What do Monty Python and social media have in common?
According to Greg Jarboe, Monty Python increased DVD sales 23,000% (yikes, yes, that many zeros) with the above video.
Find out more on this Websites for Small Biz post:
★Social Media at Rutgers with Greg Jarboe
And coming soon to this blog, Here in HP, a special writing interview with a Highland Park resident who quotes Eletelephony. Stay tuned!
If ever you wondered if you can make a friend online, Ilana-Davita is a true friend. I love visiting her little town in France by visiting her blog, where she shares her thoughts on Judaism, her tales of Europe, her photos, cooking and warmth. I am honored to have her answers to my writing interview.
1) When did you realize that you like to write?
I realized that I liked to write when I started reading whole books. At the time, I also began to write stories that nobody read, except my parents maybe, in a small school notebook.
I was eager to write at school and, at age nine, even asked the teacher when we would start writing short narrative essays (the French term for this school subject is “rédaction”). She acquiesced but obviously was not too happy with what we wrote since she never gave us another writing assignment.
Obviously I then spent years writing essays of all sorts but not always with pleasure. Since I started blogging, however, the pleasure has returned. My blog began as a sort of experiment: I was not quite sure I was doing it and what I was going to write about but it seemed like something I might enjoy. It has brought me more satisfaction and enjoyment that I had anticipated even if writing is a bit tough at the moment.
2) When did you realize that you like to read?
When I turned seven our next door neighbor gave me a Noddy book by Enid Blyton. I was a little awed at the perspective of reading a whole real book by myself but the experience was awesome and I have not stopped reading since.
3) Which authors influenced you in your youth? Which authors or writers influence you now? (influence of style or in life choices or both)
My first influence was Enid Blyton. A year or two after Noddy, I discovered The Secret Seven and above all The Famous Five. I found these series wonderful and read 13 out of the 15 Secret Seven books, all of The Famous Five stories and a lot of other novels she had written. At that time my dream was to become the new Enid Blyton. She has been much criticized for her lack of literary talent but this did not matter to me as a child. I had found an activity I adored, this was enough.
During my adolescence I read extensively but can’t remember being influenced by one author in particular.
After high school graduation, I spent a year in England and discovered English (and American) literature. I then went to college in France where I studied English (language, literature and civilization). I read the Brontes, which I loved, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. My favorite however was Jane Austen. I thus read Pride and Prejudice overnight. I liked her style and her wit. I still do. Her fine dialogues have few equals in English literature.
At present one of my favorite novelists is Chaim Potok and, as some of my regular readers may know, I have named my blog after one of his characters. I love how he conveys his love of Judaism while presenting his readers with some of the issues observant Jews are confronted with. His characters experience religious dilemmas but, in the end, manage to remain faithful Jews in a manner I find honest and coherent.
As far as life choices are concerned, my main influence is Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and his emphasis on Jewish ethics. To anyone intersted in what he has written on the subject I’d recommend first: The Book of Jewish Values and then A Code of Jewish Ethics, volumes 1 and 2. I also find Rabbi Jonathan Sacks inspiring.
4) Have you ever taken a creative writing course?
No, this existed neither when I was at school nor at college. Unfortunately French education encourages formal learning rather than creativity.
5) Have you ever studied journalism?
No, there again I wished I had. Interestingly enough, my mom studied journalism but never practiced her trade.
6) Do you find writing or talking an easier way to express yourself, or are both writing and talking similar vehicles of self-expression for you?
I suppose it depends on the circumstances and what I have to say. I find talking easy in a meeting when the topics discussed are professional rather than personal. When the issue is closer to home I find it harder and would never share with my colleagues or even acquaintance the thoughts and ideas I share on my blog. Things are of course a bit different with the people that are very close.
7) Have you written short stories or poetry (or would you like to do so)?
Apart from the little stories I wrote when I was 8 or 9 and a few poems when I was in my early twenties, I have not written anything creative. I have some regrets but also believe I am better at expressing thoughts than emotions.
Please add a favorite quote.
הַֽעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ הַֽחַיִּים וְהַמָּוֶת נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה וּבָֽחַרְתָּ בַּֽחַיִּים לְמַעַן תִּֽחְיֶה אַתָּה וְזַרְעֶֽךָI call this day heaven and earth as my witness: See, I set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Now, choose life so that you and your children may live. -Deuteronomy 30:19
(in memory of RivkA, z”l)
For more interviews:
I have one more writing interview coming up next week.
