Bookishly Jewish

We talk about Jewish unity a lot these days, about recognizing Jews from across a spectrum of practice, but often these discussions feature the very necessary topic of giving equal respect to Ashkenaz, Sephardic, and Mizrahi traditions while omitting the specific perspectives of Jews of color that aren’t from a Mizrahi or Sephardic background. One such Jew is Mia, the main character of Emily Bowen Cohen’s middle grade graphic novel Two Tribes. When Mia brings up the topic of diversity, there is a rush to inform her of all the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews attending her school. The only problem is that Mia isn’t from those backgrounds. Her mother is Ashkenaz and her father is Native American and it rapidly becomes clear that nobody is entirely sure how to process that, least of all Mia herself. 

Throughout the book Mia is embraced as a Jew, with the Rabbi’s wife even assuring her that she is “one hundred percent Jewish”, however this is besides the point. Mia’s father, from whom her mother is divorced, is a member of the Muscogee Nation. Mia wants to learn more about this part of her heritage but resources are scare and in the case of a school library book – offensive. She tries to express this to the adults in her life but they instead focus on her upcoming Bat mitzvah. In her plight, I recognized two common problems. Adults often disregard the views of children even as those children are trying to explain what they need in every possible manner available to them. Unfortunately, the same pattern is often repeated when a group in the minority seeks help from the majority. Their voices and requests are plowed over in favor of what the majority thinks they should have asked for instead.

When Mia is teased for being adopting by a classmate who assumes she can’t have been born to biologic Jewish parents because of her appearance, Mia is distraught to realize she can’t really talk about her father’s side of the family. Her mother, stepfather, and Rabbi try to protect her by assuring her she is Jewish and nobody should ever assume she is adopted because there are Jews with every possible appearance. This completely dwarfs and disregards Mia’s actual existential issue – she handled the bully just fine, but he awakened within her a desire to understand the Muscogee part of herself and nobody was willing to help her.

Mia’s father, in his own words, made some very big mistakes in Mia’s early years. The details are kept vague, but the reader is given the impression that at the very least he cheated multiple times on Mia’s mother and gaslit her about the entire situation. Understandably, Mia’s mother is hesitant to reopen communications even though Mia still receives cards and occasional phone calls from her father’s family. However, nursing old wounds does little to answer Mia’s questions and she grows so desperate, she cashes in her bat mitzvah money and runs off to her father’s house while lying to him about why she is there. 

When Mia finally connects with her father, he tell her that he accepts responsibility for his prior actions and has rejoined the church in order to be a better person. The reader will find proof of that change in the way he respects Mia’s Judaism and says he can’t take her to a fellowship meeting without first discussing it with her mother. Indeed, when Mia is so frustrated about the situation back home that she says he doesn’t want to be Jewish, it is her grandmother that tells her it would be a shame to let all her beautiful traditions go to waste. Mia learns that her grandmother had her own traditions taken from her in a boarding school that “re-educated” Native American children. It was therefore particularly moving for me to read this same woman encouraging her granddaughter to explore both parts of her rich cultural heritage.

Thanks to the trip, Mia meets her cousins, participates in a pow wow and forms a stronger relationship with her father, but when the truth about her visit comes out both her mother and her father both feel betrayed. It is fitting then, that resolution comes in the form of Judaism’s ultimate guide to repentance -the book of Jonah. Through studying Jonah, Mia learns how to repair the relationship between herself and her mother and how to mediate between her parents so she can experience both aspects of her heritage. She also finds the ability to make her voice heard and teaches something to the Rabbi who inadvertently hurt her in the beginning of the book with his comments. It’s a touching scene that shows none of us is above learning from the other. 

Often the voices we most need to hear are the ones we are in such a rush to speak over. Therefore, while I’m thrilled to share my experience of this book with you, I would much rather let it speak for itself. Pick up a copy and see what it has to show you. You just might be surprised. 

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Find It: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

There is one universal piece of writing advice that just about everyone agrees on: do not read your reviews. It is a one way ticket to despair – one star reviews for shipping damage, not getting reviews at all, and direct assaults against the writer – are all sadly common. But the real crux of the matter is that these are reader spaces and the writer just doesn’t belong in them unless invited. As a reader, I enjoy poking around reviews and am much more easily able to discard the egregious ones. When browsing some early reviews (trade and public) for Mari Lowe’s sophomore effort The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman, I found they highlighted exactly why such a book is needed.

Lowe has once again set her book in an ultra orthodox Jewish community, just as she did for her debut Aviva and the Dybbuk. The reviews – which are largely complimentary- display how very little most readers know about this population. There was confusion about why kids loved rollerblading so much, comments both pro and anti the time spent on religious exposition, and an overall fascination by the schooling system. As someone familiar with ultra orthodox Judaism, none of those things surprised me at all or even seemed worthy of comment. What did surprise me was seeing that reviewers thought all the characters were white, whereas several of them read as potentially sephardic or mizrahi Jews of color to me. Perhaps I just have a more broad view of orthodox communities.

Ultra orthodox communities restrict the use of cell phones and email. There is extremely limited access to TV or video games in Shaindy’s milieu. She, and children like her, need something to do. This is why rollerblading is very much alive and well in these communities. Similarly, an exploration of Jewish repentance is necessary exposition because it is so wildly different from the Christian version. Thanks to Christian hegemony we are all familiar with phrases like “Jesus died for our sins,” or the way a third act grovel works in a typical romance novel. However, Jewish repentance requires not just regret and forgiveness from God, it also demands the acquisition of forgiveness from the harmed individuals and concrete steps towards reparative action or a refusal to commit the sin again in a similar situation.

It is crucial the reader approach the book with that knowledge because repentance becomes truly necessary for Shaindy. She has long been the subject of benign neglect by her classmates and is thrilled to be given attention by her popular neighbor Gayil, even if it means assisting in a series of increasingly distressing pranks. Not only is Shaindy uncomfortable with the effects these pranks are having on the other girls, she begins to fear the fall out for herself. There’s a nice twist I won’t ruin, but let’s just say that as the holiday of repentance – Yom Kippur- approaches, Shaindy is in a position to both forgive and be forgiven. 

Orthodox readers will enjoy rolling their eyes right along with Gayil when the school principle gives a speech comparing Jewish student to Princesses and insisting they behave with a commensurate level of decorum. Seriously – that line has been going around since time immemorial and has very much lost its effectiveness in this age of democracy. Yet principles still insist on using it. It also has some visible effects on Gayil who suffers under the constant demands for perfection in a community where ones reputation is everything. I loved the descriptions of a community where “kids rule the streets” and a shul can be found on every other block. General public readers will sink right into Shaindy’s internal journey. Who doesn’t want to be recognized by their classmates? Who wouldn’t want attention from the most popular girl in school? Shaindy’s accessible emotional landsacpe will provide an easy inlet for anyone into this new world.

