Category: Israel

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Everyday life Uncategorized

Places in Israel

We don’t travel around a lot when we’re at home. We tend to spend much of our time in our garden and leave touring for holidays. Unlike my friend, Lisa Isaacs, who travels regularly and writes fascinating blog posts about the places she goes to.

But there are a few places I’ve visited recently:

The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art

FriederikeMariaBeerByKlimtPart of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, this pavilion provided us an interesting hour or two. Due to my forthcoming novel, written together with Emma Rose Millar, I was particularly pleased to see a painting by Gustav Klimt. This portrait was commissioned by the young Viennese socialite, Friederike Maria Beer. She arrived at the modelling session wearing a hand-painted silk dress and a fur jacket. Klimt was taken with the lining of the jacket and asked her to turn it inside out.

Sarona

As a place to eat, shop and wander around, Sarona, which is in Tel-Aviv, is still quite new. But its history goes back to 1871, when the German Templers established a colony there.

MigdalDavid19The Tower of David

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Jerusalem’s Tower of David has a much longer history, which I won’t delve into here, but I plan to write about it very soon.

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Author of the Day

Sue Barnard doesn’t parade her wide knowledge, but it accompanies her to quiz programmes and to wherever she write her novels. She’s had three published, two of those influenced by Shakespeare, and there’s another on the way. I met Sue, first online and then in person, four years ago and we’ve been friends ever since.

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Update: It was while tweeting about this post that I realised I should have mentioned an event that links two of its themes: an excellent outdoor performance of Macbeth by Theater in the Rough.

Macbeth

 

Categories
Books Everyday life Social anxiety

The Women Friends

Following on from my announcement of changes to my blog, this post links all three themes of my blog: writing, social anxiety and living in Israel.

I get it when women say they need to talk problems over with women friends. There’s something about the conversations that makes them different from conversations with men. Yet, for most of my life, I didn’t have any women I was close enough to to confide in. Social anxiety caused that. It told me to keep my distance from women… from everyone… because while I needed them, they didn’t need me or want my friendship and I shouldn’t cling to them.

RambamRambamI still don’t meet other women very often, but I’m getting better at it. There’s one I often meet. We write together and talk, too. And two days ago I met up with someone I haven’t seen for many years. I even initiated the meeting and travelled all the way to Haifa for it. Well, for this country it’s a long way. The bus journey from Jerusalem to Haifa takes all of two hours.

We had a pleasant and interesting chat together. She also gave me a brief but fascinating tour of Rambam Hospital, where she works. In particular, I saw how the underground carpark can be turned into a whole hospital in times of emergency. Amazing!

TechnionChurchill1
Sir Winston Churchill at the Churchill Building, Technion

As I was in Haifa anyway, I did a bit of research for a novel I began in November and plan to return to. I wandered around The Technion Institute of Technology and found some details to add or change in the novel. It was hot and humid and the paths of the campus, up there on the Carmel mountain, are very steep, but I’m glad I went.

The title of this post also has a different significance for me and connects to the exciting news I hinted at in my last post. Along with another author – the lovely Emma Rose Millar, who appears again at the end of this post – I have been working on two novellas based on the painting The Women Friends by Klimt. The first, which will be published early in 2017 by Crooked Cat, tells the story of Selina, a country girl, desperate to escape the demons of her past and searching for solace in the glittering city of Vienna. The second novella follows Janika, who is Jewish. It begins when the first novella finishes, in 1938, a time when Vienna wasn’t a good place for a Jew to be in, to say the least.

So that’s my big exciting news. If you’re interested, you can also read about how I’m spending the summer over on Nancy Jardine’s blog. How are you spending your summer? Or winter, if you’re in the other half of the world?

AnnouncementPicWithAuthors

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Author of the Day

Today, I highlight two authors – the two who appear in the post.

Emma Rose Millar writes historical fiction. Five Guns Blazing, set in the eighteenth century and written together with Kevin Allen, follows a convict’s daughter from London to Barbados. More information is on Emma’s blog.

Nancy Jardine is a multi-talented author, who writes historical romantic adventures, intriguing contemporary mystery thrillers and YA time travel historical adventures. Her published novels are too numerous to list here, but can be found on Nancy’s blog.

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Books Israel

And here is the news

Jane Charlesworth and the novel she comes from, Rebellious Cargo, were featured in my series, Letters from Elsewhere in October.

