My new (and first) children's book is out! May I present: Natalie and the Nazi Soldiers, the story of a hidden child in France during the Holocaust, based on [...]
Looping back to the beginning is a good way to end. Since I began this series of blog posts on turning letters into stories with How to Transform a [...]
Civil War Letter (source: familytree.com) When researching family history, you might come across a letter that you find utterly fascinating. But you don't know much, if anything, [...]
A cache of family letters, or maybe even just one amazing letter written by an ancestor, is a great source for writing a story from family history. Martha McCallum's [...]
This is the carbon copy of my grandfather’s tightly typed letter, on which I based my story The Flying Dutchman, that also became a [...]
The pile of letters the father of my reader Donna sent to his sister in Chicago while he was stationed in India during WWII, including the silk [...]
Welcome to the last day of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things. I'm really excited that it begins tomorrow! Today is [...]
https://youtu.be/vokcUrrds3k Welcome to Day 9 of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things! (begins on January 16, 2022). Each day I [...]
My main goal right now is to get out of the gate with these stories about my (and our) things. So, if I don't have all the material I'd like to have, I still put together the story. I can always update it later!
Welcome to Day 7 of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things, which begins on January 16, 2022. Each day I am sharing [...]
My grandmother's rug in my living room in Chicago Welcome to Day 6 of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My [...]
Welcome to Day 5 of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things, which begins on January 16, 2022. [Update: The course is currently [...]
This wad of herringbone fabric dates back to the 1940s and is from my great-uncle's store in Liberec in the Czech Republic. It is mentioned in my memoir [...]
Welcome to Day 3 of my countdown towards my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things, which begins on January 16, 2022. Each day I am [...]
My mother-in-law, who always went by Nana, made this tapestry specifically for our children. It still hangs in what used to be the main children's room in our [...]
I'm so excited that my online course Capturing Family History in a Book of My Things begins in ten days that I decided to run a countdown. I'll be [...]
Are you interested in finally “doing something” with your family history? Would you like to organize and present your family history in a way that will be useful and [...]
In 1978, when I was fifteen, my mother and I flew from Germany to Detroit for an extended trip around the U.S. First up was Michigan to visit her [...]
I'm currently offering a free mini course on writing stories from family history. As I'm working on creating my own online course business, things are moving much faster than [...]
My grandmother left fourteen pages of these handwritten memoirs. For us grandkids they are a real treasure but thankfully we can all read German. Welcome to [...]
First of all, I'm back! I'm sorry I've been MIA for three months but I guess, after ten years of regular blogging, I needed a break. And truth be [...]
My dad's first outing in the pram, pushed by his Aunt Resi (a major character in Jumping Over Shadows). Walking along are the proud parents, i.e. my grandparents, Karl [...]
At my Great Aunt Resi's for New Year's Eve, early 1940s, Czechoslovakia (This picture is from my memoir Jumping Over Shadows.) When you write a story from family [...]
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 [...]
Welcome to another installment of my advice column where I answer readers’ questions about writing compelling stories from family history: Hope asks: I would like to write about a great-aunt [...]
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 [...]
My ever handsome friend Larry Palmer (on the left) with his niece and younger brother. I'm very proud that his excellent family memoir Scholarship Boy is coming out in [...]
If you want to write your family history and are floundering with where to start, look no further! Sign up here to receive my booklet 10 Unusual Prompts to Start [...]
Family stories aren't always happy go lucky.* Welcome to installment one of my new advice column where I answer any question readers ask about writing compelling stories from family history. [...]
I am happy to announce that the ebook as well as the paperback versions of How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History are published and LIVE (as they call [...]
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 [...]
At our grandparents' grave - my sister, my brother and I Summer is the time of family reunions. Incidentally, just before my hip surgery, we had a family [...]
Why is it so meaningful to return to your roots? To where your ancestors are from? To visit places you only know from stories and pictures? I’ve asked myself that every [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Father's Day is coming and so it is fitting that my essay about my grandpa, titled The Tractor, should be published this month on Thread, a literary magazine. Writing about [...]
A drab and wet November morning--perfect for revising at the Royal Coffee House. Monday evening two weeks ago I wrote a story. I wrote it sitting in my car. I plugged [...]
Did you have any feeling of debt to anybody? Did you feel any constraints about what you couldWith her memoir The Tribal Knot - A Memoir of Family, Community [...]
The latest photo of my grandparents' former house, taken by me on my last visit in June 2009. My essay 'Thrown Out' of the Family Home was published in [...]
with my parents at age one As part of my "Create" motto for this year, I've been reading Julia Cameron's Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creatively. [...]
Isn't chocolate pudding the perfect little comfort food? Easy and quick to make, and good in any season? Yesterday I made some in preparation for tonight's Shabbat dinner. We [...]
Recently, as I was rewriting a chapter from my memoir into the essay Giving Up Christmas that was published in Tablet Magazine, I leafed through a photo album of [...]
Of all the books I read this year, the one I have thought most about, talked most about and continue to think about is Mara Moustafine's Secrets and Spies [...]
My great-grandfather's sewing machine, still in use on my dining room table When you write memoir, sooner or later you come upon the issue of, "Is this [...]
Edmund de Waals' memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes was my favorite memoir of 2011. I am still trying to figure out why because it defies so many of the [...]
I love it when a book becomes a place, an alternate reality I can dwell in. That’s what happened as I was reading Terry Tempest Williams’ now classic memoir [...]