It is in the character of Gayil where I felt things coming apart a little. Since we cannot spend any time in her head – I realize this is necessary due to the nature of the plot twists – Gayil comes across as quite possibly sociopathic. I don’t believe all character in a book, even a MG book, need to have a tidy arc of repentance and improvement. Nor will they necessarily suffer consequences for their actions. The world doesn’t work that way. However, the reader is asked to have some sympathy for Gayil and it is really hard to do so. Her actions were not mistakes. They took meticulous planning and Gayil shows almost no remorse for the harm she has caused. Her only move towards reconciliation comes when she is threatened, and her actions are way out of proportion to the offenses she perceives herself as having received. I was proud of Shaindy for how she ended the book but I was thoroughly confused by Gayil. Perhaps she needs her own sequel.

At this point, I would be remiss if I did not point out that once again, Lowe has slayed me with her dedication. Before I even opened the book I felt like I was both seen and given an insight into the authors’ humor and grace. She addresses sixth graders everywhere with the old Hebrew adage “Gam Zeh Yaavor,” which loosely translates to “this too shall pass.” I laughed until I cried. Only a teacher and Jewish school graduate could truly understand how much kids in that awkwardly difficult year need those words of wisdom, how huge every difficulty seems at that time, and how trivial they now seem in the lens of hindsight. I will echo her sentiments. To all my readers currently struggling- this too shall pass, and as the book shows, there is the potential for all your mistakes to be forgiven. 

Ultra orthodox communities have their own printing presses and publishing imprints. I have enjoyed stories like this one printed there. However, in bravely taking her words to a mainstream publisher Lowe once again shows that our stories are valuable to the world. That Jewish themes like forgiveness and reparative action are universal. It’s good that reviewers are both confused and delighted by this, because we are a confusing and delightful people. I look forward to Lowe’s next work where I can once again feel seen.

BookishlyJewish received a physical arc of this book from the publisher after we wrote in to request one from the publisher.

Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

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At first blush, A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar is not the type of book one turns to for comfort and inspiration in times of need. I describe it as “pulpy but with Holocaust features.” Not exactly the stuff of Hallmark movies. Going in, I prepared for a rough ride. Having read some of Tidhar’s short fiction before, and struggled with it, I was expecting shock value, an exploration of the erotization of travesty, and to be slightly disgusted by every single character. What I failed to anticipate was that this book would force me to rethink everything I knew to be fundamental about humanity.

The story is told in two alternating timelines. The first, where we spend the bulk of our time, involves an alternate history in which the Nazis never fully rose to power and Hitler is a refugee turned detective in an increasingly xenophobic London. He is hired to find a missing Jewish girl, encounters the usual gumshoe obstacles including a lot of grotesque violence directed towards him, and along the way is framed for the murder of numerous prostitutes.

In the second timeline we follow Shomer, a writer of the Jewish pulp novels known as shund, who is currently an inmate of Auschwitz. While this story line is certainly gory, the voice is fundamentally different from the pulp of the other timeline. It is the voice of a truth so abhorrent it can never be equaled by fiction. It is also the story of how people survived and processed this reality.

There is a featured debate between two Auschwitz prisoners about how to record these events. Most readers familiar with Holocaust literature will recognize them as stand ins for Eli Wiesel and Ka-Tzetnik 135633, survivors who later documented the Holocaust in their own unique ways. Shomer finds a different solution to this problem – inventing his own world to help his mind escape the physical horrors his body is enduring. It is a world with the distinctivelly pulp voice of shund, in which Hitler is a washed up detective.

The connection between the timelines is wonderfully spun, but it is not what I found so captivating about this book. I was indeed grossed out by many portions of the Hitler narrative. It is violent, full of ugly sex and unspeakable acts of humiliation and torture. My stomach turned numerous times and only later did I recall that the victim is in fact Hitler. This ability to force the reader into radical empathy for the worst possible human ever to exist, was the true brilliance of the work for me. We are made to watch our own revenge porn through the eyes of the original aggressor. And we do not like the picture that results.

I know what you’re thinking. So what if Hitler had a bad day? Cry me a river. But hear me out.

I admit, it is extremely repugnant to spend any time in that man’s head, hearing his vitriol towards Jews while he shows zero self awareness despite similar hate directed towards him by radical political parties rising to power around him. You will be made to feel guilty for finding it relatable and funny when he goes after the publisher that is quashing his artistic ambitions. However, this is necessary to bring the reader to a conclusion about the purpose of empathy and kindness. They are not for the benefit of the recipient, but rather for the rest of us, lest we lose our own humanity. Our feelings of revulsion at the violence committed against another human are there to remind us that these things should not be done. Even if that victim is the worst possible human ever to exist.

We live in an age where thanks to social media political ideals are rapidly turned into diatribes against individual humans. For example,the laudable idea of wealth equality somehow becomes lovingly detailed social media posts about the abduction, torture and cannibalism of named billionaires and their families. We, the global ‘we’ including Jews and gentiles alike, dehumanize people under the banner of various ideologies. We make life cheap in service of our lofty goals and revenge fantasies. In doing so, we lose our own humanity.

I found myself identifying with Shomer. There’s a reason I favor Jewish space ship stories – they allow me to envision a planet on which there is no antisemitism. A future in which being a Jew does not have to mean being immediately demonized and misunderstood. Likewise, Shomer has created an entire fictional world in which he can meet out justice to his oppressors and escape his ghastly present. As a master of shund, the world he creates is visceral and captivating, the perfect escapism. Yet, as a writer, this book showed me I could also aim for more.

For all my appreciation of Shomer, it is Tidhar’s writing that I want to emulate right now. I want to force the reader to walk in the shoes of even those they find most vile and still dredge up some empathy from their hearts. That is not just the work of a master author, but a master human, who realizes that we need those feelings to find within ourselves the means to move on. That only through living the other can we, all of us, as a human nation stop committing horrific violence against one another and justifying it the same way Hitler did – with political ideology and radicalization of both the left and the right.

It is a dream of mine that someday perhaps a person who views Jews as the root of all evil might pick up one of my works and realize that we are just people the same as they are. Maybe through reading we can learn to think of one another as complex, living, breathing, beings that are more precious than whatever the trendy ideology of the day is. Perhaps we can learn to value human life above all else, including our old wounds and hurts.

A Man Lies Dreaming is not pretty, but to me it was profoundly moving. It celebrates the power of the mind to triumph over the physical and took me on a journey that probed my deepest and most shameful places so that I could emerge with a new understanding of what it means to be a Jew and a human in this world at this time. For me, that encapsulates the ability to experience despair while still finding hope, to survive the unthinkable, and to move on with my humanity intact.

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Find It: GoodReads | Bookshop | Amazon

Our last Sukkah guest, J.S. Fields, has worked with a variety of independent presses and has some really great advice for writers on how to find your own sweet spot. Plus, there’s talk of wooden spaceships!

BookishlyJewish: Can you talk about how you ended up with your publisher? What influenced your choice to publish with a small press?

J.S. Fields: I’d been published a while in nonfiction before heading to fiction. During the very first DVPit I was offered a contract with Ninestar Press, which published my first few books. Recently I’ve switched over to Space Wizard and have been very happy with the choice. The royalty rates are the best in the business as far as I know, I can buy books at cost to sell at conventions, and the press does decent marketing.

