Heidi Slowinski

An Interview with Author Sharon Hart-Green

Posted on July 21, 2020     2 Comments

Q: Can you sum up Come Back For Me in 20 words or less?

A gripping story of trauma, loss, and the redemptive power of love set in the aftermath of WWII.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

It seems that I have always been drawn to stories about human resilience in the face of loss. Having grown up among Holocaust survivors in my neighbourhood (including the parents of my closest childhood friend), I wanted to find a way to understand their capacity for survival after such devastating loss. I was perplexed by the fact that while some survivors were able to go on and live relatively happy lives, others were completely shattered by their experience.  What makes for human resilience? This question is at the core of my novel.

Q: What research did you do when writing this story?

Since I have a doctorate in Judaic Studies (and have taught it for over 20 years), I have been immersed in the study of Jewish history and literature for most of my adult life. That probably explains why I did not need to do a great deal of research to write this novel. Of course, I was vigilant about getting small details right, which required some fact checking, but on the whole, I wrote the book from the heart.

Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?

The biggest challenge was crafting two interconnected stories set in two different time periods and then weaving them together in a way that appears seamless. Artur Mandelkorn’s story begins in the mid-1940s, representing the experience of a first-generation survivor of the war, tormented by loss yet striving to find the strength to begin life again.  Suzy Kohn is a young woman in the late 1960s whose relatively serene life is ruptured by a different sort of loss, characteristic of the second generation of survivors who have their own burdens to bear. Their two stories are connected in ways that are slowly revealed to the reader as their tales unfold.

Q: Who was your favorite character to develop?

I most enjoyed developing the story of Artur Mandelkorn, whose narrative begins when he is only 14 years of age. Arthur’s tale is very much a coming of age story forged in fire.  It spans 25 years of his life—from surviving the war and embarking on a search for his missing sister, all the while dealing with his own feelings of guilt and abandonment. Despite his personal suffering, he also finds a way to love again and takes his first steps toward discovering how to rebuild his life without forgetting all those who perished.

Q: What kind of feedback are you getting from readers?

Most readers tell me that they find the book extremely hopeful, despite the fact that it centers on one of the darkest times in human history. This may be because the novel is not focused on the Holocaust itself, but on the period following the war. It is about the lingering effects of the war on two generations of survivors and their eventual path toward healing.

Q: What inspires you to write?

 Writing for me is generally not about waiting for inspirational moments. If I can discipline myself to sit down and write each day and allow the words to flow, then the inspiration will sometimes emerge (often when I am least expecting it). It will show up in a word, a phrase, or an idea that seem to come out of nowhere. Those moments may be rare, but when they happen, they feel magical!

Q: What message do you want readers to take away from Come Back to Me?

 I would like readers to view this as a human story about “coming back”. It is about starting again after devastating loss, about life regenerating after all hope seems lost.

Q: What is on your current reading list?

 I am currently reading the novel Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott and a biography of Leonard Cohen called I’m Your Man by Sylvie Simmons.

Q: What is your next writing project?

 I am presently working on a new novel about a young man with mystical inclinations in search of love.

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

https://www.sharonhartgreen.com

Q: Any closing remarks?

I love to receive feedback from readers. I encourage readers to contact me through my social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and LinkedIn.

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An Interview with Author Lev Raphael

Posted on July 21, 2020     2 Comments

Q: Can you sum up Dancing on Tisha B’Av in 20 words or less?

The stories deal with the legacy of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and homophobia in an uplifting and open-hearted way.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

It was my first solo book and collected stories I published from 1978 well into the 1980s.  The follow-up, Secret Anniversaries of the Heart takes my work into the 2000s.  Both books are fueled by a desire to build bridges between Jews and non-Jews, gays and straights.  My overall concern is tikkun olam, a concept in Jewish mysticism that means repairing the world.

Q: What research did you do when writing this collection of stories?

Because it’s fiction, the research I did was what I always do as a writer: I read lots of different authors for inspiration, some of them short story writers, some of them novelists.  I’ve been heavily influenced over the years by Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Anita Brookner, Andrew Holleran, Phillip Roth, D.H. Lawrence and dozens more.  My college writing mentor’s best advice was “Read everything!”  I’m always eager to find someone new, or read a book by an author I know but somehow never got around to, and the collision of different voices gets me writing or thinking about writing.

Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?

I had an amazing editor, Michael Denneny at St. Martin’s Press, and he and I went back and forth over seven months sharpening, revising, laying out the best order.  It was a great, intense experience, and sometimes exhausting.  The stories had already appeared in magazines, and some had even been anthologized, so the stories were getting whole new lives.  Some needed numerous new drafts.  Putting them side-by-side, they read differently and revisions took time to work out.

Q: This is the 30^th anniversary of the release of this book and the themes are still very relevant in today’s society. In what ways do you see readers’ understanding of these topics evolving since its original release?

Life has changed incredibly since then.  There’s marriage equality, for example, as the law of the land in the U.S. and many major countries around the world. 

I’m considered a pioneer in writing about the Second Generation, a reason why Michigan State University bought my literary papers and has a Lev Raphael Collection.  One main thread of the book is the experience of those children of Holocaust survivors, and those children now have children of their own, so questions of Jewish identity in terms of the Holocaust have taken on a new meaning for the Third Generation. 

Q: What feedback do you get from readers?

With Dancing, I got tons of fan mail from readers of all kinds who felt the book spoke to them directly or educated them.  The collection also helped launch my public career as a reader and performer of my own work, garnering me invitations to speak at colleges and universities, synagogues and churches, and Jewish Community Centers.  One fan in Vienna started a gay Jewish group because the book touched him so deeply.  Others told me they read their copies so often they needed new ones.  Those kinds of responses blew my mind. 

Q: What inspires you to write?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since elementary school and that’s when I wrote my first stories.  I was in love with story-telling and it didn’t matter to me what the genre was.  I read science fiction at a very early age, but also historical fiction and biographies.  Current events can spur a particular book, like my suspense novel Assault With a Deadly Lie which is about police abusing their power over ordinary people. Ideas are everywhere.

Q: Tell me more about the title. What meaning does it have for you?

There’s a Jewish legend that when the Messiah comes, Tisha B’Av, the day in the Jewish calendar that memorializes the destruction of the Temple, will be a day of rejoicing, not mourning.  The title also refers to an act of defiance one of the characters makes.

Q: What is on your current reading list?

Twilight of Empire about the Hapsburg crown prince who committed suicide; White Lioness because I love Wallander mysteries; 1984 which I’m reading for the third time; Dog is Love about how and why dogs relate to people emotionally; Dark Invasion which explores Germans spying on the U.S. in 1915; and Red Sphinx, a sequel to The Three Musketeers which was my favorite book as a kid.

Q: What is your next writing project?

A mainstream novel about how a professor at a small Midwestern liberal arts college is ineluctably drawn  into campus political and cultural conflicts.  The chaos opens her up to her own difficult childhood and forces her to make serious choices about her future. It’s 200 pages along and will be my 28th book when it’s done.

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

My author home is http://www.levraphael.com.  I’ve also moved from teaching creative writing, editing, and mentoring writers at Michigan State University to doing it online for writers at all levels: http://www.writewithoutborders.com.

Q: Any closing remarks?

I’m living my dream, have had success I never imagined, like being sent on foreign book tours, and seeing one book sell close to 300,000 copies.

For people who want to write, my advice is read, read, read.  When you find a writer you admire, read everything she’s written–not to copy her, but to understand how she achieves the effects that fascinate you. 

Writers also need to be very patient, because overnight success is pretty rare, so you have to be committed to working on your craft and focus on long-term goals. 

Lastly, build a life that isn’t entirely centered on writing, or the ebb and flow of your career can make you a little crazy.  Have friends who aren’t in the business, have a hobby or hobbies, try for balance in as many ways as you can–and definitely do something physical to get out of your head: swim, do yoga, go running with your dog.

I’ve taken voice lessons just for fun and study Swedish every day for the same reason: they have nothing to do with publishing.

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An Interview with Author Julie Zuckerman

Posted on July 14, 2020     Leave a Comment

Q: Can you sum up The Book of Jeremiah in 20 words or less?