The novel is one of three featured this week by Crooked Cat Publishing.

All three are romances – two historical and one contemporary: rebellious shenanigans in the Scottish Highlands in Cathie Dunn’s Highland Arms; romantic adventures out at sea in Susan Lodge’s Rebellious Cargo; and unexpected surprises in a dating agency in The Love Shack by Tina K Burton.

More posts about these stories will probably appear on the Crooked Cats’ Cradle.

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I’m continuing to write for the English Informer about life in Israel. My latest post is about Sundays. Do you know what we get up to on Sundays?

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My husband takes wonderful photos.

Nahal David with Dead Sea in background
At Nahal David, Ein Gedi with the Dead Sea in the background
Hidden waterfall at Nahal Arugot
Hidden waterfall at Nahal Arugot, Ein Gedi
Hyrax at Nahal David
Hyrax at Nahal David, Ein Gedi
Sunset2016
Sunset in Tel-Aviv
Categories
Books Israel

Byebye November, Hello December

NaNo-2015-Winner-CertificateYes, I’m happy to be able to say I wrote 50,000 words during November. I also met some lovely writers and enjoyed writing not only at home but also at cafés, in a large hall and on a boat!

WritingOnBoatInJaffaNovember was also a month of many stabbing attacks and other terrorist attacks, and unfortunately this latest wave isn’t over yet. Despite the news, we continued to go out and meet each other. It’s not that we’re not afraid; just a sense that life has to go on regardless.

So now December is here and I have to do all the things I postponed in November and much more. I listed just some of my to-do list in my post in The English Informer.

Don’t forget to read my Friday series: Letters From Elsewhere, in which you can get to know the fictional characters who come to visit. There might be a problem with tomorrow’s post; we shall see.

Categories
Israel

I heard a siren

Sitting at my desk this morning, trying to concentrate on the novel I’m editing, I heard a siren. Probably an ambulance, as we live close to the route to a large hospital.

Normally, I would ignore it and carry on. But these days aren’t normal. Did something happen? Sure enough, my phone indicated yet another news flash: eight people badly wounded in a shooting attack on a bus.

More ambulances drove past and I reflected. During periods like this, I become afraid of Arabs. I know that the vast majority of them wouldn’t commit these terrible crimes, but when I meet one, how can I know their intentions?

People in other countries, far away from this, criticise Israel for its treatment of Arabs, stopping them at checkposts. It’s wrong, they say, to subject so many to checks because of a few. But they don’t suggest an alternative; there isn’t one. I read about a nineteen-year-old female soldier who apprehended two would-be terrorists at the same checkpost in the last few days.

There’s an update: one dead and seventeen wounded in two attacks in Jerusalem today. And it’s only 11:00.

Peace. Is it too much to ask for?

UPDATE: three people died in the two Jerusalem attacks. (We don’t include terrorists in the count.)

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Israel

Apologies, dear readers

I know, I haven’t written much stuff on this blog lately. It’s not that I don’t have stuff to write, but I’m only one person. There’s only so much I can do.

I hope you’re enjoying my series: Letters from Elsewhere. I’m amazed how varied the posts have been so far: serious, humorous, heart-breaking. On Friday, you will hear from Leah, who would never normally write a letter to any of you, but has stepped out of my novel, Neither Here Nor There, to do just that.

I’m also on Cathie Dunn’s blog today, discussing the setting of Neither Here Nor There.

And there’s an excerpt from the novel on Claire Stibbe’s blog.

And don’t forget my posts about living in Israel in the English Informer.

I’m off to enjoy another festival: Succoth, which I wrote about four years ago.

Hag sameach – happy holidays!

Categories
Israel

The Media and Israel

I’ve seen this joke several times.

AN ISRAELI ON VACATION
An Israeli is on vacation and is visiting a zoo in England when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside his cage, right under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The Israeli runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the Israeli brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him profusely.

A reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter says to the Israeli: ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve ever seen a man do in my lifetime.’ The Israeli replies: ‘Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little girl in danger and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says: ‘Well, I’ll make sure this doesn’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page. So, what country are you from, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?’

The Israeli replies: ‘I’m from Israel. I serve in the Israeli army and I vote for the Likud.’ The journalist leaves.