I did have an agent for a while and, as I noted before, have published with mid-sized presses. I really like small press for the flexibility and the better royalty rates. I don’t need to sell 10,000 copies to pay the mortgage with small press. I can write for my little niche of readers and still buy groceries. In that same vein though I have no interest in doing layout and editing myself, or wrangling cover artists, or doing my own marketing. So I needed at least some sort of publisher. I think finding the right fit in small press really worked for me.

BookishlyJewish: What is it like to work with a small press? Any surprises along the way?

J.S. Fields: When I first started with small press I was surprised at how much being able to buy books at cost mattered. Previously I could only get them at 40% off list, and when you have a $12 book, you have to sell hundreds to make back your booth at a convention. Learning how to negotiate book costs, royalty rates, these were big learning curves. 

BookishlyJewish: What’s your writing process like? Pantser or plotter?

J.S. Fields: I am 100% a pantser. I hold interviews in my head for characters and then get to work writing. This means I delete over half of what I write, but I enjoy exploring worlds and characters, so this doesn’t bother me.

I’ve tried to outline and all that happens is I quickly diverge from the outline. What sounded good one day doesn’t work the next. I have to write where the characters are in that moment, which means outlines tend to just be a waste of otherwise useful writing time.

BookishlyJewish: Many of your books have interesting takes on gender and sexuality. I’m particularly intrigued by your newest release, QUEEN, and the incredible description of the female-only planet where no one is allowed to leave. Can you talk a little about your inspiration for this book?

J.S. Fields: Both my mother and one of my aunts are staunch feminists so I grew up reading a lot of the surrounding literature. This was, of course, all white and heteronormative. A few years back my aunt sent me a copy of Herland, which is a 1915 feminist utopia novel with an all-women colony where reproduction occurs via pathogenesis. The story is told from the perspective of a few men who stumble upon the colony.

I cannot tell you how utterly enraged I was at this book. Everyone is white. Everyone is beautiful. These women have no interest in sex, not just with men, but with each other. I…cannot. The amount of erasure is absolutely exhausting. This book haunted me. It haunted me for years as I hunted up more and more ‘all-women’ media and decided that most of it was just exclusionary garbage. Not a feminism I want to be attached to.

In response I wrote Queen, a future dystopian sci fi where Earth is toast and the world governments populated new planets more or less thematically. Queen is a barren wasteland world where they dumped all the problem women—where woman meant someone with a vulva. The main character is intersex (as am I), having the right external features to get exiled to Queen, and still coming to terms with what womanhood might mean for her (or not mean). There’s adventure and science and giant beetles and thousands of bunnies, sure, but there’s also a flagrant rebuttal to 1900s all-women utopia books, too. And the women have a lot of sex.

Take that, Herland

BookishlyJewish: What are you hoping readers take away from your work?

J.S. Fields: Mostly I aim for inclusion and escapism. I want my work to be fun, adventurous. I want it to be like your favorite sci-fi serial, but one you can easily see yourself in. I want people to finish one of my books with a smile, then maybe have to sit for a minute with themes they didn’t realize they’d absorbed.

BookishlyJewish: Do you have a favorite memory or highlight you can share about being a published author?

J.S. Fields: The first time a fan came up to me at WorldCon (Ireland). Wow. She just…flagged me through a crowd. She’d read all my work. She loved it. She said something like “Thank you all you do for the gays” then disappeared amongst the surge of people. 

Thousands of people at that convention and I had a fan.

BookishlyJewish: I can’t help but notice that you are a scientist and that you make chainmail by hand. This is so fascinating! Does any of that influence your writing?

J.S. Fields: The chainmail doesn’t, because that is a pain in the ass. There is, however, a ton of science in my work. My Ardulum series, which is generally space opera, actually has a fair amount of hard science buried in it. I love being able to weave my field of science—wood science!—into a genre that usually relies on physics and engineering. 

No one expects wooden spaceships!

BookishlyJewish: Has SFF always been your intended genre or do you write in other genres too? What draws you to this particular genre?

J.S. Fields: This is definitely my genre. I grew up watching old sci fi serials late at night with my mother. Not just the standard Star Trek and Babylon Five, but the one season failures, like M.A.N.T.I.S., Time Trax, and VR-5. And Highlander. Oh goodness was such a Highlander fan. I got the catalogs. Mom and I got all the VHS boxed sets and agonized over our free gifts. I have a Highlander bathrobe. I treasure it.

BookishlyJewish: Any words of advice for writers just starting out?

J.S. Fields: I get contacted pretty frequently by new writers who can’t figure out how to get their book published. 9.9/10 times they’ve never had anyone but their family read the work. When you’re just starting out you really need either a critique group or a really good developmental editor. It has nothing to do with your skill and more with learning how the publishing game is played. Once you’ve got a few books under your belt you can break all the rules you want. But you have to know the rules to break them, and there are formulas that sell and those that don’t. Hedge your bets. Get that first book into not just readable but sellable shape. Get that contract. Sell a bunch of copies. Then write your magnum opus. 

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book

J.S. Fields: I love Lilah Tov.

This is one of my kid’s favorite books. Even though they’re well past picture book stage, the artwork and emotions in this book pack a punch. It’s beautiful, heart wrenching, but so full of hope. We read it maybe once a month still, right before sleep, and think of how nice it is to snuggle in bed with a lovingly family and safe home.

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J.S. Fields’ Bio:

J.S. Fields (@Galactoglucoman) is a scientist who has perhaps spent too much time around organic solvents. They enjoy roller derby, woodturning, making chainmail by hand, and cultivating fungi in the backs of minivans. Nonbinary, and yes, it matters.

Fields has lived in Thailand, Ireland, Canada, USA, and spent extensive time in many more places. Their current research takes them to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest each summer, where they traumatizes students with machetes and tangarana ants while looking for rare pigmenting fungi. They live with their partner and child, and a very fabulous lionhead rabbit named Merlin.

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Find It:

Queen: Goodreads | Amazon

Ardulum – First Don: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

I almost passed out when Elijah Kinch Spector volunteered to be interviewed for indie week. His book, Kalyna The Soothsayer, was published by Erewhon press and was one of my favorite reads of last year. Despite my epic fangirling, Elijah still managed to provide witty and insightful answers about identity in writing, balancing humor and tension, and why Kalyna’s grandmother is the way she is.

BookishlyJewish: I remember reading the afterword for SOOTHSAYER and thinking to myself this was a book you had worked on for a while. What was it like to finally see her out in the world?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Surreal, euphoric, and a little frightening. To me, someone reading my fiction actually feels more revealing than someone reading, say, an autobiographical essay. Autobiography tells you my version of events in my life; fiction tells you how I think and what I prioritize. (This may be doubly true for a writer who creates an entirely new world to set their story in.) That vulnerability is part of what’s intoxicating about putting art out into the world, and it’s also absolutely fucking terrifying.

BookishlyJewish: How has the process of writing the second book differed from the first, now that there is a publication deadline?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Everyone I’ve talked to says the second book is really hard, and everyone is right. But in some ways, the edits are easier this time around, because I’m still fundamentally the same person I was when I started the book in 2021.

SOOTHSAYER, by contrast, had a decade’s worth of drafts and revisions, which can feel like—and I’m going to quote myself here, sorry—”a disconcerting palimpsest that exposes a hundred different people you used to be, or almost were.”