 Jumping backwards and forwards in time, the book explores the pivotal experiences in the life of awkward but endearing Jeremiah Gerstler.

Q: What inspired you to write The Book of Jeremiah?

I was in a writing class and my teacher gave us an optional prompt (he wasn’t a big believer in prompts): “Write a story about someone who is definitely not you, who does something – a hobby or a profession – you don’t know much about, but you’d like to learn more.” I wrote about an 82-year old Jewish man who takes up baking, one of his wife’s hobbies, to satisfy his sweet tooth. Definitely not me (though I am Jewish, and I do have a sweet tooth). After completing that first story, “MixMaster,” I decided I had to know more about my character, Jeremiah. I wanted to understand how he became the person he was at 82, cantankerous and crusty on the outside but also endearing.

I’d recently read Olive Kitteridge and I loved how each story revealed another layer or two of Olive, even those in which she is only mentioned in a line or two. So Olive Kitteridge was very much in my mind as I set out to unravel Jeremiah’s life. I wanted each story to stand on its own, but also together to be more the sum of their parts.

Q: What research did you do when writing this story?

Throughout the stories, Jeremiah and his family members grapple with the events of their times. He serves in the U.S. Army in World War II; his wife attends the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963; his favorite student is killed in Vietnam shortly after graduating. For the seven (out of 13) stories that take place either before I was born or prior to having any memory of my own, I did a tremendous amount of research, reading up on many of the large and small details in my stories. As the daughter of a former American history teacher, I loved this aspect of the writing, and I encountered many events about which I’d previously known nothing. This is my idea of fun!

For example, my research took me to long explanations of what soldiers in the Signal Corps would have been doing just after D-Day in the European theater, what kinds of equipment they would have been using, and whether Parisians would have had access to regular coffee by July 1945 or if they’d still be drinking a chicory substitute. In another story, I dove into research about Operation Linebacker II, dubbed the Christmas bombings of December 1972, Nixon and Kissinger’s attempt to hasten the end of the Vietnam War. I read academic articles, transcripts of press conferences and reports of protests. In the story, Jeremiah attends a press briefing. What kinds of questions would the reporters have asked on the third day of the bombing campaign? With the transcripts, it wasn’t hard to imagine. For a different story, I found myself researching the box scores of Game Four of the World Series in 1932. Just last week, a reader told me he went and looked up the box scores and the date of that game to see if I’d just made it up or if I’d gotten the details correct!

Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?

Figuring out the structure was difficult. I had at least six different orders that I considered, and at times I made flash cards with themes, characters, dates, etc. trying to find the right balance. What finally cracked it for me was getting the advice to think of the book in thirds. Ultimately, I had to balance each third with stories that take place with the younger, the middle-aged, and the older Jeremiah, as well as with the five stories told from the points of view of other characters (his mother, his brother, his daughter, his son and his wife).

Q: Who was your favorite character to develop?

 Jeremiah, hands down! To quote a recent reviewer, the book “seeks to elevate the lives of everyday people. Jeremiah is not the sort that one would expect to be at the center of a literary work, and that’s part of the book’s charm.” Jeremiah can be quirky, unpredictable, infuriating, and lovable – sometimes all at once. Of the 13 stories in the book, five are told from different family members’ points of view, but my favorites are the ones from Jeremiah’s POV.

Q: You’ve also written a number of short stories and flash fiction. Do you have a favorite you could tell me about?

I’ve just had a flash fiction piece published in CRAFT called Bender’s Sister Speaks. It is a slipstream/absurdist story that envisions an alternate reality for one of my favorite characters from the ‘80s, John Bender, the bad boy character in The Breakfast Club. As someone who was obsessed with the movie, and still knows many of the lines by heart, that was a very fun one for me to write. On a more serious note, I’m also quite fond of the first and only essay I’ve ever had published, entitled Subsoil of Memory, about a visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

 

Q: What inspires you to write?

I love trying to put the creative side of my brain to work, lying in bed dreaming up characters and figuring out their stories. I do especially well with prompts, as they give me permission to unlock my imagination. I try to spend some time every day outdoors – biking, running, or gardening, so many of my stories try to incorporate things like nature, birds, wildflowers, plants, etc.

