Aside from writing my book and writing personal essays and articles here and there, I’ve assigned myself homework. I’ve been trying to books written by other converts. On top, of course, of reading books on writing. I haven’t gotten as far as I would like on either front because other memoirs and more fictional accounts… Continue reading Review: Stranger in the Midst
One of my big dreams is to get something in the NY Times Modern Love section. So far, I’ve submitted my best essay ever and received a really great rejection letter. I was just catching up on the section when I spotted the essay, I Measured My Commitment in Carats. It’s about a family dispute… Continue reading The Carat Commitment
My great-grandmother recently celebrated her 96th birthday. My grandmother just started collecting social security. So as you can imagine, there has been a pretty good run of good health in my family. No history of cancer. No history of Alzheimer’s. Just a bad case of high cholesterol and high blood pressure. My husband, however, has… Continue reading Hispanics at Risk
Squeezing writing into Chol Hamoed Sukkot takes a kind of discipline that I apparently have not mastered. I’m squirreling away at trying to come up for a title for my book. And no, it’s not finished. But the publisher wants a title. Between my catchy ones and his “textbook” ones, we have yet to find… Continue reading Getting religious
Junot Diaz was quoted as saying he had to suppress his Dominicanness. Of course, he points out in a piece in Dominican Today that this quote was taken grossly out of context. Who would want to suppress their Dominicanness, in fact? (Not me. And certainly not Junot, who’s stellar Oscar Wao novel is a tribute… Continue reading On Dominicanness
This month’s issue of Glamour magazine poses an interesting question: “Do you have friends of other races?” And then, more poignantly, do you have CLOSE friends of other races? I don’t want to offend my white friends. But I might. Here me out, though. I have always been someone who has had friends of other… Continue reading Friends of Other Races?
It’s gotten harder to read when reading is work. I read my magazines for pleasure but also to think of new ideas to pitch to them. I read memoirs for pleasure but also to help me figure out how to write mine. I read books about writing because I love to write but again, it’s… Continue reading Reading for pleasure…
I spent Sunday reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer. And when I say I spent Sunday reading it, I mean that I spent ALL DAY at the dining room table turning pages as I propped the book up on my stylish Book Chair. The book debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller… Continue reading Priorities
My mother-in-law commented during a recent Barnes & Nobles shopping spree together that I am perhaps a little too attached to vampires. This is probably because I wanted to sob over the fact that I would not let myself purchase Breaking Dawn, the last in Stephanie Meyer’s the teen vampire romance saga Twlight, and Undead… Continue reading Blood is life
Hello, little blog, I have clawed my way through hours of writing for my book, for homework (for my online classes at Gotham Writer’s Workshop) and in response to emails from readers and I have found my way back to you. My trip to Los Angeles is almost over. I’m multitasking by packing and writing.… Continue reading Wrapping up
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 