Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Tonya Kerr - you are the winner of BLUE in paperback and this is not an April Fool's joke.  Okay?  Send your address to moyergirl at charter.net and I will get it to you!

Oh, and here's something else that is not an April Fool's.  I totally forgot to pick a winner in March so I am choosing two winners today.  The March winner is Mel Hager!  

I'll be winding up this contest in May but if February's winner, Bailey Clark doesn't contact me by then, some lucky person will get her book so that could mean two more chances at large.

Oh, but wait!  My publisher just announced that COMFORT comes out in paperback this fall. So I guess you know what that means.  I'll have to have another contest!  12 more chances to win!  Also not an April Fool's. 

I know.  I'm no fun at all! Unless, of course you like winning books!

February is nearly over and I've done nothing to acknowledge African-American History Month. I've hardly blogged at all, actually, but still - what kind of excuse is that?

This morning, my friend, Carol Baldwin unwittingly inspired me.  She'd driven to Chapel Hill last night to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater live performance, Revelations.  On her way home today, she called with all sorts of superlatives about the performance -  "incredibly strong, controlled, liquid, amazing use of space".  And more!

So naturally I scurried around to the video sites to get a feel for what I'd missed. Please watch this at full screen! It's not the same as a live performance but it will take you way beyond this tiny box of images. Since FIX ME JESUS is one of my favorite spirituals, I can't help but share it here.



Want to know more?  View a timeline of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater History.

Last night, my book club discussed THE JEW STORE. Just the title of this book feels raw and startling to me. I expected a painful read.  What I got was some pain and a whole lot of pleasure!

Aaron Bronson knew what to expect when he moved his Jewish family south to open a dry goods store. To buffer the racism, he changed his last name to Bronson. But mostly he simply showed up in "Concordia", Tennessee and was who he was - a born salesman! And yes, a Jew.

Folks in Concordia, Tennessee reacted with undisguised fascination and in some cases, ill-will. Here are two examples.


T. introduced the boy with him. He was another "cudden" one named Nathan, who was "near nineteen years old," and who, according to T, had "never see a Jew person in all his life." and despite T's insistence to the contrary, was convinced that Jews had horns.

"A YankeeJew merchant comes and turns First Street into a cutthroat place and pretty soon everybody in town is miserable."

Aaron Bronson was used to being discriminated against. In Russia the Kossacks had "tormented, chased, and attacked" him. After immigrating to New York the Bronsons were insulted and ignored. They could handle the south which, as it turned out, proved to be more friendly than not.

The Bronsons learned to eat southern foods, they made friends, and much to the horror of visiting aunts from New York, the children occasionally attended Sunday School.

Appalling, of course, but think about it.  What was one family with three children with no other Jews for miles around supposed to do for a social life? How could they possibly remain kosher and celebrate Jewish holidays? How would their son be bar mitzvahed? And most important of all, who would the children marry?

I kept waiting for the KKK and the Great Depression to undo the Subermans. But the conflict didn't center around these external factors. Instead  their greatest challenge was the question of how to maintain their Jewish identity.

Of all the books The Sojourner Truth Book Club has read and discussed, I think THE JEW STORE brought out the most personal sharing among us.

Two of us, who had moved South as Pennsylvania Mennonites, identified with the outsiderness of the Bronsons. Several African-Americans shared memories about Jewish families who treated them with more dignity, respect, and love than they'd ever received from any other white people. Another woman, a Gentile, planned to marry a Jewish boy but was not received by his family.

There's something for everyone in this book. Culture clash, unrequited love, humorous anecdotes, and a whole lot of heart. Read it, please!

The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

As I mentioned last week, I'm participating in the Sydney Taylor Award Blog tour.   And today I am tickled to have as my guest, Susan Lynn Meyer who won an honor for her first novel, Black Radishes.



Susan, congratulations on such a great accomplishment with your first novel. You really earned it!  

I will say, the title had me fooled. I’m not familiar with black radishes. I assumed the character was reduced to eating rotten or frost bitten radishes! But I love that the radishes were a device for the story and for outwitting the enemy. That was terrific! Have you eaten black radishes? And, if so, how did you like them?

I know—the title BLACK RADISHES is evocative to Americans because so few of us have heard of them or tasted them. So people imagine in their own minds what the title means, and I love that. And it isn’t just Americans who form their own interesting impressions based on the title. In fact, while I was writing the book, I spent some time with a French novelist who was also writing a World War II era novel. We talked a lot about our works in progress, and he said to me at one point, “So who were the Black Radishes?” He thought that it was the name of a French Resistance group! I love that idea, because in fact when you read the novel you find out that in it black radishes play a role in Resistance activity.

I do like the taste of black radishes, but you have to eat them in the right way, the way they are eaten in France. First you peel off the black skin. Then you make very thin slices of the white flesh. Place them on top of a buttered chunk of baguette. Delicious!

Gustave actually never gets to eat the black radishes during the course of the novel, however. The Germans are greedy for this delicacy and take them away from the French whenever they have the opportunity. So in a way, the black radishes also stand in the novel for the lost freedom of the French people.


True. This story is so grounded in history and research.  I felt that as I read and visiting your website confirmed it. (Seems to me you mentioned crawling under bridges in France to see construction dates.) Talk to us about research – how you approach it, what you’ve learned about how to research, and about your favorite way to gather info.