Q: What message do you want readers to take away from The Book of Jeremiah?

What’s been most gratifying for me as a writer is to hear from readers who say they can see themselves or their family members in my characters. In one word: relatable. There’s often so much strife and tension within families. What I’ve tried to do with Jeremiah is to show that perhaps we should try to be more forgiving, even with – or especially with – difficult family members. Though Jeremiah and his family may behave badly at times, there’s an undercurrent of acceptance and forgiveness between them. In short, love wins.

Q: What is on your current reading list?

Right now I’m reading three books: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

On my nightstand: My Wild Garden by Meir Shalev, Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker, The Library Book by Susan Orlean, The Submission by Amy Waldman, Pain by Zeruya Shalev

Ordered but haven’t arrived yet: Other People’s Pets by R.L. Maizes, All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad, A Small Thing to Want by Shuly Cawood, Crosscurrents and Other Stories by Gerry Wilson, The House of Ancients by Clifford Garstang, The Color of Love by Marra Gad, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, Writers & Lovers by Lily King and The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Looks like I’m going to be busy!

Q: What is your next writing project?

I’m in the middle of two new stories – one is a new Jeremiah story! – and another one that takes place here in Israel. I also have a complete draft of a novel about a mixed Jewish-Arab women’s biking group. I took a break from the novel revisions before The Book of Jeremiah came out, but that was a year and a half ago already. I really need to get back to it!

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

https://www.juliezuckerman.com

Julie can also be found on Instagram.

Q: Any closing remarks?

Thank you for having me! Reminder to anyone reading this: reviews are super important, especially for small press books! Whenever you’ve read a book you’ve enjoyed, please write a few sentences to review the book! It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate – the algorithms care about quantity of reviews, not quality – so a few lines can go a long way.

This page contains affiliate links. This means for any purchase made, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Read My Review of The Book of Jeremiah

An Interview with Author Holly Sortland

Posted on July 14, 2020     Leave a Comment

Q: Can you sum up Uri Full of Light in 20 words or less?

Uri Full of Light is a story about a conversion, redemption and forgiveness in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy during Israel’s second Intifada. 

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

So many things! The main character, Hannah, is somewhat semi-autobiographical.  Like Hannah, I grew up with a terminally ill father, and, like Hannah, I was in an emotionally/border line physically abusive relationship when I was 18, and on the verge of making some very poor decisions. I can’t pinpoint one thing that inspired me to write the book; it some ways the book wrote me. 2019 was an extremely difficult year for me. I was serving as a pastor in the United Methodist Church, and our congregation experienced a lot of deaths. I  was also hospitalized for a mini-stroke, which led to the diagnosis of late stage Lyme Disease. I also experienced the death of my first love in high school, Patrick, who died from injuries related to a sky diving accident. Patrick brought me out of the abusive relationship that I mentioned earlier, and helped to birth the character Uri. As I was finishing the book, Patrick’s sister informed me that their maternal grandmother is Jewish. Strangely enough, when I was dating Patrick, I found myself drawn to Judaism and starting to research it, and even thought about conversion. I had know I idea that I was dating a Jewish boy at the same time!

 I also spent two weeks in Israel in the fall of 2019, which was life changing, and cemented my decision to leave the church and convert to Judaism. I spent lots of time in Tel-Aviv and Joppa, so when I wrote the scenes that took place there in my book, they were very fresh in my mind. 

Q: What research did you do when writing this story?

Oh my goodness, where do I begin?  In my story, the Geller family practices modern Orthodox Judaism. The term “Modern Orthodox” required a lot of research in and of itself. I spoke with Jewish friends and a rabbi who serves in a Conservative shul, though he grew up Orthodox. We had a lot of discussion of what it meant to be “Modern Orthodox,” and in the end, we found that everyone seemed to have their own interpretation. One of my editors is an Orthodox Jewish woman, and we spent hours over zoom shaping the characters and the story. Did the Geller family speak Yiddish or Hebrew? Was it feasible to imagine that an Orthodox family would leave their Jewish community for a year because of work purposes, and if so–could they worship at a Reform shul? These were just a few of the questions that I grappled with, and I couldn’t have done with without the help of my editor, Shoshanna, and Rabbi Stuart Federow. I also had to ensure that my Hebrew was correct. Again, my editor and Rabbi Stuart were immensley helpful with that. 