BookishlyJewish: I just have to put it out there that Kalyna’s  grandmother is maybe the worst human I have ever encountered. The literal worst. How did you come up with this fascinating character?

Elijah Kinch Spector: At first, I just thought it would be darkly funny. It can be very cathartic, and fun, to write a character who just says the meanest shit in the world. She’s also a villain in the story that Kalyna can’t just stab, and in fact has to live with, which is a great obstacle to give your protagonist.

Grandmother is also a sort of grotesque exaggeration of the family member with absurdly high expectations for you, whom you consistently disappoint. (Something that I think a lot of Jews, and many others, can relate to.)

BookishlyJewish: Your writing, for me, had a combination of both exciting action and really hilarious moments. Sometimes with the hilarious moments coming DURING the tense action sequences. How did you balance this?

Elijah Kinch Spector: I think small funny or awkward moments that puncture the tension, and show how ridiculous everyone is, can actually make the violence feel more messy and human—more real. But I tried to interrupt the tension without stopping the momentum: it usually isn’t believable, for example, when someone rattles off a long, involved insult in the middle of fighting for their life, but it’s very plausible that someone in a swordfight might slip and fall on their ass. (And then maybe fart?)

BookishlyJewish: With books that are this twisty and full of political intrigue I often wonder if the writer knows the ending from the start or if they discover it along the way and smooth things out during revisions. Are you a plotter or pantser and how did you manage to achieve such a level of layered complexity?

Elijah Kinch Spector; Oh boy, pantser all the way, to my great detriment. I had vague ideas of where things would go, but pretty much figured it out as I went. (And not just the plot, the worldbuilding too.) It took a lot of editing to make it work, and there are whole characters and factions that were cut or added (or both) over the years.

BookishlyJewish: I was also really intrigued by the physical layout of SOOTHSAYER, with the chapter lengths being incredibly variable, and sometimes if they were only a paragraph or two, they appeared on the same page. Plus the cast of characters at the beginning which gave us just enough to entice us about so many of the characters. Did the book always look this way, and if not, how did it evolve to its current state?

Elijah Kinch Spector: The list of characters was an idea my editor, Sarah Guan, had after the book was done. And it was a good one: there are a lot of people in this thing!

The varying chapters were there from the beginning: I thought it made sense as the way Kalyna would organize her thoughts. Much, much later, I realized the structure is also due to my (at the time) undiagnosed ADHD. This goes back to the vulnerability of fiction: that structure is pretty much how my brain works, and now anyone can see it.

BookishlyJewish: Can you talk about the pros and cons of working with a small/independent press? Were there any surprises for you?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Naturally, a small press doesn’t have the PR money that a major publisher does, but a major publisher won’t spend that money on all of its authors, either. Erewhon Books—and especially their marketing manager, Marty Cahill—gives every author so much attention and care. I’m sure I got to do more press for the book than I would have as an unknown debuting at a big publisher.

BookishlyJewish: How has life changed now that your book is out in the world, and receiving such great reviews?

Elijah Kinch Spector: In the times between doing lots of press, my life is pretty much unchanged. Except that once the book was out I thought to myself, with great satisfaction, “Well! That’s a line in my obituary sorted.”

BookishlyJewish: Some of my readers are surprised when I review second world fantasy and decide that the characters are Jewish coded, but it is one of my favorite genres. Do you feel Judaism seeps into your books, and if yes, is this on purpose or accidental?

Elijah Kinch Spector: Oh God yes, both purposefully and accidentally. There are technically no Jews in Soothsayer, but the book is so Jewish I used to worry that gentiles wouldn’t like it. Kalyna is definitely Jewish coded, but she’s also coded to a lot of other things, which is why I love secondary world fantasy: it doesn’t have to map directly onto our current ideas of identity.

But, to be clear, “Jew” is my number one identity signifier by a mile, and that’s reflected in everything I write (and think, and say, and do).

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book.

Elijah Kinch Spector: Favorite is hard, but I’ll mention one that brought me a lot of joy: Radiant Days, Haunted Nights is a collection of Yiddish folk literature translated and edited by Joachim Neugroschel.The whole book’s great, but I want to talk about the anonymous, 18th century story “A History, or A Moral Tale: About Wondrous Events in the Life of a Young Knight Sir Gawain, Whose Tale Reveals the Workings of Divine Providence.”

Yes, it’s a Yiddish King Arthur story. One that never acknowledges Christianity or England. For example, it tells us that King Arthur’s court was in “a very mighty and beautiful city, which he had built on the shores of the sea. And that was why he named it Arthurstown.” Who didn’t spend their childhood pretending to be a valiant knight of Arthurstown?

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Elijah’s bio: Elijah Kinch Spector is a writer, dandy, and rootless cosmopolitan from the Bay Area who now lives in Brooklyn. His first novel, Kalyna the Soothsayer, was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award, and received acclaim from NPR, Nerds of a Feather, Tor.com, Foreword, and Paste Magazine, among others. A sequel, Kalyna the Cutthroat, is expected in 2024.

Find It:

Kalyna The Soothsayer: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

Kalyna The Cutthroat: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

I was really impressed by the range of genres and authors signing up for this Sukkot indie week. Hilary Zaid is the first literary writer I’ve interviewed for the blog and it was a delight! Read on to learn more about small press, writing plots that just so happen to be extremely timely, and the wonders of cake.

Bookishly Jewish: Can you describe your publishing journey and how you ended up with your publisher?

Hilary Zaid: FORGET I TOLD YOU THIS is my second novel. You might think that the publishing journey gets easier the second time around, but sometimes it’s just like starting over! I was looking for a new agent, which can be a very long process, when I happened to receive my weekly email from The Practicing Writer, a wonderful and expansive list of opportunities for writers curated by Dr. Erika Dreifus (who also curates a list of Jewish literary links). I saw a call for manuscripts from a new, LGBTQ+ imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, Zero Street Fiction. I was intrigued. It felt like a perfect fit. Knowing that manuscript submissions can take a very long time to process, I decided to submit, while continuing my agent querying process. I couldn’t have been more surprised to hear from Timothy Schaffert at Zero Street not too long after, telling me that he loved my book and wanted to publish it.

BookishlyJewish: What is it like working with a small press?

Hilary Zaid: This is my second book with a small press, and small presses are great. I think overall there’s more of a sense of a shared project that has to do with the love of a book, rather than just an attempt to make money out of a product that happens to be a book. (I’m sure that most of the people working at Big 5 publishers also love books! But the Profit & Loss statement is real. And now one of the Big 5 is being taking over by a hedge fund, so…)

BookishlyJewish: FORGET I TOLD YOU THIS feels very timely both in terms of the theme of ghosts and the big data/social media presence in the book. Did this happen organically or did real life events inspire the book?

Hilary Zaid: Well, writing novels takes a lot of time, so I would never want to write one with the intention of hitting just the right moment. On the other hand, you are so right! FORGET I TOLD YOU THIS is grappling with Big Data and the role of AI at a moment when these concerns are very much in the news. That timeliness is just luck. But, when I started writing the novel seven years ago, concerns about data privacy and surveillance capitalism were very much on my mind as a growing concern. 