What works best for me is a “total immersion” method of research for historical fiction. I read everything I can about the period, especially first-hand accounts, such as memoirs. I love reading newspapers from the time, because they give you a very vivid sense of what daily life was like. They can be painful to read, too, because of their immediacy—they are written just as terrible things are happening, and the writers are living through those terrible times and don’t know yet how the events will turn out.

I also watched later films set in the time (because those film historians have already done some of the work of constructing the visual appearance of daily life). I was also able to locate and watch actual newsreel excerpts from France in the 1940s. Those were very informative, even though they had to meet with Nazi approval in order to be shown. The best thing of all, of course, if it is possible, is to talk to people who lived through the time, and I was lucky enough to know and to meet several such people. You can go to the place—and I loved doing that—but you can’t go back to the time. Not directly, anyway—you can by reading, looking at photographs and film footage, and talking to people.


Do you speak/read French or did you get help from a translator? What tips do you have doing research in a foreign country?

I do speak and read French. I learned in school, though, not at home, and I’ve never lived in France, not for longer than a short visit. So I work hard at it and I make lots of silly mistakes. There was the time I meant to offer to help someone carry his “mattress” down the stairs, but I accidentally offered to carry his “mistress”. . . !

Ooops! (Sorry. I laughed out loud on that one!)

It would have been very hard to do the kind of research I did without speaking French, because I talked to some people who spoke only French. Then, too, I just hung around and listened to conversations, sometimes struggling to make sense of things I didn’t quite get, or processing the language with a few-second delay. Sometimes that confusion can be interesting and productive though. It makes you really notice how the language is working and really think about what people are saying.


BTW, the slide show on your website is terrific! Seeing that castle and the bridge - after having just finished the book – it was really emotional for me. Can you talk about what it felt like to go to Saint-Georges and to walk the ground where your father lived and where your character met with so many adventures?

Thank you! Well, being there was a very intense experience for me. I traced the path where my father once rode his bicycle and where Gustave rides his. I walked through the chateau, Chenonceau, which is built over the river (check out the photos on my website if you find this hard to imagine!) and I walked through the woods behind it, thinking about what it would feel like to cross the chateau in an attempt to escape the Nazis.

I walked and rode back and forth over the peaceful river Cher many times during the week I was there. That river once was the Demarcation Line between the Occupied Zone and the Unoccupied Zone, and it was such a difficult barrier to cross, a barrier between death and life for some people. And now it is so easy—you can walk back and forth several times a day and never know what happened there. That is, unless you stop and read the plaques by the side of the road. I seemed to be the only one doing that. But maybe that is because the people who live in the village already know that history in their bones.


I love that you included the Author’s Note which helps the reader know how truth and fiction are woven together in this story. Can you talk about that a bit?
I felt a kind of ethical hesitation about making the novel too close to my father’s actual life story. I feel as if his life is his story to tell. But on the other hand, the novel grew out of anecdotes my father used to tell me and my five brothers and sisters as we were growing up. As a child, I loved the funny stories about his French childhood, especially about the mischief he and his sister and friends used to get into. Gradually I came to understand too why he and his family left France, although he did not say much about that. But his stories have always lived in my memory and I always wanted to know more. That’s where the novel came from. Some of his stories are so good, and the anecdotes are so telling, that I used them, though in modified form and shaped to my own purposes, in the novel. For example, the “looking-up game” that Gustave and his friends play in the first chapter, where they trick adults into looking up at the sky—that comes from a real game that my dad and his friends used to play. But to make it work with my purposes in the book, I added in the part about the adults thinking that the boys see a German bomber in the sky—so they get very angry at the boys when they realize it is all a trick. The boys aren’t yet as aware as the adults are of the realities of the war. That’s an example of the way my father’s stories became transmuted as they became part of the novel.


Is it true that Gustave’s story continues in a book you are working on now? Please tell us about that.

Yes! I am thrilled that Delacorte has given me an advance contract for my second novel, a continuation of Gustave’s story as he and his family come to the United States in 1942. Rebecca Short will again be editing the book. (She and Francoise Bui edited BLACK RADISHES.) In the new book, which is tentatively titled GREEN AND UNRIPE FRUIT, Gustave has to deal with his family’s new poverty in America, with adapting to a new language and a new culture, and with the loss of his French identity. He and his family are much safer in America and are grateful for the refuge they find. But on the other hand, Gustave is startled to encounter segregation and anti-Semitism in America, to find out that America doesn’t quite live up to its promise that there “all men are created equal.”


Wow!  Another must read.  I'll buy it. But don't take too long!

Thanks Susan for coming by to talk with us.  Here's hoping Black Radishes keeps getting the love it deserves!  And btw, I bet you’ve got a picture of black radishes you can share with us, don’t you?



Superb!  I loved having you here, Susan.  Do come back! 

Also, I thought both you and my readers might enjoy this entry on black radishes over at the Weird Vegetables blog!

I thought I’d start this series of posts from the beginning: the founding of the Soviet Union.


