This Site Is Currently Under Construction
Dear Readers and Visitors, You might have noticed that all kinds of gibberish code is appearing on my home page and other pages. Some images are not loading properly. This [...]
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Dec, 2020
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Jul, 2020
Podcast Interview: How to Get Started Writing Family History Stories and How to Make Them Interesting for the Next Generation
That's me in front of my grandparents' former house in Liberec, Czech Republic, August 2002 I'm happy to share that I'm featured on this week's edition of the Genealogy [...]
20
Mar, 2020
One Important, Mindful, Calming and Life-Affirming Thing You Can Do During this Challenging COVID-19 Pandemic: Keep a Record
War time diary of 12-year-old Sheila Cohen, living in London, 1940 (Jewish Museum, London - I took this photo in December 2018) Be sure to keep a diary [...]
31
Dec, 2019
Sharing a Tried-and-True Writer’s Tool to Review the Old Year and Plan for the New One: the Writer’s Workbook
The new edition of my Writer's Workbook is here! All you gotta do to receive it is subscribe to my newsletter. If you are a subscriber, you will have received [...]
13
Dec, 2019
In Memory of Michael Steinberg, One of the Greats of the Creative Nonfiction World, and a Most Generous Man
This week I was immensely shocked and saddened to learn that my mentor Michael Steinberg died. I found out via a Facebook post from a mutual acquaintance. I had just [...]
30
Nov, 2019
Coming Up with the Cover of my Next Book: How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History (First Few Pages Available for Download!)
Last week, after two months of much back and forth with my book production team at Inspire Books, I finally signed off on the cover of my forthcoming book How [...]
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Nov, 2019
Who Names Her Publishing Company After Her Mother-in-Law?
My husband and I with our first two kids and my in-laws (Nana is on the left), April 1999 Seminal moment for me today: I filed a Doing Business As [...]
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Oct, 2019
“When the Leaves Drift” – the Perfect Time to Share my Favorite Poem, Autumn Day, by Rainer Maria Rilke
One of my favorite stretches through the woods I have been out in the country, reveling in the glory of autumn. The fall foliage spectacle is on full display on [...]
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Sep, 2019
How a Book Still Makes Amazing Connections Two Years after Publication, and How my Mom Set an Example for Pursuing your Dreams in your Forties
Wedding picture in my book A book is a connector. That's one of the surprising things I learned after Jumping Over Shadows came out in April 2017. But now it's [...]
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Aug, 2019
Excellent Advice for the Creative Soul from an Unlikely Source: Tomi Lahren
Excellent view of the White House and the Washington Monument as we were flying out of Washington, DC, and I was reading this book... I am not usually one to [...]
28
Jun, 2019
What to Do When a Deadline Looms and You Are at a Loss What to Write About
Get going on the road to writing (Empty road in Nevada, August 2011) Last Thursday, I was at a loss what to write for Friday's blog post. Uninspired, I thought, [...]
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Jun, 2019
Why Hemingway Repeated Words, Why We Learn from Teachers We Don’t Like, and Other Insights on the Craft of Writing
My writing studio in the attic of the Hemingway Birthplace Home, back when I was writer-in-residence. While I didn't particularly enjoy Roger Rosenblatt's Unless It Moves the Human Heart - [...]
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Jun, 2019
The Best Thing ever for a Writer: When a Reader Shares Passages She Loved from your Book with You
Jumping Over Shadows in Karlsruhe (photo by Barbara Jester) As a writer, there is nothing I like more than connecting with a reader. So I was thrilled when Ellen Amarnek [...]
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Apr, 2019
6 Years of Morning Pages: Why I’ve Stuck with Them and Recommend Them to Everyone
Writing Morning Pages is still the practice I most recommend to anyone who wants to bring writing into their life, and to anyone who wants to live a more deliberate [...]
29
Mar, 2019
What Happened When Hitler Visited My Grandparents’ Hometown
Hitler himself visited Reichenberg on Friday, December 2, 1938. His visit was geared to rally the populace for the supplementary elections to the Reichstag, to be held the following Sunday, [...]
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Mar, 2019
On Keeping More Than One Notebook
A writer should always keep a notebook. And I do! But what if you keep more than one? What if one notebook simply isn't enough to sort your thoughts, ideas, [...]
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Mar, 2019
The Story Behind the Story: How to Finally Get an Essay Published
Parc Montsouris, Paris, September 2017 I have a new essay published in Bella Grace Issue 19, which hits newsstands today! I can't even begin to tell you how [...]
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Jan, 2019
The Benefit of a Traveler’s Daily WhatsApp Messages to a Friend: Boosting Mindfulness and Creating a Travel Diary
The WhatsApp message that began the daily ritual: "Here a photo for you, view from our hotel, you also sent me such nice photos of the big wide world [...]
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Dec, 2018
Writer’s Workbook 2019
The new edition of the Writer's Workbook is here! All you gotta do to receive it is subscribe to my newsletter. If you are a subscriber, you will have received [...]
30
Nov, 2018
Are You Creating Assets?
Once in a while, one of Seth Godin's daily missives sticks in my mind, such as his idea of focusing on creating assets. That's how I understood his post The Daily. [...]
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Nov, 2018
Creative Nonfiction and Memoir: What’s the Difference?
A new student asked me to explain the difference between creative nonfiction and memoir, and so I thought I'd clarify this here today. If one person asks, I figure, more [...]
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Oct, 2018
Place Can Help Restore Your Sense of Self
Yesterday I went for a walk around Promontory Point for the first time since my surgery, and I realized: a place can help restore our sense of self. Three months [...]
