Friday Find: How to Write Great Fiction

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I’ll be doing some traveling today (I’m lucky–it’s an easy trip, and I’m a mere passenger, not a driver/pilot/conductor). I do hope that at some point, I’ll be able to plug in my headphones and enjoy this terrific “Big Think” series of author commentaries on the theme of writing fiction. Here are just a few of the particpants’ names to pique your interest: Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Anne Lamott. (Hat tip, for the second time this week, to Mark Athitakis for the find.)

I know that many of you will be celebrating Christmas this weekend, and I want to wish you all a wonderful, meaningful, and very merry holiday.

And I’ll look forward to seeing everyone back here on Monday.



Thursday’s Pre-Publication Post: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?

by Erika Dreifus on
2

So, this past Sunday (December 19) marked the one-month point in the countdown to the publication of my short-story collection, Quiet Americans, which will be released January 19 by Last Light Studio.

If you’ve been following along, you’re pretty up-to-date on the road we’ve been traveling to this point. Most recently, on Sunday, our first two giveaways came to a close. Three lucky readers won free early copies of Quiet Americans via Goodreads, and another two received copies simply by virtue of having been kind enough to sign on to our Facebook page.

In the coming weeks/next couple of months, you can expect to see new giveaway opportunities announced. Join our Facebook page for updates, and check back here for news about anything that will be offered via Goodreads.

There’s lots more to do in the next few weeks before the book is officially “born.” Here are a few things on my to-do list:

  • The pub date is January 19, but the book should be available on Amazon.com before then, and I’ll be checking (as I’m sure my publisher will be!). We’ll keep you posted!
  • Also coming soon: As promised, by early January, you’ll be able to order (signed) copies of Quiet Americans right from this website. My exceedingly talented web designer is working on this right now. (Special thanks to the marvelous Midge Raymond for her sage counsel and example here.)
  • Remember that Winter Blog Tour I told you about a couple of weeks ago? Well, details—including a list of tour stops—will be posted here on the website by December’s end. I promise.
  • Speaking of the Winter Blog Tour, I’ve just finished responding to the first set of interview questions I’ve received from one of our wonderful hosts. Over the next few weeks, I’m expecting to answer more such questions—and get to work preparing all of those guest posts that bloggers have been kind enough to say they’ll welcome.
  • I’m also going to be shipping books to Washington ahead of my early February trip there. (Working with a new micropress, this sort of thing falls to me, but I’m not complaining! At all!)

    • Think that’s enough for the moment?

    Words of the Week: Gary Rosenblatt

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    It is demeaning, 65 years after the fall of Nazi Germany, to acknowledge that Joseph Goebbels’s Big Lie theory — that if you repeat a falsehood aggressively, and often enough, people will believe it — still holds true.

    But when I look at the persistent, illogical and hateful charges against Israel in the Arab world and the international community, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

    Read more at The Jewish Week.

    The Wednesday Web Browser

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • This week, I’m reading Andrew Furman’s new memoir, My Los Angeles in Black and (Almost) White. It’s a very absorbing read—and I’d say that even if Andy weren’t a friend! Over on her Reading for Writers blog, A. P. Bucak, who has already finished the book, seems to feel the same way.
  • Stacy Schiff shares advice for aspiring biographers.
  • You still have three days to buy Christmas presents, and Writer Abroad has some gift suggestions for the international writers on your lists.
  • My latest book review tackles some questions about how anthologies are compiled.
  • The ever-reliable After Deadline blog presents a new batch of “notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style.”

    • New Glimpses into Jewish-American History

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    I’m hoping that sometime in the next few weeks–perhaps during one of the three-day weekends coming up for Christmas/New Year’s–I’ll have some time to dig into what looks like an outstanding online resource. “Jews and the Americas” is an online exhibition curated by Dennis Landis, Curator of European Books at Brown University’s John Carter Brown Library.

    On a somewhat related note, I’m proud to share a video of a panel presentation on “Jewish Immigration to New York.” The panel was held in conjunction with the launch of a Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College of The City University of New York. My dad, a Baruch alumnus, participated on the panel and spoke about German-Jewish immigration (his family’s background). I attended the event back in November, and I found that it provided a fascinating reminder of the diversity of “Jewish” experiences, even within a single city.