Since the age of seven when we officially started school, we were fed the following STORY:


The oppressive tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia most unfairly, depriving peasants and workers of rights and fortunes. The people tried to revolt, but the cruel tsar had repeatedly squashed each protest, until October 1917 – when under the leadership of the Great Comrade Lenin, his Communist Party and the Bolsheviks, a bunch of marines and soldiers stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd (formerly known as St. Petersburg – later to be known as Leningrad).


The sailors and soldiers took the tsar and his family into custody, overthrew the monarchy and created a new society in Russia – one of fairness and equality, where the working class became the ruling class, and the rich, the noble and the bourgeoisie were banished.



As we advanced through the grades, we learned more: that before Lenin’s Soviets took power, there existed a provisional government headed by the Mensheviks (from the word: “minority, as opposed to Bolsheviks, “majority.” The Mensheviks were painted in history lessons as morally weak and traitors to the true spirit of the Revolution, even though (a) the revolution of 1917 was actually successfully carried out under their leadership, not the Bolsheviks’ and b) the “minority” Mensheviks actually outnumbered the so-called Bolshevik majority.)


As some of you might have heard, we (supposedly) didn’t have religion in the Soviet Union. The moment our little feet stepped across the thresholds of our clean, well-lit primary schools, we were taught this: our great motherland had no need for God. After all, we were building our own paradise on earth, comrades!


In fact, looking back at it now – we did have gods in the Soviet Union. Our most important one was a man with a goat-like triangular beard, named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.


He ruled new Russia – the U.S.S.R. – from 1917 until his death in 1924.


By the time I started school sixty years later, Lenin was everywhere.


His name was the name of every city’s busiest thoroughfare.


His granite monument stood in the middle of children’s parks and busy squares.


His portrait hung on the wall of EVERY classroom – right above the blackboard.


His words – or words attributed to him – greeted the passerby from posters attached to public buildings.


There were books about grown-up Lenin, older Lenin, the wise Grandpa Lenin, we called him. They were legends about a man who seemed so modest and plain on the outside – always depicted as working at his desk, wearing simple pants and jackets and maybe a tie.

And yet, he was more than a simple man – he was wisdom, and perfection and triumph personified, he was our Soviet god.

 I remember as a very young child looking up at his portrait on the wall during class, and asking, in the privacy of my own mind, “Grandpa Lenin, what should I do? Am I being good enough?” “Is this a good choice I am making?”


Next month – I want to blog about the other side of this god-like, mysterious aura the lovely “Grandpa Lenin” and some of our other Communist leaders carried. Next month, I want to talk about the memories of fear our communist “gods” have inspired.


Wow! Katia, that is so powerful. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your personal history with us. I feel how big Lenin felt to you and how small you felt in comparison!  I'm especially interested since my work in progress take place in a communist country.  I can't wait for you to return!

BTW:  Here's a glimpse into some Soviet classrooms.

And if you sneak over to Katia's blog you'll find she's giving away a few copies of my books. Go enter the contest already!

I just finished BLACK RADISHES,a WWII story set in France.  Wow!  That book is filled with history, heart, and suspense. No wonder it earned a Sydney Taylor Honor Award!

And lucky me! I'll be interviewing Author, Susan Lynn Meyer here on Tuesday, February 8 as part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour.

I can't wait to meet all the authors on this tour and learn more about their books which, BTW are featured in this lively clip.



The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

Come tour with us!  February travel never looked so warm and inviting!

Bailey Clark - Come out, come out wherever you are!


You just won the February giveaway of BLUE in paperback. Please contact me. 

Congratulations and thanks for participating!

On this day in 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded.  And aren't we glad of that!

It began with 33 men - geographers, explorers, teachers, cartographers, military officers, lawyers, and financiers.

Nine months after forming, the society published the first issue of the magazine which later exploded in popularity when it moved from short technical articles to longer stories with stunning photos.

Revenues from the magazine have enabled expeditions to Tanzania, the North and South Poles, and the bottom of the sea. Do the names Jane Goodall, Robert Peary, Richard Byrd, and Jacques Cousteau ring any bells?

I actually have, in my possession, every issue ever published.  That's a lot of yellow in the attic shelf - right?!

No, actually it's a neat little box of CD's with every issue in searchable format. (Thanks to my sister and her hubby for donating that wonderful surprise to my personal archive!)


Recently I popped one of those 1960s era CDs into my computer, searched the titles, and there it was - an "in the moment" article on the Berlin Wall.

Ja toll!



To be frank, the set I have is old and slow on my computer.

But not to worry! 

You can buy the latest greatest version of this over at National Geographic.   At $  69.95 -  if you're a lover of history, science or National Geographic Magazine, could you possibly go wrong?

I can't seem to escape the war theme lately.  Maybe War and Peace is my new brand.  Or maybe it's always been there, waiting for me to realize.

Anyway, I recently submitted a manuscript about conscientious objection to war. If my protagonist could pick a song that expresses her viewpoint I think it would surely be, I Remember by Griffin House.

I like that this song asks questions without offering easy answers.

One of the many reasons to question going to war is its long lasting effects on veterans and their families. On Veterans Day, I blogged about Post War Trauma and included an excerpt from my book Comfort. I won't post it again here but feel free to hop over and read it.

A few years ago, I chose to write about a polio epidemic because the other option staring me in the face was a war story.  I didn't want to write a war story.