The following morning, the Israeli buys the paper to see what was reported and reads, on the front page: ‘RIGHT-WING ISRAELI ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.’

And that pretty much sums up the media’s approach to Israel.

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If you want to get a more balanced view of Israel and its inhabitants, try my series of posts in the English Informer. The second one is now available here.

Categories
Books Israel

Summer News

The first bit of news is that it is cooler than it was when we arrived home. Phew!

The second is that I will write about my trip. Maybe even tomorrow.

The third is that my first in a series of articles has appeared in the English Informer in the UK and the English Informer in France.

The fourth is that my publisher, Crooked Cat, is having a book sale on Amazon, but not for long. A large collection of excellent books is up for grabs. So is mine. Mine, too. (If you’re not in the UK, search for ‘Crooked Cat Publishing’ on your Amazon.)

CrookedCatSummerSale2015

Categories
Israel Social anxiety

2015 Bloggers’ Scavenger Hunt – Take 2

As Firefox likes to say: Well, this is embarrassing!

But this really is.

At the beginning of the scavenger hunt that I described in my previous post, Tali, who runs Israel ScaVentures, held up some cards with words on them and asked us to think of associations. Words like DANGER and OPPORTUNITY.

I’m not good at these excercises. My mind tends to go blank when it’s expected to be spontaneous. Fortunately I didn’t have to say anything; the others all come up with associated words.

Then Tali held up a card with the word

WallsI didn’t suggest anything for that word, either.

All the words were connected to our activities for the rest of the morning. WALLS was no exception.

Moses Montefiore, the British philanthropist, decided to build the neighbourhood of Yemin Moshe in an attempt to alleviate the poverty and overcrowding within the old city walls. 15,000 people lived there at the time (mid-19th century).

Montefiore also used money bequeathed by the American, Judah Touro, to set up the adjacent neighbourhood of Mishkenot She’ananim. Its high walls and barred windows were designed to give people the confidence to move into it.

Attacks by Arabs during the 1930s prompted the destruction of internal walls so that fighters could move around Yemin Moshe without detection. The five iron gates were also built at that time, effectively walling in the neighbourhood.

Tali Kaplinski Tarlow of Israel ScaVentures
Tali Kaplinski Tarlow of Israel ScaVentures

But before we learned all that, when Tali held out that card with the word WALLS, I thought of an association immediately. But I didn’t say it. I was too embarrassed. What I thought of was social anxiety and the way it builds an imaginary wall around a person, keeping that person separate from the rest of society. It’s the reason for the title of this blog. It’ll come up in the interview I’m posting on Thursday.

But it didn’t come out of my mouth on Sunday.

As I might have written in a story about me, “She sighed, slowly shaking her head from side to side.”

Links

Israel ScaVentures

The Almond Bakery Café that replenished us with cakes after the hunt.

Categories
Israel

2015 Bloggers’ Scavenger Hunt – Take 1

Yesterday morning I attended my third scavenger hunt, organised by Israel ScaVentures.

Israel ScaVenturesAlthough the whole event took just two hours, I feel it needs at least two blog posts to do it justice. This one is about what we saw and learned.

ScavengerHunt2
Selfie by Yoni Cantor Wiseman

This year’s hunt took place in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Yemin Moshe. The location was very significant for me because we lived there for thirteen years. It’s one of the first neighbourhoods to have been built outside the city walls. I have blogged about Yemin Moshe several times. Here’s the list, if you’re interested:

A-Z Challenge: W is for Western, Wailing, Wall, Windmill

Root Finder

Writing Seminar and Memories

Places in NHNT

So obviously I knew all there is to know about Yemin Moshe. Wrong. I discovered plenty from the scavenger hunt. The Lion Fountain, we read from the excellent Mission Pack, was donated to Jerusalem by Germany in 1989 and each part of it symbolises something.

I heard a third reason why the windmill was hardly used, on top of the two I mentioned here: it was designed to work with British wheat and was not suitable for the hard wheat of Jerusalem.

And there was plenty more fascinating information, all absorbed in a friendly, fun atmosphere.

Other posts about the hunt can be found at:

One Tired Ema

Managing Greatness

i-Point Media Group

Handmade in Israel – the most detailed post.

If you’re in Jerusalem, Israel ScaVentures is a great, fun way of learning about this special city.

Photo by Yoni Cantor Wiseman
Photo by Yoni Cantor Wiseman