is.

More about Norway next time, I hope.

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Books

2014 A to Z Challenge: Z

Authors

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Wikipedia says,

Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (January 20 (Julian) / February 1 (Gregorian), 1884 – March 10, 1937) was a controversial Russian author of science fiction and political satire, who was banned and exiled for his polemic against the oppressive communist regime. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution. He is most famous for his 1921 novel We, a story set in a dystopian future police state. In 1921, We became the first work banned by the Soviet censorship board. Ultimately, Zamyatin arranged for We to be smuggled to the West for publication. The subsequent outrage this sparked within the Party and the Union of Soviet Writers led directly to Zamyatin’s successful request for exile from his homeland. Due to his use of literature to criticize Soviet society, Zamyatin has been referred to as one of the first Soviet dissidents.

Janusz Zajdel

Wikipedia says,

Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (15 August 1938 in Warsaw – 19 July 1985 in Warsaw) was a prominent Polishscience fiction author, second in popularity in Poland after Stanisław Lem. His writing career started in 1965. His novels were recognized as the best in science fiction in Poland in 1982 (Limes inferior) and in 1984 (Paradyzja). He was a Trustee of World SF. He died of cancer after three years of fighting the disease.

Zajdel’s most important works are of social and dystopian fiction. In his works, he envisions totalitarian states and collapsed societies. His heroes are desperately trying to find sense in world around them, sometimes, as in Cylinder van Troffa, they are outsiders from a different time or place, trying to adapt to a new environment. The main recurring theme in his works is a comparison of the readers’ gloomy, hopeless situations to what may happen in a space environment if we carry totalitarian ideas and habits into space worlds: Red Space Republics or Space Labour Camps, or both.

His works have been translated into Belorussian, Bulgarian, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Russian and Slovenian.

Frederik Pohl dedicated the anthology Tales From The Planet Earth to Zajdel and A. Bertram Chandler. This book also contains the English translation of one of Zajdel’s short stories, “Particularly Difficult Territory”. It is his only work to have been translated into English to date.

The Link

Both authors wrote dystopian fiction.

***

If you’ve noticed my absence recently, it’s because I’m not here or there. But I am somewhere and will hopefully return soon to write my A to Z Challenge roundup, or whatever it’s called.

Many thanks to everyone who commented, liked, RTd and shared.

Categories
Books

2014 A to Z Challenge: Y

AuthorsA. B. Yehoshua

Wikipedia says,

Avraham (“Boolie”) Yehoshua was born to a fifth-generation Jerusalem family of Sephardi origin. His father, Yaakov Yehoshua, was a scholar and author specializing in the history of Jerusalem. His mother, Malka Rosilio, immigrated from Morocco in 1932.

Yehoshua served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army from 1954 to 1957. He attended Gymnasia Rehavia. After studying literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he began teaching. He lived in Jerusalem’s Neve Sha’anan neighborhood.

From 1963 to 1967 Yehoshua lived and taught in Paris and served as the General Secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Since 1972, he has taught Comparative and Hebrew Literature at the University of Haifa, where he holds the rank of Full Professor. In 1975 he was a writer-in-residence at St. Cross College, Oxford. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard (1977) the University of Chicago (1988, 1997, 2000) and Princeton (1992).

Tamar Yellin

Tamar Yellin’s website says,

Tamar Yellin was born in the north of England. Her father was a third generation Jerusalemite and her mother the daughter of a Polish immigrant. She began writing fiction at an early age, and the creative tension between her Jewish heritage and her Yorkshire roots has informed much of her work. She received the Pusey and Ellerton Prize for Biblical Hebrew from Oxford University, and has worked as a teacher and lecturer in Judaism. Her first novel, The Genizah at the House of Shepher, appeared from The Toby Press in 2005 and was awarded the Sami Rohr Prize, the Ribalow Prize and was shortlisted for the Wingate Prize. Her collection, Kafka in Brontëland and other stories, appeared from Toby in 2006 and was awarded the Reform Judaism Prize, was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and was a finalist for the Edge Hill Prize. Her third book, Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes, appeared from Toby Press in 2008.

Tamar Yellin lives in Yorkshire.

The Link

Both authors are children of Jerusalemites, although only one lives here. (Also a link to me and my almost published novel).

Categories
Books

2014 A to Z Challenge: X

Authors

Needless to say, I didn’t have a lot of choice here.

Qiu Xiaolong

Wikipedia says,

Qiu Xiaolong (born Shanghai, China, 1953) is an English-language poet, literary translator, crime novelist, critic, and academic, currently living in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Wang Lijun and daughter Julia Qiu. He originally visited the United States in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a newspaper reported on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, and he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Communist Party of China.

He has published six crime-thriller/mystery novels set in Shanghai in the 1990s at the point when the People’s Republic of China is making momentous changes. These include Death of a Red Heroine, which won the Anthony Award for best first novel in 2001, and A Loyal Character Dancer. All books feature Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a poetry-quoting cop with integrity. But the main concern in the books is modern China itself. Each book features quotes from ancient and modern poets, Confucius, insights into Chinese cuisine, architecture, history, politics, herbology and philosophy as well as criminal procedure.

Xue Xinran

Wikipedia says,

Xuē Xīnrán (薛欣然, pen name Xinran, born in Beijing in 1958) is a British-Chinese journalist, broadcaster and writer.

The Link

They’re both expat Chinese. Xinran has moved to the UK while Xiaolong now lives in the USA.