Guess what!  BLUE turned out to be a WWII homefront story which led to COMFORT and post-war trauma and suddenly I find that I cannot stop writing about war.

This quiet anti-war passion in me has been called forth and I am daily reminded that war is dangerous to humans and other living things.

Post War Conference let to Signing of the Treaty of Versailles President Woodrow Wilson is seated at the table, 5th from left. Image shared via wikimedia commons

Today's THIS DAY IN HISTORY feature at History.com is yet another example that one war leads to another and that revenge is a very bad idea.

The Great War is over.  Germany has surrendered.  Peace Talks begin on January 18, 1919. President Wilson has assured Germany that the Allied Powers will not deal too harshly with her.  But Wilson, whose philosophy was "peace without victory" is outnumbered in this approach.  So, in order to get the other allied leaders to form The League of Nations, he compromises, agreeing to make Germany take sole responsibility for the war and also to pay heavy reparations.

The idea was to keep Germany on her knees.

It was a very bad idea.  The German people were demoralized and frustrated. They were also ripe for a political hero.  I'm not sure why Adolf Hitler captured their hearts.  I can't comprehend the social and spiritual blindness he put over on the people - especially the blantant racism.  But,  historians seem to agree that the Treaty of Versailles with its heavy penalties to Germany, led directly to the rise of Hitler and World War II.

It's heartbreaking to think about - the knowledge that a bit of grace could have prevented so much tragedy.  If only we'd been willing to extend it...

Forgiveness is an upsidedown and backward idea.  It doesn't come easier to me than it does to anyone else.  But I believe it works.  I believe that individuals and nations who exercise unexpected compassion can change the world.

Gail Halvorsen who I blogged about a few days ago, is a clear example of someone, who after World War II, offered unexpected sweetness to the enemy.  Our relationship to Germany hasn't been the same since.  And that's a good thing!

Last week I blogged about Annexed, the historical novel by Sharon Dogar which tells the Anne Frank story from Peter Van Pels point of view.

I hope you will watch the video below in which Dogar discusses her intent.

Some of the heat she's taken has been unnecessary because it claims that she sexualized the relationship between Peter and Anne. She did not. Dogar may believe that Anne and Peter had sex but she did not include it in the book.  In fact, the amount of kissing in Annexed was less than that mentioned in The Diary of a Young Girl.
Peter is a teen-aged boy so there are some moments when he's alone in his room struggling with sexual feelings.   If I had written the book, I might not have portrayed those scenes in quite the way Dogar did but I don't see them as problematic for todays teens.

The whole point of the story is not sex at all.  It is personhood.  Peter is struggling to hang on to his sense of self in a world spirally into the depths.  Dogar raises haunting questions about that world and for that reason I champion this extraordinary book and the brave author who followed the story that would not let her go. In the end that's what a writer has to do.

BTW, Annexed has a website all its own.  Do check it out!

I just read this exciting book, Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's Chocolate Pilot by Michael O. Tunnell



Remember The Berlin Airlift - that momentous event in 1948 and 1949 when America and its allies delivered tons of food, fuel, and coal to West Berliners because the Soviet Sector of Berlin cut off their supplies?

Sixteen months and nearly 277 thousand flights later the allies had delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies.

During that time, grateful Berlin children gathered at Templehof Airport to watch the flights come in.  One day an American pilot, Gail Halvorson engaged a group of 30 children in conversation and because they were so grateful for flour and powdered milk, he got an idea. Right then and there Halvorsen promised the children that very soon he would drop candy for them.  He told them he'd wiggle his wings so they'd know which plane was his.

Sure enough! On his next daylight flight, he dropped Hershey bars via 3 handkerchief parachutes.

The parachutes found their intended audience and one thing led to another so that by January of 1949, "Operation Little Vittles" was a busy enterprise with its own headquarters and plenty of community volunteers.  It shipped eight hundred pounds of sweet supplies to Germany every other day.  Businesses and individuals donated eighteen tons of candy and gum - also two thousand sheets, three thousand hankies, and eleven thousand yards of ribbons for parachutes!

Don't forget that just a few years earlier America was bombing the Germans, a fact that makes The Berlin Airlift and the Candy Bomber story that much sweeter! Halvorsen went out of his way to build relationships with the people of Berlin, especially the children. He responded to letters and requests from children who called him Uncle Wiggly Wings, The Chocolate Uncle, and The Chocolate Pilot.

Margot Theis Raven tells one child's true story in Mercedes and The Chocolate Pilot.


Over the years, Halvorsen has reunited with Mercedes and other Berlin children, participated in commemorative candy drops, and even led the Berlin athletes into the stadium during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Somewhere along the way, ABC honored Halvorsen as their person of the week - hence this great clip.  Watch it and be grateful. Because, as Gail Halvorsen demonstrates, a little gratitude goes a long way!



PBS also created a documentary about The Berlin Airlift.  It's in my public library.  Or will be when I return it!  Maybe yours has it too.

Book # 1 in my YA Historical Fiction Challenge is  Annexed. I got it for Christmas (thank you, Chuck) along with a nonfiction called Anne Frank, The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. 

