A new year is another chance to get it right, to overcome last year's problems, to do better. After surviving an auto accident, I'm ready for a better year. And having published my third novel, WHERE DO I GO, at the end of the year,I'm also ready [...]

Well, right away I have to say it may be impossible. After all a writer is supposed to be in tune with the world, sensitive to its nuances, its changes, the imperceptible whims of the world. We might not understand them but we're hip to them happening. [...]

When the book is finished, all you want to do  is talk about it, blog about it, write about it. It's been the focus of your mind for so long, now you want to share it. But how much is too much? It can't be all you [...]

Where Do I Go Since my three novels are all historical fiction, the first project is always research. I love it, I could stay with the past forever. It's there to be figured out, to be understood in a comprehensive way. The present is too [...]

Once the book is done, now the hard work begins. Promoting, marketing, publicity, press release, signings, readings. All necessary, getting it started takes lots of time and energy. The problem in today's world is, so much of it is on-line. No human contact. Emails, tweets, facebook, voice [...]

Along with the California wildfires, there's been a conflagration of sharing by women regarding their experiences of sexual harassment and assault. It seems that no female has gone unscathed in their lifetime. I added some of mine, starting as a young ten year old, who had matured [...]

A recent article I read in Writers Unblocked talked about "pantsing" which they described as writing spontaneously and hoping that a story will emerge. They made it sound crazy, as if this was the hope of some irrational writer. I guess that's me. I've never been one [...]

Janet Fitch always said when I was in her workshop, that you must write an hour a day, no matter what. If you didn't exercise the muscle it would atrophy. 2014 has tested that theory to the extreme for me. It's been so hard to even sit [...]

I haven't posted since August and here it is December, with Chanukah just past and Christmas and New Year's on the way. How could it be 2014 when I haven't gotten used to writing 2013 on checks or correspondence? To be perfectly honest the last date I [...]

I've just signed up to participate in a book festival sponsored by the Friends of the Duarte Library to sell my novels, SOWN IN TEARS and FLYING OUT OF BROOKLYN (It's October 5, 10am-4pm, Duarte is just past Pasadena, if you're in California). I've done book reading/signings [...]

This, of course, is just my opinion, and not having tried a memoir of my own, I know it's all much harder than it looks. But having read, or tried to read a few recently, I do know what I'm hoping to find in someone else's memoir. [...]

The protagonists of my two novels (FLYING OUT OF BROOKLYN and SOWN IN TEARS) have been young Jewish females, at different historical times, but both faced with problems of independence and changes in their lives. With the controversy kicked up by the book, "Lean In" by Sheryl [...]

Writers, writing teachers all have touted writing in a public place. Sometimes alone, with a partner, timed, untimed - it's all done with the idea that once you put your pen to paper (that's assuming you can still use a pen or pencil) you keep writing for [...]

Just imagine a beautiful Los Angeles afternoon, downtown in the new green space called the Grand Avenue Park, just between the Music Center and City Hall, holding the first annual Book Festival. It was a tribute to independent book publishers, sellers, authors and poets. Music, games and [...]

I've found in the two novels I've written, that my story is an on-going journey for each of my characters. Some writers I'm sure like to tie up all the details in a book, so the reader knows exactly what the ending is and where the characters [...]

Hacking, auto mishap, computer glitch - what a way to start the New Year. But with today's technology, these have become normal events to be endured and overcome. Even technology can't be relied on. I remember the first time the computer went out in the midst of [...]

I am so often years behind in my reading. For instance I just read Wallace Stegner's "Crossing to Safey," a novel about four friends, which is quiet, observant, with great depth, but little action. His descriptions are infinite and beautiful, writing the way I'd like to, with [...]

This Thanksgiving I joined friends on a week-long cruise. We all started the conversation, by saying, "I'm not really a cruise person but...." Then we all agreed to go, seven adults and two kids. I believe it's the obligation of a writer to experience different cultures, taste [...]

I'm always amazed at the people who start out in life knowing what they want to do and where they're going. Sometimes I've envied their focused passion while I was still all over the place, going from one career to another. But lately I've been reflecting on [...]

Not being a mother, it's probably dangerous to equate anything with giving birth to a child. Mothers around the world will gird up and unite in taking me down for my presumptuousness. But to a writer, a musician, a painter or any creative person, the time and [...]

With my new book, SOWN IN TEARS, now out and available, I was asked what made me interested in the setting of Russia, 1905. Before you focus on an idea for a novel, you have to be certain that you can live with that story for many [...]

As a writer and an American, free speech and access to that speech is of paramount importance. That's why it's so hard when something like the offensive video that has caused all the trouble becomes the object of defense. This is not the first time that ugly [...]

Everybody keeps talking about "who build it," "I did it alone," "many helped you along the way." Writers especially are very proprietary about how the work is their own. Well, of course we feel we did it alone, but I'm happy to say that without my mentors, [...]

If you're self publishing, one of the tasks you will have is choosing the proper book cover. I looked at dozens of them and in a lot of cases I found myself underwhelmed by what I saw. Granted, I didn't know what the books were about, but [...]