I also had to research a lot about life in the IDF. I read up about secretive units that were created as the suicide bombings began to increase in the late 1990’s early 2000’s and weren’t acknowledged by the IDF until the second intifada ended. It also helped that my Israeli tour guide served in the IDF, and he shared a lot about his experiences as a soldier. As I noted in my book’s acknowledgements, an event that takes place later in the book is loosely based off of a story that my Israeli tour guide shared. I was pleased with how well I was able to weave it into Uri’s story. Finally, I also had to research a little Arabic, and my Palestinian tour guide was very helpful with that. I am incredibly grateful to have made such great connections during my trip to Israel. 

Q: What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?

Probably plot development. I am not an organized persion (ask my husband or children about my housekeeping skills), so I am not one to plot out the book/storyline before I start to write. As I said earlier, in a lot of ways, the story ended up writing me. I truly believe that HaShem planted this story in my mind and the characters and plot just came to be. But there were defintely times when I wondered if I was taking the book in the right direction. After I made a major decision regarding one of the main character’s, I read that portion of the story to my 11 year old daughter. She started to cry! I knew that it could have that sort of impact, I was taking the story in the right direction. 

Q: Who was your favorite character to develop?

Oh, definitely Hannah! As I said, she is somewhat semi-autobiographical, but there are many things I added to Hannah’s story that were very different from my own. Hannah is a fiery, strong-willed character, yet she still found herself in an abusive relationship. I think that holds true for so many women. It amazes and saddens me the amount of strong, confident women I know who have endured some form of partner abuse (including myself). And even though she doesn’t get a lot of attention in the book, I enjoyed creating the character of Uri’s mother, Devorah. My Jewish editor and I had to invent a background story for her. We had to decide–was she a woman who would wear a tichel or a wig, or a headcovering at all? In the end, Devorah ends up having grown up in Israel and comes from a very Orthodox family. There is a lot more to be told about Devorah. 

Q: What kind of feedback are you getting from readers?

Well, without giving away spoilers, the first thing people tell me is how much they cried. There is tragedy in this story, but it’s realistic to the horrors that so many families faced during the second intifada. I also have had women tell me how much they see themselves in Hannah, especially before she undergoes her conversion, when she was harboring guilt and carrying scars from her abusive relationship. I think a lot of women can see a bit of their younger selves in Hannah. 

Q: What inspires you to write?

I have always wanted to write a novel, but never imagined myself during it. I found that the writing part was easy; editing it was a grueling, never-ending process. In this case, writing the story of Hannah and Uri was incredibly therapeutic. It helped me deal with my the grief I harbored from my father’s death over twenty years ago, as well as the grief I experienced when Patrick passed away. I also think that writing is way to permanently leave our mark in the universe. I hope that forty or fifty years from now, when I’m dead and gone, people will still be reading the story about Hannah and Uri.

Q: What message do you want readers to take away from Uri Full of Light?

As I was writing the story, breath and light seemed to be two elements that popped up again and again. Breath and light are part of creation, and ultimately, transformation. In the book you see a transformation of virtually all of the characters, including minor characters who, on the surface, harbor ill will. But in the end, you find that they too are capable of changing for the better. I hope that readers feel renewed when they finish the story, and also, though it sounds trite, hopeful. In the time that we’re living in now–a global pandemic filled with civil unrest–we need to read stories about people changing for the better. We can’t change the world if don’t change ourselves. 

Q: What is on your current reading list?

Lots of Jewish literature! Right now, I am reading Boston Girl by Anita Diamant. I’ve loved her since I read The Red Tent almost twenty years ago. I also have her book Living a Jewish Life on my Kindle, along with some titles about the IDF and secretive Masad operations. I am facsinated with real-life spy thrillers. As I am embarking on my conversation, I’m also reading To Pray as a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin,The Book of Jewish Values: A Day by Day Guide to Ethical Living by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and some other books about the long and ugly history of anti-Semitism. 

