Tag: Books

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Books

Publication Day

Today is PUBLICATION DAY for Re-Connections: Thirty-seven stories of connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting.

Here’s the description:

Why are we attracted to certain individuals and repelled by others? Why do we fall out of contact with former friends, or fall out with them altogether? Why do we crave friendship?

The answers to these questions are many and varied, and some of them reveal themselves in the stories of this collection. Not all these connections desire to lead to friendship; some are business-related. Yet, even those connections work better with friendly comments and gestures. What happens to people who struggle with such social norms? Are they destined to remain friendless?

Without realising it, Miriam Drori has been interested in this topic for many years. That’s evident in the fact that these tales were written throughout her writing career. Some of them are completely or partly autobiographical, while others are purely fictional. Which ones are which is a question she declines to answer.

Below is a repost of today’s Substack post.

To celebrate, here is the beginning of each of the stories I’ve described in previous posts. (The titles link to the posts about the stories.)

Gruesome in Golders Green

Sarah doesn’t look like a heroine. You’d probably think of her as a typical middle-aged woman. Actually, you might not think that in summer, but now it’s January and she walks quickly along Rotherwick Road, Golders Green, her head bent against the biting evening wind. She’s glad to be wearing a thick brown winter coat, a woollen scarf and gloves, and fur-lined boots. Her tights don’t protect her quite so well, but her legs are used to that.

A Sticky Interview

“I can fit you in at ten thirty tomorrow. See you then. Goodbye.”

He has ended the meeting, Zoom tells me. He’s noted the appointment and moved on to other matters. He won’t spare me one more thought before that allotted time. I, on the other hand, am still staring at that damn screen.

How to Talk to a Dog

This is no ordinary stick-in-the-mud stuck-in-a-lift story. Because just before a lift door of my thoroughly modern block imprisons me inside, in ambles a dog. At this stage, a good writer would specify a breed for the creature, but really, dogs and I don’t mix, and anyway, my mind is fully occupied elsewhere.

Train Trouble

It’s hard when you arrive in a foreign country and have to plunge into a language you haven’t spoken, or even heard, for many years. You enter it with a splash and emerge dripping, drained and sagging from the effort. This is what I felt in October 1998 when I landed at Orly Airport, near Paris. In addition to needing to cope with nasal voices and half-remembered words, I had to look after my nine-year-old son, Sammy, who spent every spare moment on his Game Boy during this trip, his first to the French capital.

You can read these and thirty-three other stories in Re-Connections, available in ebook and paperback forms from Amazon and as a paperback from various other online stores.

Categories
Israel memoir memories

A Long Tradition

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. Since 1951, this day in the Hebrew calendar (one week after the end of Passover and one week before Memorial Day and Independence Day) has been set aside to remember the Holocaust.

At ten o’clock today, I stood on the roof and turned towards Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, as the siren sounded and the country stopped for two minutes.

I didn’t want this day to pass without posting something, so I’m going to list three excellent stories that I’ve read, all books containing horrific events but also optimism. After all, Holocaust memories come from those who survived.

  • Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
  • The True Adventures of Gidon Lev by Julie Gray
  • My Family’s Survival by Aviva Gat

See you next week.

Categories
Books Editing The writing process

Why Do We Do What We Do?

I got homework to explain why I write books – in a one-minute video. How can I condense all that into one minute? Could you?

Whenever I have limited time or word count to deliver a message, I write down what I want to say and then cut it down to size. I’ve decided to use this blog post to write my thoughts in full. While you read it, think about how you would explain why you do what you do in one minute. I think it’s a great exercise for focusing your reasons, which in turn helps you to move in the right direction.

This is an interesting question. It’s not why did I begin writing. I’ve answered that question many times. I begin my answer with my late friend, Gill, who told me about social anxiety, leading to my becoming passionate about raising awareness of social anxiety and eventually finding an outlet in writing.

But this question is different. It asks why I write now, and it deserves a different answer.

Firstly, I love writing. I love combining words that make sense together, whether fiction or non-fiction. I love creating characters and exploring how they react and interact in familiar settings and in usual or unusual situations. I love the freedom writing gives me to clarify my thoughts, something I’ve never been able to do in conversation.

And I love editing, because editing lets you refine those words to read in the best way that they can. And it lets you find all the typos, point-of-view changes, repeated words and other issues in the text. I know, lots of authors don’t like editing, but I get a thrill out of spotting errors and possibilities for improvement.

I’ve met some wonderful people through writing, people who have helped, provided support, or just popped into in my life.

Just as important are the readers. Without readers, all my hard work would seem pointless. I write so that people can enjoy reading. That’s the main reason. But also, I write so that readers can empathise and sympathise, love and hate. I hope to arouse emotions in them. I also hope they learn something from the experience; we are all constantly learning, as long as we keep our minds open.

Why else do I write? I hope that, through my writing, I will become better known. I hope that more people will read or listen to me, and I’ll be able to promote better understanding of the issues I stand for.

You know what? If I were better at spontaneous verbal communication, I could probably say all of that in a minute. But I’m not, and so I’m going to concentrate on the three topics: writing, readers and raising awareness.

This particular video will appear only in a private Facebook group, but I will be producing public videos in the coming months.

Did you think about how you would transmit the why of what you do in a one-minute video? I’d love to hear about your thoughts.