28
Sep, 2018
Summer Apples
This is the time of year when I used to go apple picking with my kids. Alas, they've all flown the nest, and the one day my daughter and I [...]
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Sep, 2018
Knitting or How Creativity Connects
I always knit when I'm on a plane, or crochet. In fact, if I have a flight coming up, and I don't have a knitting project going, I frantically cast [...]
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Aug, 2018
My Book’s Almost Titles
At book events, I'm often asked how I came up with my book's title, Jumping Over Shadows (see that story here: How to Come Up with a Book Title). Recently, however, [...]
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Jun, 2018
Suicide Touches Almost Every Family
My great-grandfather with my grandmother, Reichenberg, 1932 "A few days before Kristallnacht, on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 1938, my great-grandfather walked up the hill to the [...]
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May, 2018
Book Companion Post: Sanatorium Brey
Siebenhäuser Liberec Reichenberg Stadt, Sanatorium Dr. Max Brey When I visited my grandparents' hometown Liberec (Reichenberg) in the Czech Republic in 2009 on a research trip for Jumping [...]
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May, 2018
The Ever Elusive Artist Date in the Japanese Garden at the Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park
I might be good at writing my Morning Pages, but I am horrible at keeping Artist Dates. These are two of the three pillars sustaining a creative life, according to [...]
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Apr, 2018
What 5 Years of Writing Morning Pages Can Do
Five years of writing Morning Pages equals twelve notebooks On April 8, 2013, I wrote in my very first Black n' Red notebook: "I shall give this writing Morning [...]
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Apr, 2018
6 Things that Will Surprise You about Publishing a Book
Karlsruhe, Germany - Photo by Barbara Jester Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my book's publication--the perfect time to share a few things that surprised me about publishing [...]
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Mar, 2018
Book Companion Post: My Aunt Herta
Herta and I, Wiesbaden, 2002 Today would have been my Aunt Herta's birthday. I like to remember loved ones on their birthdays, and since Herta is one of [...]
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Feb, 2018
Book Companion Post: How to Come Up with Book Events
When I first contemplated promoting my book Jumping Over Shadows through events, I was stumped to come up with topics I could present. {read the rest of the article on [...]
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Feb, 2018
31 Happy Things
Yours truly visiting the Ice Palace in St. Paul, MN Sunday, January 28, 2018 Inspired by a prompt in the current winter issue of Bella Grace, I kept [...]
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Dec, 2017
The Artist & Writer’s Workbook 2018
The Artist & Writer's Workbook 2018 is here! Available as a free download if you sign up for my newsletter! (All my subscribers have already received it.) This year's title [...]
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Nov, 2017
Book Companion Post: Writing About Family
My last visit with my brother-in-law Louis this summer As a memoir writer and particularly as the author of a family memoir, I am often asked how my [...]
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Nov, 2017
Book Companion Post: Remembering Kristallnacht in Liberec
Today marks the 79th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when most of the synagogues in the German Reich were destroyed along with Jewish shops and businesses. Until [...]
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Oct, 2017
Book Companion Post: Answering Reader Questions
Storefront in Liberec, 2016 (Sadly, I wasn't able to figure out the exact site of Guido and Resi's store.) What happened to Ludwig during the war? Was he [...]
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Oct, 2017
Book Companion Post: Görlitz
I received this picture of my book from a reader in Germany. Without any input from me, she chose to take it in front of the post office in Görlitz [...]
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Oct, 2017
#Spreadalittlekindness
On a day like today, when you wake up to such terrible news as the mass shooting in Las Vegas, what is there to do? Of course I'm following the [...]
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Sep, 2017
The Ups and Downs of the Author’s Life
"So how's it going with your book?" I'm often asked these days when I meet someone I haven't seen in a while. The truth is I'm never quite sure how [...]
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Jul, 2017
My Book and I in Jerusalem
My book and I just had the great fortune of spending time in Jerusalem. For me it was an "again," and, while my book per se had not been to [...]
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May, 2017
Book Companion Post: Filling in the Blanks on Family History
These past few days I have been able to do what I love best in my writing life: rummage around in family history. I've been rewriting an essay that O [...]
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May, 2017
The Flying Dutchman Comes Home
Train station in Liberec (formerly Reichenberg) - the train in "The Flying Dutchman" left from here I owe the metaphor of the Flying Dutchman, title of one of the pivotal [...]
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Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Surberg Concentration Camp Memorial
Today is Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide. In Israel, the most remarkable feature of the day is the siren that sounds at sundown (when [...]
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Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Israel – At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
In time for Easter, my essay "At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre" appeared on Jerusalem Moments. With it, I thought I'd share a few photos from and around this [...]
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Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Haselnusstorte (or: A Flourless Hazelnut Torte for Passover)
"The next time we visited her, a hazelnut torte would be waiting on her kitchen counter, glazed in glistening dark chocolate." Story and recipe on page 166 of Jumping [...]
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Apr, 2017
Book Companion Post – Chapter: Fait Accompli I – My Grandfather’s Staircase
Today is the publication date of my memoir Jumping Over Shadows! Hurray! And thus I offer you my very first book companion post, a series I plan to run every [...]
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Mar, 2017
Sticking with Morning Pages
I love my Morning Pages. In fact, I'm going on four years of doing them. And yet, these days, I'm having a hard time sticking to this practice. This is [...]
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Jan, 2017
How I Feel About Blogging
"How do you feel about blogging?" Barbara Bos asked yesterday in the Facebook group Women Writers, Women's Books that I belong to. That got me thinking. Then it occurred to me that [...]
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Jan, 2017
The Craftsmanship of Editing
It never fails to amaze me, even after so many years of working with texts, that, no matter how often you go over the same text, you still find [...]