A few of the many posts in memory of RivkA:
Robin of Around the Island will be posting the upcoming JPIX (Jewish Photo Bloggers Blog Carnival) on November 14. Please send in your JPIX submissions by November 11.
Robin wrote on a recent post in memory of RivkA, z”l (may her blessing be a memory): ‘One of the things RivkA used to say that always made me smile was how even though she wasn’t “a photography person” she loved looking at my photography.’ To learn more about RivkA, who died last week after a long battle with breast cancer, visit her blog Coffee and Chemo.
Second in my series of interviews with bloggers on writing (see interview with Lorri of Jew Wishes), Shimshonit kindly responded to my questions with revealing and thoughtful answers. Shimshonit lives in Israel and blogs about family life, Israeli politics, books, Jewish topics, food (I think every Jew must blog about food – no?). She used to live in my childhood home town of Newton (she said we met once, but I don’t remember the meeting, which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – but neither of us were bloggers at the time; blogging didn’t exist yet).
1) When did you realize that you like to write?
I’ve loved writing ever since I learned to write. Even as a child, I used to write letters to friends and relatives. Writing has been almost as big an obsession for me as reading. In high school, when I was learning to write expository essays, I found it incredibly frustrating to have my writing picked apart and critiqued by very hard teachers. But I emerged in the end a much more confident writer, more aware of grammar, of words, of voice.
2) When did you realize that you like to read?
Again, when I first learned to read. I’ve always loved stories, and to be able to read them myself gave me an independence from relying on others to tell them to me.
3) Which authors influenced you in your youth? Which authors or writers influence you now? (influence of style or in life choices or both)
I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories of her pioneer family. Her family’s courage, self-sufficiency, warmth and love appealed to me. In junior high school I discovered J.R.R. Tolkien, whose love of poetry and epic storytelling fed my love of adventure, languages, and travel, and spoke to my Anglo-Saxon soul. It was Tolkien who, in one of his very few women characters, gave me Éowyn, perhaps my favorite character of all time, whose restlessness and rebellion led to one of the pivotal acts which saved the people of her world from destruction. (Photo at right is Miranda Otto as Éowyn in the Peter Jackson films).
As an adult, I’ve always admired Charles Dickens for his quirky characters and brutal honesty about the good and bad in people. I think Great Expectations may be my favorite novel of all time. My second favorite is probably a tie between George Eliot’s sweeping, intelligent, sensitive Middlemarch and Jane Austen’s quieter, subtler novel Persuasion. For a little humor, I love Pride and Prejudice and anything by P.G. Wodehouse. I could go on forever, but I’ll spare you.
4) Have you ever taken a creative writing course?
I took a year-long college course on the American short story in my early 20s, reading the likes of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Gardner, studying their craft carefully, writing my own stories, and working with the rest of the class as a critique group. We continued on our own for three years after that class. It was marvelous. While I don’t write fiction nowadays, that experience has given a distinctive flavor to my nonfiction writing, and has given me much sharper skills as a reader besides.
5) Have you ever studied journalism?
No.
6) Do you find writing or talking an easier way to express yourself, or are both writing and talking similar vehicles of self-expression for you?
I prefer writing to talking. I don’t think at all well on my feet. I like writing for the opportunity to compose and edit my words carefully, and avoid saying anything I don’t mean or might regret later. I also like writing because it allows me to think on paper (or, more accurately these days, on screen). I’ve heard it said that you know what you think about something once you’ve written about it. I share that sentiment.
7) Have you written short stories or poetry (or would you like to do so)?
Yes, but nothing I would care to show anyone now. Disappointment (in employment, in love) make for great poetic inspiration, but very dull reading. And I don’t think I was a very good fiction writer. I write nonfiction when I’m content, and that’s what I’ve been writing for a long time now.
Please add a favorite quote.
The last lines of Middlemarch, which often make me think of my own life:
Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
I enjoyed these thought-provoking questions. Thank you!
If you enjoyed this interview, you may also enjoy:
Inspired by Shimshonit’s Foodie interviews, Ilana-Davita’s interviews last summer and by Hannah’s Cooking Manager interviews (links at bottom), I decided to come up with a series of my own. Who would be most likely to answer a series of questions, I thought? Writers! I decided to interview a few people about writing.
Thank you so much, Lorri M., for being my first one! Lorri M. writes the blog Jew Wishes; I greatly enjoy her book reviews, thoughts on current and past events, picturesque photos, and her warmth. About her blog she writes: “My only goal with this blog is to try to foster religious and cultural awareness relating to Judaism.”
1) When did you realize that you like to write?