Q: What is your next writing project?

My friend and mentor Rabbi Federow wants me to write an autobiography about my faith journey into Judaism, so I am considering that. My next fiction project will be a prequel to Uri Full of Light, focusing on Avi and Devorah Geller. There is a reason they left Bala Cynwyd temporarily for South Dakota, and I’m excited to delve into that back story. 

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

My author Facebook page is best: www.facebook.com/HollySortland

Q: Any closing remarks?

Nope, I think I said it all! 

This page contains affiliate links. This means for any purchase made, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Read My Review of Uri Full of Light

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An Interview with Eunice Blecker

Posted on July 7, 2020     Leave a Comment

Q: Can you sum up Shavlan in 20 words or less?

Shavlan is a historical novel about the author’s maternal grandmother during the fall of Tsarist Russia and its aftermath.

Q: What inspired you to write Shavlan?

When I was a child, I asked my grandmother many questions about her ancestral town, Shavlan and heard many stories about her life there in the late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds. I was fascinated by the stories she told about her shtetl, Shavlan. Learning about what she and her family had to endure, along with others of that era, while living through World War I, her expulsion and exile to the Ukraine, the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, pogroms and Lithuanian Independence made me realize what a strong woman she was, having been a witness and participant in these historical events. I was determined that one day I would tell her story so that it would not be forgotten.

Q: What research did you do when writing this story?

Using a timeline from 1871 to 1924, when writing my grandmother’s story, I mainly relied on the Internet to research and identify sources about the history and historical events which occurred in telling her story

Q: I understand you visited the town of Shavlan and later published an article, “To Walk Their Walk”. Can you tell me more about the experience?

I felt as though I had gone back in time once we stepped foot in Shavlan in May 1996. The town was very small surrounded by farms. Along the roadside stood a black and white cow mooing, and in the background I heard roosters crowing. Two children were playing in the pasture. When I asked why they were not in school, they shouted, “Because we do not feel like going today.”

I saw a farmer still using a horse-drawn plow to turn up the earth just before planting his seeds. How antiquated was that, I thought. When I asked directions, he gave me a smile, and I noticed half his teeth were missing.

I learned that when the Soviets left, the land was returned to the families who owned it before, but the children of the landowners didn’t know how to farm, so the land was uncultivated.  The young owners were just hanging on to the property in hopes that someone would come along and buy the land and make them wealthy.

Up the road stood the old marketplace where my grandmother once ran a stall every Thursday morning. Except for an older man selling baby chicks from out of the trunk of his car, the marketplace was deserted.  And directly across from the marketplace was a one level store with one bookcase containing a few canned goods.  Where did these people get their food I wondered?

I met a ninety-year old woman wearing a dreary, brown babushka tied round her head who lived in a small, dilapidated wooden house. It looked as thought she had stepped out of the nineteenth century. After introducing myself, I remembered not to say anything about my grandmother owning property there because the occupiers of these old houses would fear I was there to take their homes away from them.

I asked if she remembered the Jews who lived there many years ago and did she remember my grandmother who owned a bakery between 1920 and 1923. She seemed to recall my grandmother’s bakery.  Then, she began to cry as she related the stories about when the Germans came into town and took away all the Jews. It seemed obvious she was upset going back in time to those horrible days during the war and her tears appeared to be sincere.

I asked to come into her house. I was very curious to see how the place looked, as I realized it was at least one hundred years old. I was shocked at what I saw. There was no heat, electricity, running water, or toilet facilities. The inside consisted of a kitchen with a wood burning stove and two bedrooms. She told me that there was no one to plant the crops or cut the firewood. This woman appeared to be totally alone except for the neighbors who, from time to time, helped her out.

The next stop was the old Jewish cemetery. What a disaster! There was so much underbrush that it was almost impossible to walk the area. Many headstones were toppled while others were unreadable. After the Jews were taken away in 1941, the Lithuanian villagers invaded the cemetery and dug up many bodies looking for gold and jewelry buried with the dead. Sadly, I knew I would not find any identifiable ancestral headstones there that day.

