Leora

Interview with Lorri about Writing

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.”

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.

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:

• Ilana-Davita: Weekly Interview: QuietusLeo
• Shimshonit: My favorite foodies, part I: Mimi
• Cooking Manager: Memories with Reader Rachelle Isserow

Review with Rudbeckia and Verbena

On My Blog

  
  
  
It’s been a while since I did a review, so perhaps this should be a month in review (or two months?). Jewish holidays can do that to you – you can’t remember what it was you were planning in mid August, and all of a sudden it’s October. I was very busy putting up the films for the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival in September – if you live in New Jersey, I hope you will see one of the films!

More on my blog:

• Millet with Carrots and Zucchini (and lemon)
• Tall Towers Tale (a story about the Chafetz Chaim and his university-educated granddaughter, with a painting by Brueghel)
• El Nora Alila, a Yom Kippur tune

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Jew Wishes blogged about the miners being rescued – did this miraculous event effect your week as well?
• Ilana-Davita wants to know what you are reading. (as do I – feel free to leave your favorite book as a comment, if you like)
• Shimshonit interviewed … me.
• A Simple Jew explains why he is a weekday vegetarian.
• If any of you want to learn how to get your images to be in just the right spot on a blog post, you should read Float That Image on my tech biz blog.

Nature Notes: Rutgers Gardens

There are some lovely paths by the Raritan River in the back of Rutgers Gardens. We enjoyed walking through nature last Sunday.

Some leaves were changing to red; not all the leaves looked so healthy. I wondered if it was because of the dry summer we had.

Is this what Monet saw before he painted his famous lily pads?

I believe this pretty lavender flower by the river is a cleome.

I was excited to see milkweed, as Michelle of Rambling Woods has talked about it on her blog as attractive to butterflies. And I even saw some milkweed aphids, too.

And since many of you enjoy seeing my family, here’s my husband and daughter. The chocolate around her mouth is probably from an Oreo cookie, which may not be a very natural food, but it’s in her nature to enjoy cookies.
For more Nature Notes:

My Favorite Foodies Interview

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:

• Sharisax: Friends Become Good Clients via Social Web
• Cooking Manager: On Margarine and Macrobiotics: Interview with Leora

Tall Towers Tale

Rabbi Bassous related the following story on Shabbat:

About thirty years ago when the Soviet Union first opened its doors, an elderly woman arrived in Israel who was visited by many rabbis. She was not religious, but she was the granddaughter of someone famous: the Chofetz Chaim. They wanted to hear about her conversations with and stories about her famous grandfather. There was one story in particular that was related. The granddaughter, against her parents’ and grandfather’s wishes, had attended university. After much education, she came back to her grandfather and said to him, when are you going to give up your old-fashioned ways? The world is moving forward with science and technology; all sorts of exciting new discoveries are happening. The Chofetz Chaim replied, with all these great discoveries, they will build bombs. One day there will be a bomb to destroy the world. While they are building bombs, I am building people.

Rabbi Bassous then went on to relate this to the parsha, where the people build a tower toward the skies.

More on Congregation Etz Ahaim in this post.

•   •   •

The Kosher Cooking Carnival, post-holiday edition, is on Batya’s blog. Thank you, Batya.

The painting is Tower of Babel by Brueghel.

Washington Monument Skyward

This photo of the Washington Monument was taken in late August by this watery World War II memorial.

These photos were taken directly under the monument:
 

For more photos with sky, visit Sky Watch Friday.

Nature Notes: Fall Reds

I photographed this cardinal in my backyard in early September. Today I saw a robin in my backyard. I usually see the cardinals in pairs or groups – the bright red birds are a delight.

Here’s the September cardinal again, profile view.

I looked around in my backyard for what to photograph for Nature Notes, and the rose hips caught my eye. “Rose hips are red, my kale is green, one evergreen died, my harvests are lean.” I’m growing kale in my front and back yards instead of grass. The ones in the front are doing quite well; the ones in the back look like someone nibbled on them. One of my little evergreen bushes died this summer — it could have used extra watering in our drought-like August. Oh, well.

There is a rowing of burning bush plants near our supermarket. They are starting to turn red, though I noticed one was brown. Perhaps those also could have used more water this summer. Will fall foliage be less brilliant than last year’s due to the summer drought?

For more Nature Notes:

Red Flowers Red Panels

How pretty when the buds of my chrysanthemum start to show red. Last week, those buds were closed and green.

This sole red petunia graces the front of my front yard. My other petunias are mostly fuchsia.

This is what the men in my family (my husband and two sons) were doing while I photographed fall flowers – they were taking down our sukkah, the temporary dwelling that we eat in for one week each fall. At this point, all the decorations were already down. The panels are sort of red – a brown that is a cousin of red, perhaps.

Blueberry Orange Cake

I made this cake last week, and oo la la, was it yummy. Here’s the recipe: take my orange cake recipe and throw in a pint of blueberries.

And perhaps this week I will make mabul cake. A friend just told me how to marbleize cake: pour in the white batter. Pour the chocolate batter in stripes over the white batter. Move a knife back and forth in the opposite direction of the chocolate stripes. Will it work? Advice welcome.

Apple for Ruby Tuesday

Two weeks ago we went apple picking (at Terhune Orchards near Princeton, New Jersey), and I made a cake using this recipe (but without the nuts). I am planning to make an apple pie this week.

What do you like to make with apples?

For more photos with red, visit: