Welcome to my Blog
I like to imagine my blog as a scenic spot with a spectacular view along the River of Memory – a site where writers and readers are welcome to share the stories that help us make sense our journeys. As my memoir progresses, I’ll post milestones and excepts here like small gifts with the goal of completing a first draft of Never Look Back by the end of 2013.
NEWCOMERS IN AN ANCIENT LAND EXCERPT – CHAPTER 5: Hitchhiking
The Negev Desert was a land of extremes – by day a white-hot griddle; by night a blackened skillet; at dawn a copper pot; at dusk a painted gourd. Its unforgiving rocks and sharp scent reminded me of my early childhood in Texas and Kansas, where the harshness of the...
NEWCOMERS IN AN ANCIENT LAND EXCERPT – CHAPTER 4: Gingit!
I couldn’t resist the beauty of the nocturnal sky as I crept up on deck alone. A shimmering canopy of stars arched over the cobalt sea, falling to the horizon like a fishnet tugged tight by unseen hands. Flying fish played in the ship’s wake, their silvery tails...
NEWCOMERS IN AN ANCIENT LAND EXCERPT – CHAPTER 1: Making Life Happen
As a young woman my mother had made her own Atlantic crossing to bring my sister and me from England to America. Our parents had met in the midst of World War II, when Dad was an American GI stationed in Britain and Mom was coordinating live entertainment for the Rosy...
NEWCOMERS IN AN ANCIENT LAND EXCERPT from the INTRODUCTION: Israel Then and Now
The Israel that greeted me on that distant, dusty road no longer exists except in memory. Today, parts of the Promised Land have been paved over to such an extent that the life and landscape of the early sixties in this story may sound fantastical. Humming freeways...
Book Review by Booklist Online
A transformative story told with poetic description and the adventurous spirit of youth. Read the review here.
NAMW Interview About “Newcomers”
I was honored to be interviewed on June 13, 2019, by Linda Joy Myers, founder of NAMW (National Association of Memoir Writers). It was a special pleasure because I had worked on this memoir in Linda's Writing as Healing class over several years. With Linda Joy's...
Newcomers Makes the Top 7 Summer Reads List on Brit.co alongside Eve Ensler’s Apology
Newcomers in an Ancient Land is honored to be listed among the top seven non-fiction best summer reads by Brit.co with over a million in readership! Read: 7 Non-Fiction Books That Will Give You All the Feels This Summer
The Book, the Book, the Goddamned Book
Have you’ve ever taken a well-deserved vacation only to receive an email from your editor saying your manuscript has, well, run off the rails? That news initially knocked the wind out of my good friend and fellow memoirist Irene. But summoning her trenchant humor, she got back on her keyboard and fought her feisty tale of a dueling mother-daughter relationship to the finish line. So writers take heart! A little humor can go a long way to revive our flagging spirits.
Longing to Belong – Newcomers in an Ancient Land
This journey begged the question once again: where did I belong? Where was home? Perhaps I wasn’t charting my own course after all. Maybe I was simply following in my mother’s footsteps by leaving her, just as she had left her own mother to come to America. Now my sister Naomi and I would be the second generation of daughters to leave our mother for a foreign land.