After an hour of walking around, I said a prayer over the remaining souls thinking to myself, somewhere in this vast cemetery lay at least two or three of my ancestors crying out to me, “Here we are. Here we are.”

Some day I may return to Shavlan. But there was one thing for certain, I did walk in my ancestors’ shoes that day. Yes, I did “walk their walk.”

Q: What was the most difficult part about writing this book?

It was difficult imagining myself in my grandmother’s place, as she lived through the joys, sorrows and tragedies in her life.

Q: The cover art for this book is hauntingly beautiful. Can you tell me about the process of creating the cover?

Inspiration for the book cover started with a conversation I had with my daughter   Cynde, the designer of the cover. We discussed my novel and viewed some bestselling titles in the book’s genre. I described an image I had in mind of a woman with her children walking along a railroad track. She agreed that this type of design cover would convey a very important scene of the novel and would help connect with the audiences of potential readers. I was blown away by what she produced. It was exactly as I had imagined it to be. As one of my reviewers stated, “I was enchanted by the cover. It is nostalgic and sad, but at the same time hopeful.”

Q: What was your biggest take away from writing Shavlan?

Writing Shavlan left me with a feeling of joy that I had finally memorialized my grandmother’s life story not only for my family and my readers but also for future generations. 

Q: What message do you want readers to grasp from this story?

I would want my readers to learn about the difficult lives the Jews led in the Pale of Settlement under Tsarist rule and how an uneducated, naïve young girl from a small shtetl in Tsarist Russia can rise above her surroundings and through her life experiences become an independent woman able to stand on her own two feet and make decisions on her own.

Q: What is on your current reading list?

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning

Q: What is your next writing project?

I’m doing preliminary research on a novel about a woman I met on my trip to Lithuania who was deported to Siberia when the Russians invaded Lithuania in 1940.

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

https://shavlan.com

Q: Any closing remarks?

I had gathered a good deal of information about my grandmother’s life. However, when I began putting to paper the adventures she had, I found that there were still unanswered questions and gaps in her life story. It was then when I decided to tell her story as a biographical novel instead of a biography. My novel commingles fact and fiction following the timeline of my grandmother’s life. By doing this, I was able to get inside her head, to stand where she once stood and see the world as she saw it. And the pathway to get inside her head was through my imagination.

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An Interview with Author Sherry V. Ostroff

Posted on July 7, 2020     Leave a Comment

Q: Can you sum up Caledonia in 20 words or less?

Caledonia is the tale of two strong women separated by three centuries but bound by mysterious circumstances.

Q: What inspired you to write Caledonia? Do you have any special connection to Scotland?

I love history, and after reading the Outlander series (twice) I was intrigued by the history of Scotland. Then, I read two books: The History of Scotland by Neil Oliver and How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman. In each, I found a little-known historical event called The Darien Scheme – Scotland’s attempt to create a colony in present-day Panama in 1698. Its failure would change world history. Having never heard of this before, I asked history teachers, history buffs, and Scots, and it was a mystery to most. For an author of historical fiction, this was a perfect storm; an exciting true event that no one knew about.

I have no genetic or family connection to Scotland, but I have visited the country five times in the last five years. I have immersed myself in the culture, the food, the traditions, the history, and the landscape – all things Scotland. I will not be returning this year which is sad. Scotland feels like home.

Q: Tell me a little about the research that went into Caledonia.

My goal in writing historical fiction is maintaining the integrity of the past. I have a master’s degree in history which included training in research. Luckily, I love digging for information because there are always treasures to find. Almost every page of Caledonia has involved some form of research and it pleases me when a reader recognizes the effort.

 Here are several examples.