I think when you’re writing contemporary fiction that engages with social issues, there’s always a tension between choosing the moment in which the book is set and watching events play out in the real world, in the news. My first novel, PAPER IS WHITE, which is set in the late 90s and which was written in the early 2000s, is about the legacy of Holocaust survivors and the future of marriage equality. As I was writing that novel, survivors were getting old and dying and marriage equality was all over the place in the news. It was a bit of a white knuckler!

BookishlyJewish: What has been the biggest surprise for you on this journey?

Hilary Zaid: For my book launch at the JCC East Bay in Berkeley, we had a huge cake with the book cover on it and —not gonna lie— having cake leftover all weekend was pretty sweet. They call it a “book birthday” but it’s a bit more like a “B mitzvah,” is it not? I still miss opening the freezer and finding cake.

BookishlyJewish: I notice you have published work in Lilith, a wonderful Jewish feminist publication. How does being Jewish inform your writing, if at all?

Hilary Zaid: SO MUCH!!!!! I feel like you’re asking a goldfish “How does water inform your worldview?” Right? I am a Reform Jew of the largely cultural variety, but that cultural worldview informs everything. Amy, the protagonist and narrator of FORGET I TOLD YOU THIS, is much more conflicted in her Jewish identity than I am, much more uncertain about whether it’s hers to claim. But the worldview in which she has been created — the lens on the world reflected in the novel— is very Jewish.

BookishlyJewish: What do you hope readers take away from your work?

Hilary Zaid: I hope readers come away from FORGET I TOLD YOU THIS with a closer relationship to the world we live in — both a clearer eye on the challenges we face, and also an enriched sense that the everyday world we live in is magical, if you’re paying attention.

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish Book

Hilary Zaid: I recently answered this question in Hey, Alma with one of my all-time favorite books ever, Laurie Colwin’s Goodbye Without Leaving. I love it as a piece of writing, and I love it more and more for the way in which it is Jewish—which is not apparently Jewish at all.

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Hilary’s bio: Hilary Zaid has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a James D. Houston Fellow at the Community of Writers and two-time attendee of Tin House Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, Ecotone, Day One,Lilith and elsewhere. Long-listed for the 2018 Northern California Independent Booksellers’ Award for Fiction, her novel Paper is White is a 2018 Foreword Indies silver medalist and the winner of the 2018 Independent Publishers’ Book Awards (IPPY) in LGBT+ Fiction. Her novel Forget I Told You This, is the inaugural winner of the Barbara DiBernard Award.

Find Hilary’s Books:

Forgot I Told You This: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

Paper is White: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

When I think about Stacey Agdern, my mind immediately jumps to the time I spotted one of her Hannukah romances in a big box store. I was overjoyed to see Jewish romance, from an independent press, getting the attention it deserved. Stacey actually writes all manner of romance, including sports romance, and her social media feeds are some of the most positive things that come across my cellphone. I’m excited for BookishlyJewish readers to get to know her more!

BookishlyJewish: Can you talk about how you ended up with your publisher? I understand that in romance publishing some presses take unagented and agented submissions. What was that process like?

Stacey Agdern: I was a bookseller when Jane Porter founded Tule and had been watching them for a long time. I’d seen some things they’d done with some of their previous titles and wanted that experience for myself, so when I had MIRACLES ready to query, they were one of the places I sent it to.

I got the offer before I got my agent (fun fact : I had no idea what was happening and had to ask a friend who told me what was happening and what to do), and I was so glad when Lynnette Novak  came on board. (fun fact this whole process is something nobody talks about; the best advice I can give about this time period before I write the essay I’ve been meaning to, is that an offer does NOT expire.)

The rest, as they say, is history.

BookishlyJewish: Many readers are surprised to learn about how complex categorizing romance based on heat levels can be (or even that such a classification exists!). You’ve written across that spectrum. Do you prefer high heat, low heat or something in the middle?

Stacey Agdern: For me, the heat level fits the story. Always. Low heat fits some stories, high heat fits others.  Does it make sense for the characters? Where is their mindset? What are they thinking?

As a reader, I read everything. And I do have autobuy authors on all ends of the heat spectrum. Megan Hart and Alys Murray are both must reads for me 🙂    

BookishlyJewish: Have there been any surprises so far in your author career? Any favorite moments?

Stacey Agdern: I will never get over the soofganiyot latte recipe that the Manhasset Barnes and Noble cafe made for MIRACLES AND MENORAHS, the first time I stepped into Love’s Sweet Arrow in Chicago, the first time my local bookstore had my books on the shelves. The first time someone told me they loved one of my books. And NGL, being voted as ‘Fan Favorite Jewish Book’ by Hey Alma readers was a big one for me. I’m still in awe of that.

BookishlyJewish: Any advice for writers just starting out?

Stacey Agdern: 1.Don’t give up – sounds ridiculously cliché but at the same time, it took me quite a number of years to get my confidence and my writing skills together enough to get involved in anthologies, and even more time to finally get my first solo book published.

Which brings me to…

Find your story. More specifically, every story you write brings you closer to the kind of story you want to tell. You refine, you learn, not only what you’re good at doing, but also the stories that make you excited. Because the desire to tell your stories will be what gets you through the days you can’t write, the days you don’t want to write.

You don’t have to write every day, but, you will need to learn how to meet deadlines. Deadlines are important whether you are going to seek traditional publishing or whether you want to self publish. It doesn’t matter whether that deadline is with your publisher, the editor you’ve hired who’s made space for you on their calendar or your readers.  They are important and very necessary.

BookishlyJewish: What draws you to romance as a genre?

Stacey Agdern: The way writers can turn chemistry into words; how people manage to tell the story of the relationship between two fictional characters in a way that makes the reader fall in love with the story and those characters. It’s magic.

But that magic allows writers to explore the widest territory of any genre I’ve read before or since. A story can be set anywhere and do anything as long as we have that central couple at the center.

BookishlyJewish: What do you hope readers take away from your work?

Stacey Agdern: Jewish joy. One of the things I love about what I write is how much fun it is to be part of an ever growing community who write us into parts of the genre we haven’t been able to find ourselves in. For example, Last Girls Standing is actually a series inspired by the first actual Jewish wedding I saw in a romance novel.  And the thoughts I had about what I, a Jewish writer, could write in a Jewish romance novel about a Jewish wedding.

Yep 😀 You read it right.  The next few books of this series are going to be centered around a wedding.

BookishlyJewish: When LOVE AND LATKES was blowing up on my socials (and I even saw it in a big box store!) I was surprised to learn it was actually the third in a series of linked books. Can you talk a little about how each book released in a series affects the prior and whether you saw a sales bump across all three?

Stacey Agdern: I think it depends.  MIRACLES and LOVE AND LATKES, and probably from this year on BURNING BRIGHT, will always see a sales jump around Hanukkah time. HISTORY OF US is tied a bit with B’NAI MITZVAH MISTAKE so there was a bit of a jump when that came out. And then the next book is tied to a few. So we’ll see what happens. Every series is different.

BookishlyJewish: In my head you are the Queen of Hanukkah, but I wonder if you have plans to expand to other Jewish holidays? I’d love to read it if you did!