Categories
Holidays Social anxiety

Giving Presents – Your Chance to be Creative

It’s that time of year (for some). The time when you have to think up presents for everyone. It’s hard.

But there’s one person who wouldn’t be a problem. You know exactly what you want to give that person. You know she’s quiet and locked inside herself. You know he’d benefit from reading

Cover
Social Anxiety Revealed

because you’ve read it yourself. You know it’s an easy-to-read, no-nonsense, comprehensive book.

However, there’s still a problem. You don’t want to embarrass that person. If he opened it in front of others, he wouldn’t thank you for giving it to him.

How can you give her the book, disguise what’s inside the package and make sure she opens it when she’s alone?

This is where your creative abilities come in. I’ve done my part. I wrote the book and I put the challenge to you!

Categories
Books

A Fun Competition

There’s a competition at the end of this post.

I listened to this week’s Last Word from BBC Radio 4. Sir Richard MacCormac, an architect who recently died (obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t be on Last Word) said, after explaining that his interest in architecture came from making things as a child:

I now feel an essential aspect of creativity is a kind of playfulness.

This is certainly true of writing. Writers enjoy playing with words. When penning my last post, I particularly liked the beginning paragraph:

These are the comments that halted me in my perusal of the Internet this morning and made me decide to pour out part of my inner world. Sorry if it makes a stain on your day.

Although I went on to some serious stuff, I had fun playing with the opening words.

My Scrabble partners, A, G and D, and my Boggle partners, D and D, will testify to my love of word games. Most writers play word games when they write, employing several techniques in the process. One of those is onomatopoeia.

Dictionary.com says this is:

1. the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk,  or boom,  by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.
2. a word so formed.
3. the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect.
In other words, I’m talking about words that sound like the things they represent.
Then I came across a list of Hebrew onomatopoeic words, which I have tried to transliterate as closely as possible:
  1. Tsartsar
  2. Bakbook
  3. Zimzoom
  4. Rishroosh
  5. Tiftoof
  6. Girgoor
  7. Gimgoom
  8. Pkak
  9. Pitzpootz

So here’s the competition. Without looking anything up (I’ll have to trust you on that), can you guess what those words mean? Write your answers in the comments and I’ll decide who wins the prize of… well, it depends who wins and whether that person has read Neither Here Nor There, but it might well be the novel itself.

Hint: They are all nouns and most of them translate to “ing” words.

Rules:

  1. The competition is open to anyone who doesn’t know Hebrew.
  2. The competition will end when I decide to end it, so don’t tarry.
Categories
Blogging Books

Decayed Decade

I’ve been very silly. I’ve left the last decade out to rot instead of putting it neatly away in the deep freeze. I’ve read what other people accomplished in the last decade and decided that I didn’t accomplish anything. But now that I think about it, I was at a very different place ten years ago.

Ten years ago, I was struggling to do things without really understanding why they were hard. Now, I still struggle but at least I understand what I’m struggling against.

Ten years ago, I was still attempting to keep my childhood out of my life, as if I could pretend that it didn’t happen. Now, I’ve come to terms with it and accept that it’ll always be there. Sometimes, it’s even useful.

Ten years ago, the people I went to school with were nasty, hurtful children. Now, they’re some of the nicest women I have met.

Ten years ago, I didn’t know Gill. Now I know her as a wonderful friend, one I will always be indebted to.

Ten years ago, I hadn’t even thought of doing any writing (apart from technical writing). Now, writing is something I enjoy immensely.

Ten years ago, my only social hobby was folk dancing. Now, I also look forward to the fortnightly meetings of my writing group.

Ten years ago, I lived in a small house in a beautiful neighbourhood. Now, I live in a large house with a beautiful garden in a less beautiful neighbourhood. You can’t have everything!

Ten years ago, I hadn’t visited India, Mexico and Guatemala. Now, I have.

Ten years ago, I didn’t have any online friends. Now, I have friends on Facebook, Twitter and more, friends with whom I can connect on a level rather than feeling like the unwanted poor relation.

Ten years ago, I didn’t have this blog. Now, I have the perfect tool for explaining all the things I couldn’t say.

As I hurry to pack up the last decade, I wonder what the new, fresh one will bring, where I will be in ten years’ time. I hope it’s a good place. And I hope all my readers will be in good places, too.

Categories
Books

Writing and speaking are two different skills

Writing and speaking are two different skills. I write. I hope you’ll agree that I write well. I speak badly.

http://writetodone.com is a great site written by a great writer (now two writers with others). It’s full of great tips by someone – Leo Babauta – who obviously has his feet on the ground and his head in the air. He knows what he’s doing and he has the imagination to carry it through.

And yet I, a less experienced writer with plenty to learn, have the cheek to disagree with him. Only about two of his sentences, though. This is the problematic section (I don’t think it’s visible on the site any more):

… a great blogwriter … is someone you want to be friends with. It’s someone interesting, someone who can tell a story and hold a great conversation and be fantastic company.

I disagree because I know better. About this one thing. I don’t claim to be a great blogwriter; I’m just starting out. But I’m sure there are some great blogwriters who suffer from similar problems to mine, making them poor conversationalists.

An exception that doesn’t disprove the rule? I’m not sure. A lot more people than you realise suffer from social anxiety.

Tune in again, keep in touch and don’t suffer in silence.