Anne is my hero. So when I learned via The Fourth Musketeer that Sharon Dogar had written a book from the viewpoint of Peter, the teen that Anne fell in love with there in the secret annex, I knew it was just a matter of time until I owned that volume.

Dogar did not disappoint me. The book starts fast and scary, then lulls just a bit during those first boring days in the attic when Peter wants nothing to do with Anne. But the relationship changes in a believable fashion - until Anne and Peter are good friends.
 
I suppose I read the book because I wanted more of Anne, herself.  I didn't exactly love Peter's sometimes unfavorable description of her because she's always been larger than life for me.  And yet, by her own admission, Anne had many faults and it was good for me to see her through someone else's eyes. 

So Peter did give me more of her. Conversations that may or may not have happened. Questions that could have been asked.  Their sure knowledge that under entirely different circumstances these two teens would not have shown the least bit of interest in each other. But there was nothing normal about their being locked up together for two years, hiding for fear of their life, hoping for rescue, and above all not being able to make sense of any of it. Peter asks the questions that all of us do about the Holocaust. 

Are you there? Are you listening?  Can you hear me?  

How could anyone do this? 

I read Peter's story because I wanted more of Anne but in the end it was Peter I wept for. And not only for him, of course but for all whose story he helped to tell.

Not everyone thinks Sharon Dogar should have told this story but I have to agree with her statement in this article  "The problem is that a writer doesn't always choose what they write."  So very true.

I, for one, am glad that this story haunted Dogar for 15 years. And I'm grateful that she finally wrote it. Judging from the reviews, lots of others are too. Here's the trailer. Have a look.

As things happen in the blogosphere, I stumbled one very fine day upon Magic Mirror, a blog authored by Katia Raina.

Katia introduces herself with these words: “When I was a little girl, I wore a pioneer scarf around my neck and believed in communism.”

Now that is a hook!

I’m super curious about Katia’s life in Soviet Russia and I’m excited that she’s agreed to guest blog for me about it – not once but on a regular basis!

But first, a convo with Katia. Feel free to eavesdrop.

1. Katia, clearly you’re a lover of words and literature. I’m curious - what did you read as a child? And how were your options limited or shaped by the Soviet system?

Well, first of all, keep in mind that I grew up in the 80s and became a teen in the 90s, after perestroika had already opened many doors, and even though there were still political prisoners sitting in the Gulag, information from the West was pouring in by then, and people were pretty much reading everything.

Then again, even if I were born earlier and say had to grow up in the awful stagnant 1970s under Brezhnev (whom I remember only briefly), I think my options as a child would still have been equally open. Kind of ironic when you think about it, because grownups’ choices were much more limited.

Either way, in addition to all the regular childhood propaganda picture books about the nice grandpa Lenin, the Russian fairytales and those by Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm (all of which I absolutely loved), like other Soviet children, I read Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” Rudyard Kipling’s short stories and “The Jungle Book,” known in Russian as simply “Mowghli,” things like that. I remember at around 11 years old, reading and re-reading getting into French literature: Voltaire I didn’t like so much, and Balzac I didn’t get at the time, either, but I loved George Sand (considered to be the first French woman writer, 19th century). I was especially crazy for Alexandre Dumas – I re-read “The Three Musketeers” six times and wept at the end every single time!

The Russians have always been fascinated – and enamored by the French culture.

Finally, I just want to add, after I turned 13, my new favorite became “Master and Margarita,” a totally insane fantasy/satire written in the 1930s, by Mikhail Bulgakov, in which the devil himself travels to Moscow where he of course wreaks all kinds of havoc. THAT book didn’t get published until the 60s, well after his death – and was definitely forbidden literature during stagnation, because it pokes fun at the Soviet Union. It is still my absolute favorite book of all time – still influencing my own work and making me laugh out loud every time I read it.

"It's funny when I was a kid I read all this hefty literature, and now it's hard for me to even open a book for grownups (with a few great exceptions). These days I devour American YA, especially contemporary and fantasy.

2. What do you want young readers around the world to know about life under communism? If you were a publisher choosing titles that you are passionate about, what genres and themes would you be publishing?
I am not really on a mission to educate young readers – or anyone about life under communism. The reason I write these stories is because they are making trouble inside me, wanting to come out, driving me crazy sometimes.  That said, I think it’s always a nice bonus for young American readers to “see the world:” they are so centered on what’s going on in their own beautiful, rather large, and isolated country. And I don’t blame them for that AT ALL – I think it’s a matter of simple geography: everything, except Canada and South America is just so far away! Of course, now, the world is shrinking, isn’t it, so what better time to find out what life is like – and was like – in far-off corners of the globe.

I think the main two things I’d like the readers to get out of my stories about life under communism is the fear – the pervasive fear people felt of their own government – and worse, their own neighbors, friends, people they wanted to fall in love with. In another story I wrote that is set later, in the 1990s, when Communism was collapsing, I wanted to show the widespread confusion that the changes have created in young people. On the one hand it was exhilarating to find all this freedom, you can be who you are now! Except, who exactly are you now? After learning that half the things you had been told your entire childhood were lies, it is hard to re-forge a new identity.