Stacey Agdern: *blush* In my experience, writing about a holiday is a full book experience, but I definitely want to write a Passover story as well as a Purim one. I’ve written a Sukkot short which I want to re-release somehow. I can also see Shavuot as being a fun one to write about.

BookishlyJewish: Is there anything I didn’t ask that you think I should?

Stacey Agdern: So. My current project is a short that takes place between B’NAI MITZVAH MISTAKE and book 2. There is a five year time jump between these two books, and the catalyst that starts the next three books is the focus of the short.

Book two comes out in March of 2024 and is Leah’s. I just turned in an early draft of book three to my agent and the plan is for it to release in Hanukkah of 2024. I will say that the main male character of book two is someone new, and book three’s male main character is a returning character from the friendships and festivals series.

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book.

Stacey Agdern: The one that made me a Jewish author is the All of a Kind Family series by Sidney Taylor. The one that made me realize that I could write hockey romance is Chasing Stanley by Deidre Martin.

And the honorable mention by a Non Jewish author that contained the first Jewish wedding I read in a romance novel? Stripped by Zoraida Cordova under her Zoey Castile penname.    

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Stacey’s Bio: Stacey Agdern is an award-winning former bookseller who has reviewed romance novels in multiple formats and given talks about various aspects of the romance genre. She incorporates Jewish characters and traditions into her stories so that people who grew up like she did can see themselves take center stage on the page.  She lives in New York, not far from her favorite hockey team’s practice facility. Check out her latest book The B’Nai Mitzvah Mistake

Find It:

Miracles and Menorahs: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

History of Us: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

Love and Latkes: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review

B’Nai Mitzvah Mistake: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

For the second Sukkot indie week post we are traveling all the way across the pond to the U.K. to talk with Victoria Goldman, author of The Shanna Regan series of detective novels. Victoria is here representing self pub and has a lot of information both about publishing and the process of writing detective novels. Please note, original British spellings in her answers have been preserved. These are not typos. Our readers and interviewees are from across the globe and we love visiting with them!

BookishlyJewish: Crime fiction is new for us here on the Blog! Can you talk about what attracted you to this genre?

Victoria Goldman: I wanted to write crime fiction from a young age. I’m not sure exactly why, but maybe because I was always very inquisitive. I wanted to be a secret agent, or an explorer, or a detective. I grew up reading Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven and The Famous Five, before graduating to Agatha Christie and then Stephen King. My original career plan was to work in forensics. During the final year of my biomedical science BSc. degree (specialising in pharmacology, immunology and toxicology), I realised I loved writing so much that I couldn’t spend the rest of my life working in a lab. So I took an MSc. degree in science communication and became a health journalist and editor instead. I also copyedit and proofread fiction and non-fiction for UK publishers – including crime fiction.

BookishlyJewish: Do you always know the end of the book before you start? I imagine “pantsing” could be complicated for a whodunnit.

Victoria Goldman: I’m a planner and edit as I go along, but a lot of crime writers are pantsers and just start writing to see where they end up. I begin with a Why? or What? question, and then start plotting. As I develop the characters and do some background research, I plan and write the main plot points, such as big action scenes, reveal scenes and dialogue scenes, and fill in the gaps afterwards to link everything together. With both books, I didn’t know exactly who the killer was until I was further into the writing and everything slotted into place. Once I finish writing the book, I then go back and check/insert the red herrings and little clues – often I’ve already added some in but didn’t realise why at the time!

BookishlyJewish: How did you decide to self-publish? Were there any surprises along the way?

Victoria Goldman: Like many writers, I have a long publishing journey behind me. I never intended to self-publish. I wrote three books and submitted to agents. THE REDEEMER was the second book – a Jewish-flavoured crime novel with themes of revenge, redemption, Jewish identity and, in particular, antisemitism. In 2019, I was runner up in a big crime writing award for unpublished writers. I started submitting to agents and had a high ratio of full manuscript readings. Several agents said they loved my writing, but the book’s themes weren’t big enough for them. One agent said that she would love to read whatever I wrote next, if I didn’t get an agent for THE REDEEMER. A year later, I came back to her with what I call my ‘prison book’ (not Jewish themed). She was very excited and asked me to rewrite 1/3 of the book for her (around 30K words) before she would sign me. So I did, and then she changed her mind and said it wasn’t working for her.

UK crime writers and reviewers who had already read THE REDEEMER couldn’t understand why agents didn’t sign me. They urged me to get the book out there myself. After a lot of soul-searching and reading Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel (an interesting British book, if you haven’t read it), I decided to take the plunge (and the gamble). I realised I needed to treat THE REDEEMER as any book with a publisher (and agent) by using my professional background in media and publishing. I hired a freelance structural editor, copyeditor, proofreader, and cover designer, to make sure my book could sit comfortably on a shelf alongside any other crime novel. It was a financial investment. There have been lots of surprises (and challenges), and I’m glad that I was brave enough to go ahead.

BookishlyJewish: I notice you are based in the U.K. Are your books available worldwide, and if so, in what formats? Is that complicated in any way?

Victoria Goldman: THE REDEEMER and THE ASSOCIATE ebooks are exclusive to Amazon Kindle (including KU) and are available worldwide. The paperbacks are available from Amazon worldwide, but also from other book retailers, including Barnes & Noble in the USA. A self-publisher can use a book distributor, such as IngramSpark, to ensure their books are available from non-Amazon retailers. This means my books can be ordered online from many book websites and bookstores (you just need the ISBN numbers). THE REDEEMER paperback is also available to borrow from 16 libraries in the UK, but I don’t think US libraries can order it in (I probably need to register somewhere for that). 

BookishlyJewish: The Redeemer features a Jewish community in an English town. Is there a real life inspiration?

Victoria Goldman: I created a fictional version of where I live in Hertfordshire. Locals usually recognise the community and (renamed) local buildings and amenities, including the Jewish cemetery. Our synagogue comes under the auspices of ‘United Synagogue’, which is mainstream Modern Orthodox but unique to the UK. United Synagogue members are diverse – some keep fully kosher and all of the Shabbat laws (Shomer Shabbat), whereas others don’t keep any Jewish practices at all, and most members lie somewhere in-between. Jewish identity is central to our community, and the synagogue is a hive of activity, from services to Jewish learning and social activities for all age groups. I wanted to focus on a ‘normal’ Jewish community in Britain – not the Hassidic communities, which are often represented in fiction or the media in an extreme or negative light. THE ASSOCIATE follows the main character of THE REDEEMER but is set in gritty East London, in a creepy old Reform synagogue that’s used as an interfaith community centre, surrounded by youth crime and the refugee crisis.

BookishlyJewish: What has been the public response to your books?

Victoria Goldman: The response has been amazing – beyond my expectations – and I now have readers all over the world, especially in the USA. I never expected anyone to find my books! THE REDEEMER was shortlisted for Best Debut Crime Novel of 2022 in the Crime Fiction Lover Awards, and I was chosen as an October 2022 read for the Bloody Scotland Book Club (Bloody Scotland is a big crime festival in Scotland every September). In the USA, a Jewish Journal reviewer wrote, ‘Faye Kellerman: Behold your British counterpart,’ which was lovely!