1. When the story shifts to Anna, one of two main characters, I must be careful how she speaks. I can’t include modern vocabulary in her 17^th century dialogue. Therefore, I am constantly checking the etymology of her words. Often, that comes with a surprise. Many times, words that I guessed were modern, turned out to centuries old.
2. Travel to the locations mentioned in Caledonia is part of my research. I have visited almost every place mentioned in the book, and some places were chosen to help better my understanding of 17^th century life. For example, I traveled to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, England to learn about 17^th century ships. One place I didn’t visit was Darien National Park in Panama, the site of the 17^th century Scottish colony. I have good reason for skipping the Park. It is a vast mountainous jungle and is one of the most dangerous places in the world. It is not safe for tourists.
3. A fun part of research is eating the food mentioned in the story. Except for the sausage-making scene, as describe by Anna, I have tried it all, Passion fruit has become a favorite.

Q: Which character was your favorite to write?

Of course, I love Hanna and Anna, but I feel slightly closer to Hanna only because I have known her longer. The first chapter I ever wrote, (Chapter 4) is Hanna’s introduction. Except for the loss of her father, I poured into Hanna all the experiences I wished I had had: a degree in archaeology, attending an ivy league school, and living in Scotland. But, if I were to pick another character, Cook Innes is a favorite. Many times, I chuckled through his dialogue and his ability to wiggle his way out of trouble. He’s the kind of character you would want on your side.

What readers may not realize is that characters talk to authors, and if a book is going to be successful, the author must listen to what they have to say. I love hearing from Anna and Hanna and I’m grateful for their successful steerage throughout my writing.

Q: Which character was the most difficult to develop?

I know this sounds unbelievable, but I had no trouble with any characters. I am a pantser when it comes to developing the story and characters. Pantser, as in ‘flying by the seat of your pants,’ means nothing is planned. I let my characters guide me and if I need help, I go for a walk so they can talk to me privately. My characters have always come through. This ‘collaboration’ has continued through the sequel to Caledonia.

Q: Did you find it challenging to write a story that is so personal to your family when writing The Lucky One?

Yes, I did. After my mother handed me the story, it took another 28 years until I finally sat down and wrote. That was partly due to my still working full-time and having a young child at home. Then, I wasn’t sure how to organize the story. Or what genre.

Q: The Lucky One is written in your mother’s voice with only a few notes or corrections. Why did you choose to present her story in that way?

Historians always prize a primary source. My mother was that source, and I did not want to change her words. Therefore, writing The Lucky One as a novel did not appeal to me. But I wondered about my contribution. And then I realized that the reader may want to know the historical and cultural background to what my mother was experiencing. My contribution gave context to her story. 

Q: Was there anything you learned or took away from the experience of working on The Lucky One?

The Lucky One was my first book. I learned early-on the following. First, you should not write alone. An author needs others (not friends or family) to read their work and offer suggestions. Second, an author needs a tough skin. When your writing is critiqued properly, there will be criticism and some rejection. View this as a learning curve. Third, I learned how to listen to my characters. In The Lucky One, it was my mother. Although she had died well before I started writing, I found she was advising me, nonetheless.

Q: What is on your current reading list?

I just finished The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Currently on my to-read list is The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsen and When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna. I’m always interested in reading anything about Scotland, the Inquisition, or Colonial America. In other words, I write historical fiction because I love reading it.

Q: What is your next writing project?

I am writing the sequel to Caledonia, entitled, On the Edge of a Precipice. It is the continuation of the Anna’s and Hanna’s story. It will come out in 2021. Writing a sequel is a new learning experience. I want On the Edge to stand alone, so I must be sure that the reader has all the necessary information from Caledonia. It has been a joy to write my characters’ story, and it will be sad when I am finished. Readers have asked me if there will be a third book to the Caledonia saga, but the second will finish the tale. I want to end while the story is still fresh and vibrant. I don’t want to force more just for the sake of putting words on a page.

I am currently considering a new topic for a new historical novel once I finish On the Edge of a Precipice.

Q: Can you provide your web address for the audience?

https://sherryvostroff.com

Q: Any closing remarks?

One of the joys of reading is meeting potential readers. Since 2016, I have given many book talks and I’ve met with book groups. I have two different programs, one for each book, and I am developing a third for the sequel. Two of these talks are about the art of writing. Readers seem most interested in learning how an author does their craft. If anyone is interested in my program, they can contact me at svostroff528@gmail.com. Caledonia and The Lucky One are available in paperback, ebook and free for Kindle Unlimited members.

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