If I were a publisher choosing titles: I’d mostly go for what other publishers go for, I’d think: fun, quirky reads that make you laugh and cry and push the boundaries of your imagination, no matter what lands and times they are set in. I wouldn't concentrate oon historical fiction only -- but I also wouldn't shy away from it! Also, I think I would try and remember to give the kids the credit they deserve for being intelligent readers, for understanding the subtleties of human emotion, and for knowing right from wrong. Sometimes the grownups worry so much, and overprotect -- from too much emotion, too many story threads, too much information, or even a protagonist who makes wrong decisions. If I were a publisher, I would make it a point to not always assume everything must be explained to the young reader, to not always assume, the kids won’t get this, or they can’t handle that.

3. Can you tell us about your earliest impression or memory in which you felt at odds with the system you were living in? How old were you and what troubled you about it?
My mom was the one who was really at odds with the Soviet system, and she wouldn’t dare just flat out tell me about it, but she kind of let me know in bits and pieces. She told me that there was God, for example, even though Soviet children were taught not to believe that. She also told me I had a grandfather who lived in America, and I often dreamed about it – visiting him in a skyscraper – or even living there, even though we were taught that America was the enemy. The crazy thing was, when I was little, it didn’t feel like a contradiction – what my mom told me, and what I was taught in schools. Those two things were just two separate parts of me that wouldn’t mesh together till later.



I was about nine years old when I became aware that the contradiction was there. I told my mom I had a dream – a very dear dream I would do anything to make happen. She got all excited – she loves dreams, even now. “What is it?” she asked me. I said I wished and I hoped with all my heart that I would become accepted into the Young Pioneers organization – which every kid actually did get accepted into, it was like being a prelude into the Communist Party membership. I distinctly remember her reaction: “Oh,” was all she said. She didn’t say anything else. But her disappointment, it was so loud between us. I was stunned. I realized I had said something wrong – something “not cool” – something that let my mama down.

4. And now here you are, happy to be in the US.  How old were you when you came and what brought you here?
I was just a few weeks shy of my 16th birthday. My mom brought me and my grandmother to New York City. We received the status of Refugees, and the fact that my mom was a political dissident, and that her father lived in California helped, of course. By then I was so-o excited to go. When I arrived, the moment my foot stepped into JFK, I felt home. More home than I ever was in Russia. It was a truly mystical moment – like meeting a love of your life. I just felt like this was where I had always belonged.


5. Recently, I watched a documentary about the German Democratic Republic. One of the interviewees said something like, “East Germany’s history is my biography.” Can you reflect on that in terms of your own history in Russia?

Maybe if I was older, I would have said that. Because the government, the heavy propaganda, it dominated everything, it probably dominated who you were, too. When I was a really young child, my country probably did define me in too many ways. (And I hope to get into that a little more in some of my upcoming blog posts for you, Joyce. Some of my early childhood memories were actually pretty scary – I have one in mind I am thinking of sharing with you and your readers a bit later.

But even then, even in the scary times under Stalin, in the 1930s, when a wrong joke could send you and your entire family to the camps – or to death, even then there were people who let this awfulness define them – and then there were the brave souls who chose to define themselves, on their own terms. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do that, if I lived in more oppressive times. I know my mom would have. I guess I am lucky to have been born a little freer.

6. Want to tell us what you’re working on?
My first manuscript, “Castle of Concrete,” set in the early 1990s, against the backdrop of the falling apart Soviet Union, is about a Jewish girl who befriends another Jew, while falling hard for a boy she fears might be an anti-Semite. The story is now on submission to editors, represented by Jessica Regel of Jean V Naggar Literary Agency.

Right now, I am working on another Soviet-based manuscript for teenagers – this one set in Stalin’s late 1930s, the times when the oppression was at its worst. It’s a historical fantasy. I am so sorry, but as this is still a work-in-progress, I am feeling a bit superstitious about telling the world more about it at the moment. If things go well (meaning, if I finish it – no, when I do, and if my agent loves it), I will tell you all about it – hopefully soon!

Thank you so much Joyce for having me!

Oh wow, Katia - the pleasure is entirely mine.  I am so touched by your story and so eager for more.  I can't wait for that first guest post!  (Soon, please!)  Oh, and a hearty congrats on getting the agent.  I'm cheering for Jessica, you, and Castle of Concrete.

Congratulations to Judy Anderson who won the BLUE in paperback contest for January.  Judy is the lst winner of the 2011 and the 8th overall. Four more to go before the contest winds down at the end of April.

I will be blogging about Judy soon.  I haven't met her but we've corresponded and she's lived some history I want to share with you!

Next up however, is an interview with Katia Raina, a journalist, novelist, and mom who grew up in communist Russia.  Check out Katia's blog here.  And then come back tomorrow to eavesdrop on my conversation with her.

Congratulations to Judy!  Your book will soon be on its way.  Thanks for participating!

Recently, while I was checking out books on Germany at the library, the patron beside me mentioned a failed plot to kill Hitler. I knew that someone had carried a briefcase with a bomb into a meeting but neither of us could remember the would-be assasins's name.

Fast-forward one week:

I go back to the library for more books on Germany and come home with AFTER THE TRAIN, middle grade historical fiction by Gloria Whelan. 


I am reading along in this story when suddenly, Claus von Stauffenburg, the would-be Hitler assassin enters the plot.