BookishlyJewish: What are you hoping readers take away from your books?

Victoria Goldman: Through my books, I explore (British) Jewish identity, diversity, culture, heritage and racism (antisemitism). THE ASSOCIATE has a background of interfaith projects, mainly Jewish-Muslim charity work, highlighting that most British Jews and Muslims actually get on very well – many people seem to think we hate each other, due to negativity in the media. Most of my readers are crime fiction fans who aren’t Jewish and say that they have learnt a lot about Judaism, more than through non-fiction or the media. I don’t call my books ‘Jewish books’. Instead, I call them crime fiction with a Jewish flavour.

BookishlyJewish: Do you have any future planned books? Will you continue the Shanna Regan detective series or branch into something new?

Victoria Goldman: So far, there are two books in the series – THE REDEEMER and THE ASSOCIATE – and readers are hoping for more! THE ASSOCIATE can also be read as a standalone, if people haven’t read The Redeemer first. My plan is to write a third book, and that’s percolating in my head at the moment. In the meantime, I’ve gone back to my prison book (mentioned above) and will decide what to do with it once I’ve finished editing it back into shape.

BookishlyJewish: Any words of advice for writers just starting out, or veteran writers considering self pub?

Victoria Goldman: Go for it … and do it with passion. Treat your self-published book as a book with a publisher. This involves investment (time, money…) but I think it’s important to hire freelance editors and a cover designer if you can (within your budget) because readers will notice the difference. You want your book to look as professional as possible. Some people see my books and ask, ‘Are these really self-published?’

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book

Victoria Goldman: Dare I admit that I don’t read very much specifically Jewish fiction (or non-fiction)? I’m an avid crime fiction reader, and loved Julia Dahl’s Rebekah Roberts series. I also love the Maus books – such a clever (and graphic!) way to portray the true horrors of the Holocaust. Plus, above I’ve mentioned Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel – the US equivalent is People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn, which I still need to read.

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Victoria’s Bio: VICTORIA GOLDMAN is a freelance journalist, editor, proofreader and author. She was given an honourable mention for The Redeemer in the Capital Crime/DHH Literary Agency New Voices Award 2019. The Redeemer was shortlisted for Best Debut Crime Novel of 2022 in the Crime Fiction Lover Awards. Victoria lives in Hertfordshire, England. 

Find The Redeemer: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

Find The Associate: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

When we put out the call for Sukkah interviewees I was nervous we wouldn’t even get five. I needn’t have worried. Response was tremendous and the quality of the volunteers was extremely high. I’m pleased to introduce Jamie Krakover, our first indie author Sukkah guest.

Jamie is here representing self-pub with her YA sci fi TRACKER220. She has been a friend of BookishlyJewish by providing guest reviews when we first started out. On a more personal note, Jamie is a stalwart of the Jewish writing community providing encouragement to many others starting out. She brings that generosity of spirit to the interview and there is a ton to learn from her answers for both readers and writers! So without further ado, let’s dive in!

BookishlyJewish: Can you talk about your decision to self publish and why you made that choice?

Jamie Krakover: Yes, it’s a bit of a long story. I accepted an agent offer of representation in January of 2018 for the manuscript that is now TRACKER220. I worked with my agent for about 6 months at which point she’d given me some notes to address and after that we’d do some line edits and then we’d go out on sub. I was excited and it was perfect timing because I was expecting a baby in October so I’d be on sub while on maternity leave. Two weeks later, I got notice from my agent that she was leaving her role. I was given a couple agents to query and sent on my way. 

I was devastated.

I queried a bit with my very polished manuscript but no one seemed interested. So I shelved it and focused on being a new mom and didn’t write much for about a year. 

In 2019, I was feeling pretty down about publishing but decided I needed to do something for myself. TRACKER220 was weighing on my mind. The story still resonated with me and I knew it was good enough to be a published book. I talked to several author buddies about self publishing and decided that it was the right path for my book and me. In addition, YA sci fi is often hard to place and sell traditionally because there’s a stigma that it’s hard to market. But I knew this book was special and needed to be in the hands of readers, so I took the plunge.

BookishlyJewish: Any big surprises along the way?

Jamie Krakover: Oh gosh, is it okay to say all of it? I’d never published anything before so it felt like this big, scary, unobtainable thing. But I think the surprising thing was how unscary and obtainable the process actually was. There’s so many kind and knowledgeable people out there. It was amazing to have such support throughout the process.

BookishlyJewish: I was very interested to learn you are part of a publishing collective, Snowy Wings Publishing. For our readers who don’t know what that is, can you describe what a collective is and why one might choose to join one?

Jamie Krakover: Snowy Wings Publishing is a group of Indie Authors who publish MG and YA books. For authors who publish adult fiction, they have a sister group called Crimson Fox. As a member of the Co-op, I get a lot of the autonomy self published authors have, along with a huge network and support system as I publish. As the author, I’m responsible for the costs associated with publishing my book, and ensuring I adhere to Snowy Wings quality standards (i.e. hiring reputable editors, cover designers etc.), but I also have the ability to make the decisions that are right for my book. The Co-op supports me with a network of authors to answer questions, how-to guides for self publishing, a list of potential editors, cover artists etc., discount codes for publishing, and access to trade reviews, and library lists. Snowy Wings was my Jedi Master along the self publishing journey and none of it would have been possible without their guidance and support.

BookishlyJewish: I was very intrigued by the use of technology in TRACKER2020 and its potential implications on Shabbat observance. As someone with an engineering background, do you have any insights on how future technologies might affect our future and Judaism at large?

Jamie Krakover: As a technically minded person I’ve always questioned the intersection of faith and technology. What if you needed technology to observe faith, or what if you couldn’t shut it off? While this wasn’t the original question I set out to answer with the book, when I started editing and infusing the Jewish traditions and connections into the story, it came through as one of the larger themes throughout.

It’s funny because I wrote TRACKER220 well before the pandemic and it was nearly completed by the time the pandemic came about. But there are many parallels between what happens in the book with respect to the intersection of faith and technology that instantly became incredibly relevant as the pandemic emerged. Suddenly we couldn’t meet in person and Shabbat services were online so we were using tech to observe holidays and execute our traditions. The lines between ‘what does work on Shabbat really mean’ and ‘how should tech interface with Judaism’ really blurred. I don’t have a magical answer about what that might look like in the future. But as technology continues to grow and evolve, we as Jews will have to continue to re-evaluate how we view technology with respect to faith and find the places where technology can enhance our Jewish experiences.

BookishlyJewish: You recently announced TRACKER2020 is getting a sequel, AUTHORITY. Congratulations on that milestone! Is writing the second book easier or harder than the first?

Jamie Krakover: Thanks so much! I’m super excited for the sequel! I know a lot of people say sequels and second books are harder, but I actually found it much easier to write than the first. When I write, characters and worlds don’t always come to me fully formed. I tend to start with plot and layer on the world and get to know the characters as I go, with each subsequent draft. Knowing that about myself made the sequel easier for two reasons. One, I was fairly certain when I finished writing the first draft of TRACKER220 that there were ideas there for a sequel, so I had that jumping off point and some of the leg work already done. And two, I had the advantage of already knowing my characters really well. While the world had changed by the end of the first book, I had a great foundation to start with that I don’t typically have on most of my writing projects.

