I wanted to share my short story that was just published in the latest edition of Jewish Fiction. It is timely for Yom Kippur. Thinking about forgiveness, forgetting. You can find it here.
I revised the above story many times and watched it get rejected many times. And now it’s finally found a home.
And posting my non-fiction piece on my quirky Jewish mother that appeared in Kveller.com here.
Diana Bletter is the author of several books, including The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (with photographs by Lori Grinker), shortlisted for a National Jewish Book Award. Her novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins) was published in 2015. She is the First Prize Winner of Moment Magazine's 2019 Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, tabletmag, Glamour, The Forward, The North American Review, Times of Israel, and is a reporter for Israel21C, and many other publications. She is author of Big Up Yourself: It's About Time You Like Being You and The Mom Who Took off On Her Motorcycle, a memoir of her 10,000-mile motorcycle trip to Alaska and back to New York. She lives in a small beach village in Western Galilee, Israel, with her husband and family. She is a member of the local hevra kadisha, the burial circle, and a Muslim-Jewish-Christian-Druze women's group in the nearby town of Akko. And, she likes snowboarding and climbing trees.
Nothing changed. I changed. Everything changed.
DIANA BLETTER
The story touched me. The line “ nobody gets a vaccination against sorrow” is so true. The reconnecting of old friends made me smile.
Diana
You are such a good writer. I spent my early morning reading both stories and was captivated by them both. I just finished reading Pat Conroy’s novel South of Broad which includes two victims of child abuse and the comforting friends that came into their lives years later. Such a horrible act on a child. The childhood friend brought into the picture to bring out the sorrow was perfect.
Your mom sounded like a real pistol. What that generation went through is hard to imagine. So much sadness , nightmare, and sacrifice.
Thank you for sharing your gift of writing.
Hoping your spirit is renewed for the coming years.
Tom
Tom Scott For G-D so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For G-D did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
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Thank you so much, Tom. I appreciate your words. I will check out Pat Conroy’s novel. Hope you and Jenny and the family are all healthy!