Not in person, of course, because Hitler ordered him executed immediately and because After the Train takes place in 1955. Germany is trying to recover from WWII. Thirteen year old Peter Liebig remembers nothing about the war but his school teacher wants the class to learn from Germany's response to Hitler.



Herr Schmidt says ,"In spite of the things that happened during the war, there were Germans who risked their lives to oppose Hitler.  I want you to find such a person and write that person's story."

Peter talks to his father, an architect who was drafted to build barracks for Hitler's troops. Father struggles with shame but he also tells Peter he did one thing that he's proud of. He leaves Peter in suspense about what that was, unwittingly sending him on a quest to find out.

Father tells Peter about Claus Von Stauffenburg, the Nazi army official who tried, but failed, to kill Hitler.  Suddenly both Peter and I are engrossed in this piece of history. I rush to the internet where I get a refresher history lesson on Stauffenburg. Peter sneaks to his mother's dresser drawer and a stack of old letters where he discovers a secret his parents have kept from him. 

Peter also becomes friends with Herr Schafer, a Jewish bricklayer who's helping Peter's father rebuild St. Mary's Church.  Herr Schafer helps Peter understand the war's complexities in ways that Peter's parents cannot.

Remember my convo with the stranger at the library?  I'd love to bump into her again, hand her this novel, and say, "We should be reading more historical fiction for young people".

And now to St. Mary's church. 

Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2005-0054 / Unknown / CC-BY- shared under Creative Commons Guidelines.  Here's a picture of it after the war.



Photo by Arnold Paul shared under Creative Commons guidelines Here's the restored version of St. Mary's Church.



Growing up during the Vietnam War, I heard on the radio that the military powers declared a cease fire for Christmas Day. I remember my indignation - if they could stop fighting for one day, why not the rest of the year? Why not end the war altogether?

Recently while reading up on "The Great War", I discovered a precedent for that Christmas Day Truce.  And honestly, this is one of my all time favorite war stories.  (Not that I actually have favorite war stories!)

The following is taken directly from the Barnes and Noble blog.

Here's what happened: on Christmas Eve, at various points along the western front, German soldiers asked their allied counterparts to humor their putting up Tannenbaums, the traditional German candle-lit Christmas tree, along their own lines. At other points, Germans asked the English not to fire during a celebration for a German officer. At others, they sneaked Christmas food into British lines. At still others, allied troops were astonished to hear the Germans singing "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night"). From here, rapprochement proceeded haphazardly and along different lines, but with the common result of an informal armistice across large portions of the front.


By Christmas Day, some parts of No Man's Land saw soccer games between soldiers from both countries.

Men exchanged gifts and souvenirs, discovering the similarities between them. By Boxing Day, men on both sides wanted to stretch the truce to New Year's Day, but staff officers were already working to eliminate these insubordinate eruptions of humanity. Beginning on December 26 and going forward, generals ordered artillery bombardments (controlled by soldiers far behind the line) to interrupt gatherings in No Man's Land, while line inspections led to fired shots that ended the pleasantries. "Be on guard tomorrow," read one French warning sign to the Germans. "A general is coming to visit our position. For reasons of shame and honor, we shall have to fire." (p. 150) Meanwhile, regular troop replacements removed those who'd just bonded with their adversaries, filling the lines with those who had no reason to humanize the man on the other side. Within a few days, the accidental peace was over.

From History.com:   In 1915, the bloody conflict of World War I erupted in all its technological fury, and the concept of another Christmas Truce became unthinkable.

I admit there's something in me that's cynical about that sentence. I recognize the reality of the situation but truthfully in some ways I'm still the idealistic teen who believes that we could stop fighting every day - if we chose to.  If we replaced revenge with forgiveness.  If we handed out food instead of armaments. If we learned to speak each other's languages and dared to travel away from our own homes and our self- protective attitudes. 

On December 20, 1957 at age 22, Elvis Presley was drafted.

 From This Day in History:

Widely praised for not seeking to avoid the draft or serve domestically, Presley was seen as a model for all young Americans. After he got his polio shot from an army doctor on national TV, vaccine rates among the American population shot from 2 percent to 85 percent by the time of his discharge on March 2, 1960.

The March of Dimes understood the power of celebrity! Elvis came into his career at a time when polio was at its peak. In 1955 Jonas Salk's vaccine was declared a success. The March of Dimes began calling on celebrities to help promote it. The following year, Elvis recieved his vaccination in front of cameras. 

You've probaby seen the image multiple times but, if not, you can check it out over at Smithsonian's online exhibit - Whatever Happened to Polio?

The March of Dimes will always be remembered for its incredible contributions to polio research and its assistance to polio patients. After the arrival of the vaccine this worthy organization eventually turned it's attention to helping families with premature babies and children with birth defects. Perhaps you and I should honor MOD and the children it serves with a Christmas gift.

Just click on the purple DONATE button at the bottom of the MOD page. And wouldn't that be a lovely way to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

This has got to be one of my favorite inspirational books!

SIX MILLION PAPER CLIPS: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial shows what a small southern community can do to make a difference in this world.

Whitwell, TN 
Population: 1600
Percentage of non-whites - 3
Number of Jews, Catholics, and Muslims - 0

Whitwell Middle School Principal, Linda Hooper wanted to prepare her students for the real world. For people who are different from them.  For the likelihood that eventually they will experience intolerance or rejection.