If you've ever had to proofread anything that you've written, be sure that you hand the job over to someone else. Even that isn't foolproof (no pun intended). Get two people to do the job. With my first book, I actually thought I could read and pick [...]

So like everyone does, I forwarded an email which extolled the Italian athletes for holding a minute of silence last week in memory of the 11 murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, as well as a French athlete who showed his Hebrew tatoo which translated to [...]

The world has changed since I self-published my first book, Flying Out of Brooklyn. And that was only a few years ago. Then the word Kindle was new and who expected anyone to read their books online? Certainly not me. Then self-publishing was still a bit stigmatized, [...]

You see it all the time, a car cuts you off, tailgates behind you, a pedestrian is too busy on the phone to walk across the street or even give you a moment's notice, in today's paper, someone cut down an old revered oak tree, why not [...]

I'm not sure how other writers handle it, but the second draft of my second novel is so much harder than the first one. The first, for me, concerns story, so you're lay out the skeleton of the book, deciding who lives or dies or loves or [...]

While I really miss having a workshop, an alternative which really spurs the creative juices is writing in a public place, ie a coffee shop. Once a month a writing buddy and I meet and for a couple of hours forget about 2nd drafts that have put [...]

Yesterday was both sad and hopeful. Debbie Friedman, a force for healing and peace in the Jewish music world died much too soon. Her music brought us comfort, prayer and a closeness to a divine power all set to melodies which caused your heart to cry, to [...]

It's a new year and I've decided to start the blog again. This time I won't expect anyone to follow it, it will just be my personal occasional comments on what I see. Sort of like the diary I kept when I was fourteen. I only did [...]

I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon over Susan Boyle, but I'm not interested in talking about how I teared up when I heard her sing, or whether or not she's real or a hoax perpertrated on the world of YouTube. My concern is the [...]

I'm not quite a Pisces, I'm right on the cusp of Aires, but the ocean (actually any moving body of water) is like a meditation to me. Never learned to swim well, become panicked if my feet don't touch the bottom, but put me next to the [...]

It's been an eon since I last posted and since then we've had an ecconomic meltdown, the world is obsessed with Twitter and texting, friends have lost their jobs, I'm financially down and yet this morning I am smiling and feeling good. Am I crazy? Maybe. But [...]

Who knew that as an author I'd be back auditioning myself and my book for a roomful of strangers who are looking for an easy fix for their booking problems. I was part of a two hour slog, where dozens of other writiers were also delivering their [...]

Writing is considered a solitary game, so blogging without readers shouldn't be such a catastrophe, but even when you keep a diary, you're always hoping that someone will actually take a peek once in awhile. That's why I finally decided to self-publish my novel, so that finally [...]

Last night four of us got together to form a new writing group. If you've never been in one, it sometimes feels a little intimidating, but to us old-timers, it's like coming home. To have a group or workshop or whatever you decide to call it, where [...]

No one but could ever say I had a career in the theater, even though I spent several years in New York studying with Herbert Berghof, Bill Hickey, Lee Strasberg, Allan Miller, also appearing in strange little venues, where the director would come back and say, "Tonight [...]

Next to actually having a good day of writing, what could be better than getting to talk to your readers or potential readers. So that makes last night, my first time of book reading, signing and selling at the Westwood Library a fully great experience. Even when [...]

I'm feeling very pleased with myself today but unfortunately it has nothing to do with writing. I had decided to get a new car, actually a pre-owned one. Notice how no one calls it "used" anymore, it's pre-owned. And for that privilege they charge more. However, as [...]

I actually remember the excitement when JFK was President and the horror when he was asssassinated. So I understand the feelings of young voters who think they've discovered someone new, like Sen. Obama, but I also know how extraordinary it is to have a woman candidate up [...]

According to Karen Syed, CEO of Echelon Publishing, promoting your writing could be a fulltime job, and the most important one, if you want to sell books. At the past weeekend conference of the SoCalWritersConference in San Diego, I was bombarded by information and ideas on how [...]

This has been a great week for the writer mode, not so much on the writing mode. I did two interviews, one phoner and one tv interview. I found out how much fun it was sitting and talking about myself, my book, my writing, my approach. my, [...]

Wow! After four days of intensive workshopping at UCLA, I both exhausted and jazzed. There's nothing like focusing on nothing but writing, surrounded by nothing but writers, which to jumpstart the creative processes. First of all, I was lucky, being in a small class which had such [...]

There's nothing like being in class to force the creative energy. If only I could do this everyday on my own. But having a chance to work all day at writing just makes the blood flow quickly and the brain open up to all the possibilities. I'm [...]

Every teacher and mentor has said the same thing: you have to write everyday, even if it's just a paragraph, just sit and write for an hour. Writing is a muscle you have to keep exercising or it grows slack and soft. Sounds easy enough, but so [...]

First blog ever, so this is a new experience writing a public diary of thoughts. As a newly published novelist, I wanted to share my experience of the process of getting a book out there for the world to chew up and hopefully not spit out. It [...]