I realized I liked to write when I was an adolescent, starting with poetry and short stories. I would write my thoughts down on scraps of paper, or whatever was handy for me to write on, whenever an idea for a line or two of poetry, or whenever I thought of a good sentence/s to use for a short story, so I wouldn’t lose the thought or idea.
2) When did you realize that you like to read?
I loved reading the moment I was given books as a very young child, even before starting grade school. I would browse through the pictures in the books over and over again, and learned to read simple words before I began grade school. My parents encouraged me to enjoy reading, and fostered my love of books.
3) Which authors influenced you in your youth? Which authors or writers influence you now? (influence of style or in life choices or both)
I am an avid Bronte sisters fan, both of their novels and their poetry. I have been since I was a young teenager. Jane Eyre is my all time favorite classic novel. I also enjoyed Jane Austen’s works. Their depictions of their surroundings filled my senses. I liked how they would bring me back to a time and place that intrigued and fascinated me, and remember hoping and dreaming that one day I would be able to visit those places, especially the moors of Haworth, the home of the Bronte sisters. I have visited Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage several times, and have visited other cities that the Brontes sisters traveled to and lived in for a while. One can see why they wrote what they did about their environment…and the visits were so illuminating. I have also visited Jane Austen’s birthplace and homes.
The authors who influence me now are ones related to WWII/Shoah/Holocaust memoirs, Jewish Literature and Jewish authors. I incorporate these authors and their works into my daily life choices and in my own writing. Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Herman Wouk, A.B. Yehoshua, Sholem Alecheim, Amos Oz, Aharon Appelfeld, Belva Plain, Meir Shalev, and so many others, give me food for thought and discussion, and bring me illumination, both in the non-fictional and fictional prose and in religious radiance.
4) Have you ever taken a creative writing course?
I majored in English (writing) in college and university, and English Literature was my minor .
5) Have you ever studied journalism?
I took several journalism courses during my college days.
6) Do you find writing or talking an easier way to express yourself, or are both writing and talking similar vehicles of self-expression for you?
Both writing and speaking are similar forms of self-expression for me. With my writing, I can try to paint pictures with my articulation of scenarios I am trying to depict. With verbal communication, the articulation and expressiveness is fairly similar to my writing. I try to include metaphors, symbolism, and structure in my writing, that conforms closely to my verbal expressions.
7) Have you written short stories or poetry (or would you like to do so)?
I have written poems that have been published in small presses and publications, not major pubications. I have written short stories that have also been published in small presses, along with some travel articles. I am in the midst of writing two books, one is fiction and one is non-fiction. The non-fiction work is a family history of sorts, including detailed research other than genealogical research.
I asked Lorri to provide a favorite quote or poem. Here are her selections:
One of my favorite quotes is by Eleanor Roosevelt.
“A woman is like a tea bag — you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”
One of my favorite poems, entitled Epitaph, was written by the poet Merritt Malloy. It encompasses my own feelings and thoughts regarding humankind and humanity, and on remembrance and not forgetting those you love/d or those who came into your life and made a difference, no matter long a time or how short a time you might have known them.
I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.
Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on your eyes
And not on your mind.
You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands,
By letting
Bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.
Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.
Her poetry has been included in many Shabbat services throughout the years and throughout the country, including on Yom Kippur.
• • •
Thank you, Lorri, for sharing with us.
Here are links to interviews by the three bloggers I mentioned at the top of this post:
I feel honored to be chosen as a Foodie on Shimshonit’s blog. I hope you will read the interview and leave a comment.
For past interviews:
Please visit Toby’s JPIX, the Jewish Photo Bloggers’ Carnival, with lovely photos by many photographers, including one by Soccer Dad of Niagara Falls. I’ve always wanted to go to Niagara Falls, and now my daughter does, too. Can we convince the rest of our family that it is worth the drive?
Soccer Dad, the founder of Haveil Havalim, hosts HH #280. Thank you for reminding Jewish photo bloggers to submit to JPIX.
There is a recently formed new blog carnival called the Jewish Book Carnival. Thank you for including my post on The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus From Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado.
Thank you to Batya for hosting (and managing) KCC and for including two of my posts in the Pre-Holiday KCC. I especially love the Chossid’s breakfast photos at a hotel in Jerusalem – yum.
As a reminder, the next JPIX, Jewish Photo Blogger’s Carnival, will be hosted by Toby Who Wishes She Were a Photographer. Please submit your posts by Thursday, August 19. Thank you.
If I had time, I would write these posts:
I have had time to putter in the garden, and so our family has enjoyed salad with nasturtium and nasturtium flowers.