So in 1998, Hooper and her staff initiated a voluntary after-school class for students and parents.  The subject was the Holocaust.  As students learned about the deaths of millions of Jews they tried to grasp the numbers.  How many was 6 million anyway?

They decided to find out by collecting 6 million of something.  But what?

As it turned out, paperclips were the perfect symbol because during the Hitler era the non-Jews of Norway wore paperclips to protest the deportation of Jews.  And so the collection began.

One paperclip led to another until eventually this tiny town became the home of The Children's Holocaust Memorial - an authentic German railway transport car with 6 million paperclips.

But it led to so much more. Millions more paperclips for one thing.  Visits from Holocaust Survivors for another.  And best of all, a change of attitudes as students began treating each other differently.  Schools from other places come to visit.  Some are starting similar projects with Whitwell students as their inspiration and as their support.

Here's a trailer for PAPER CLIPS, a documentary about the project.


You'll want to get your hands on both the book and the movie! I promise. And who knows? Maybe you'll start your own monumental project!

First I meet Alex via comments at my blog.  I start exploring Alex's blog and it's love at first sight.  Clearly this is a blogger who cares about kids and the effects that war has had on them. The Children's War deals directly with books about children during WWII.

Before I've even caught up on reading The Children's War, I discover Alex has blogged about BLUE.   Finding a lovely review on a book blog is always a day maker!

Finding blog comments that lead me to another book blog is just icing on the BLUE Monday cake! Deborah has several blogs (prolific woman!).  At A Bookish Libraria: The Dame Reviews she blogged extensively about polio and her mother's experience with it in the very epidemic that is at the heart of BLUE. I'm most eager to learn more about Deborah's mom's story.

This post is for everyone of course, but especially for local historian, Jennifer Marquardt-Leach because she loves costumes and sewing.

Jennifer (left) at Hart Square not so far from my home.

 Jennifer I thought of you when I spoke at the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools a few weeks ago.After our presentation, Carol Baldwin and I spent some time in the exhibit area

• All Historical Fiction books must be YA or MG
• Books don't have to be 2011 releases.
• .Anyone can join.
•  Please link to a public (web) place where I, (YA BLISS) can find you.
• You can join at anytime.
•  The challenge runs from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011

Remember that contest?  The one where I give away a copy of BLUE in paperback on the lst of each month?

Well it's that time again and this month I actually remembered! So with a little help from my dear hubby I have a winner to announce. 


Julie Penley.  You're the woman!  Congratulations and thanks for participating!

I now have 7 winners as you can see in the sidebar.  Five more to go before this year-long contest is fully wound down.  If you haven't yet entered but want to, simply leave a comment saying, I want BLUE in paperback!  (Or send me an email if you prefer!)

In celebration of Mark Twain's birthday  (November 30, 1835), I'm going to post a few pics of my summer visit to his house and museum in Hartford, CT.

The museum incorporates lots of Twain's pithy quotes on its walls.  This one is a little blurry because we were following a high energy tour guide who was on the move! But I really like this quote.  Hmmm - I like most of Twain's quotes!








We weren't allowed to take pics inside the Mark Twain House - only in the museum. This Lego model of the home built in the 1980s cost approximately the same as the real deal built a century earlier - $ 45,000.00!

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II called all Christians in Europe to fight against Muslims. At a gathering of clerics and noblemen in France, Urban declared a righteous war to take back Jerusalem.

"Deus volt!" or "God wills it!" he declared.

Seljuk Turks had conquered Jerusalem and barred Christians rom from the city. Urban exaggerated stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for those who died in the "service of Christ".

Between 60,000 and 100,000 people responded to the call to march on Jerusalem. Many died in the process. Eventually the Christians "won".

"Victory" is hardly a word I'd use to describe this sad piece of history. And "Christian" isn't either. "Righteous war" just feels like an oxymoron.

Urban's crusade was the first of seven against Muslims over the next two centuries. Today the entire world feels the repercussions.

Read more on the First Holy War here.

Thanks to Alex Baugh, I just discovered The Weekly Geeks, a blog site which suggests a community blogging idea each week.  I'm signing up because - for one thing, I sometimes need blogging suggestions and for another, this week's suggestion was Antique Books.

In a local antique store, I found the issue of LIFE that featured the Miracle of Hickory polio hospital and then I ordered another from ebay so I could make this display.

Obviously you can't see the images well on this pic so view those photos here. Be sure to click on each image to get a larger view. There really are some amazing photos which reveal the nature of the emergency hospital.

I'm starting a new book which means I have a whole new piece of history to explore. In this case, it's actually more than one piece of history - at least I think so.

Which means I have lots of eras to get familiar with. And multiple characters to live in those eras. People who will go through immigration, deportation, war, and I don't know what all. I have only the vaguest idea of what will happen or what really did happen in the history behind this story.

I have a concept but no real certainty that I can pull it off. I have 3 DVDs and 4 books to get me started on research. I have the internet. And dreams of travel.

I have 6 lines. I think they are rather beautiful.

I feel very rich.

And as hopeful as an immigrant moving to a new land.