BookishlyJewish: This might be a spoiler, but will we see any of the same characters back again?

Jamie Krakover: You will see all the characters from the first book in the second in some way or another. And you will see one new character that I’m super excited about. I talked about her in a prior newsletter so if you’re subscribed you got to learn a little bit about her. If you missed it, subscribe now and you’ll get a sneak peak at her and some of the old favorite characters from TRACKER220 when I share the first chapter of AUTHORITY early next year. 🙂

BookishlyJewish: What has been the response to TRACKER2020 from readers?

Jamie Krakover: It’s been very positive. I was expecting some negative reviews and have gotten a few. But even within them, there was feedback that was helpful for the sequel. But overall people are loving the blend of Jewishness with technology and the futuristic world. I’ve had many enthusiastic teens tell me how much they love Peyton as a character or enjoy Kaya and Bailen’s relationship. It’s so fun to see what each reader resonates with. But nothing beats when a Jewish teen expresses how excited they are to see themselves in a book.

BookishlyJewish: A lot of people are scared off from self-pub due perceived costs (hiring editors and cover artists etc.) or fear of complex accounting. Any words of encouragement?

Jamie Krakover: You are correct. There is a lot of work involved. While publishing is often quite lonely, the self publishing community is incredibly passionate and supportive. There are ways to do things well and minimize cost. There are TONS of resources out there to help along the way. And in the end, one of the best feelings is being able to hold your book and know that you did the whole thing from beginning to end.

BookishlyJewish: Any advice for writers just starting out, or veterans who are considering self pub for the first time?

Jamie Krakover: Get yourself some self publishing Jedi masters or at the very least a support system. It’s really tempting to throw your book (and money) at every marketing thing, award opportunity, etc. then get frustrated when it doesn’t pan out or equate to large sales numbers. But self publishing is often a slow build; your front list will sell your back list. So while some people do break out right away, many more have to nurture an audience over time. I frequently have to remind myself to focus on what I love about my stories and who I’m writing them for. And to keep my eyes on my own paper ;).

BookishlyJewish: I always end by asking if you have a favorite Jewish book

Jamie Krakover: One of my all time favorites is Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, but two of my more recent reads I enjoyed are Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson and Ring of Solomon by Aden Polydoros.

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Jamie’s Bio: Growing up with a fascination for space and things that fly, Jamie turned that love into a career as an Aerospace Engineer. Combining her natural enthusiasm for Science Fiction and her love of reading, she now spends a lot of her time writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Through Snowy Wings Publishing, Jamie Krakover is the author of the Tracker220 (October 2020) and the upcoming sequel Authority (Fall 2024). She also has two female in STEM short stories published in the Brave New Girls anthologies and two engineering-centered nonfiction pieces published in Writer’s Digest’s Putting the Science in Fiction. Jamie lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, Andrew, their son, and their dog Rogue (after the X-Men, not Star Wars, although she loves both).

Find TRACKER220: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon | BookishlyJewish Review

Growing up, it was well known that there were horse girls and there was everyone else. Readers will be pleased to note that Kalyn Josephson, well known for her MG work, has included both types of people in her new YA fantasy This Dark Descent. Plus, the horse in question is a golem named Atara. Yes, that’s right, the horse is magical and is featured on the stunning cover.

Our horse girl, Mikira Russel, has been forced to compete in a dangerous magical horse race by the ruling nobility who take what they please, when they please, no matter the costs to anyone else. Mikira’s father has been set up by one such noble and his only chance at escape is Mikira winning the Illinor, a four part horse race in which many of the horses and riders do not survive. Win and her father walks free. Lose and not only does her father remain in captivity, Mikira will also lose the family ranch. As if that wasn’t enough, the deal comes with a catch. While the other riders will be mounted on enchanted horses, Mikira must win on a magic-free horse.

Enter Arielle, a creator of Golems. Arielle is Kinnish, which in this second world is definitely coded for Jewish, and by using forbidden Kinnish magic she can create a Golem-horse with superior strength and various enchantments that will be undetectable by regular enchanters who are unfamiliar with Kinnism and Kinnish magic. There’s another catch though. Arielle and Mikira are brought together by Lord Damien Adair, a member of the ruling class that put Mikira in this position in the first place. Damien has his own stake in this race and while Mikira is forced to work with him it is unclear if the two will ever fully trust each other.

Since it is a second world fantasy the Judasim in this book is not necssarily what you might recognize from real life. In second worlds with Jewish coded characters I’m never looking for exact replicas of real world Judaism. Instead I’m seeking that intangible flavor of Judaism that is so hard to quantify but is easily recognized. You will find many Jewish magical creatures in these pages – golems, Dybuks- but that isn’t what made the story feel so Jewish to me. Arielle is very clearly a Jew in diaspora. Her homeland has been destroyed, there is no knowledge of when it may be habitable again. Much about the ancestral practice of kinnish magic has been lost due to colonizing invaders and Arielle herself is deemed suspect and even illegal where she lives. Damien helps her transition from being afraid of her power to embracing it, and in this there is a reflection of the struggle between the warring practices of flying under the radar and aggressively seeking to protect and defend ones own. This debate, of how a proper Jew should act to avoid persecution, is about as old as the diaspora itself and so, so real.

The opening is a little slow and in true horse girls fashion it is the horse race chapters that really jump out and keep the pace going. That’s possibly why the last section of the book is addictively readable – it is the final leg of the race and oof. This is good stuff. I’m very curious to see how the sequel is paced without the race to push things along. It’s possible Josephson will com up with a similar competition or time bomb device, or the intricately laid relationships from book one will now bear fruit in book two as former friends find themselves on opposite sides of political and spiritual struggles.

Which brings me to my one issue. It’s been a while since I read a YA and I had forgotten how very often in this genre, duology or series books are not required to stand alone. In fact, they often seem actively encouraged to end on cliffhangers and sequel fodder. There is an end to the horse race but most of the issues brought up at the beginning are rather compounded instead of solved at the end of the book. There is a sequel coming, but I personally often hold on books like that until I can buy both at once to avoid being left in the state I am currently in – namely, DYING to know what happens next. This is really different behavior than when I was a teen and didn’t care if I had to wait, so perhaps I’m just showing my age. Either way, I’m clearly committed to reading the next one.

The book contains some romance, including a character that I felt was very demisexual and some excellent bisexual rep. The world is queer norm and readers seeking this kind of representation will be pleased to find it here. There are no on the page sex scenes but there is a fair amount of violence to horses. This is to be expected – it’s a dangerous magical horse race with known fatalities, but the horse girls among us may want to mentally fortify before going in.

I was not a horse girl in high school. I did not have the money or proper living situation for that. However I WAS a magic girl. I loved all things fantasy and pretty and with a touch of danger. This book has that spades. So really, there’s something for everyone.

Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

The reviewer received an arc from Netgalley. The publisher has indicated they may send a finished copy to BookishlyJewish, but the review was written before that occurred.

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