Write Day-in Day-out

Kimberly Jentzen's Acting With Impact offers a toolbox for actors and writers alike.

2025-11-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

If you know of Stanislavsky, Strasberg, Adler, Meisner, and Linklater, if you studied their methods, and are serious about booking a role, you'll want to add Kimberly Jentzen to the fold. Jentzen's Acting With Impact is like a good witch's brew, a fizzy, fruity punch drawing from earlier magicians' potions, spiced with her own magical kick. Jentzen helps the actors access emotions by tracing feelings to their source.

An actor herself and a true storyteller, Jentzen's tone and presentation in print are entertaining. If you already know her from YouTube or TikTok, you'll recognize her voice on the page.

Jentzen's Technique will be interesting and helpful to actors, the author's fellow coaches, anyone in the industry, as well as to writers who want to deepen their characters' motivation.

"Your eyes are like pools of water, in which your very essence,

depth, emotion, and energy communicate something specific. If your

focus is engaged in the character’s thoughts, the expressions become

more authentic and believable." ~ Kimberly Jentzen

The titles of each of the eighteen lessons are followed by content details (ingredients for success) and one or more exercises. Every so many chapters offer an example of the author coaching a student.

These sessions are great lessons in how psychological analysis and emotional intelligence help develop a deeply believable character, whether on the stage, screen, or the page.

Throughout the book, Jentzen adds many wonderful examples to illustrate her teaching. In Lesson Eleven: Want vs. Need, for instance, it is Eli Whip, a character in the Amazon/BBC limited series The English. "Difference between what you need and what you want is what you can put on a horse."

For those who already own a copy of the first edition, it's not just the *Coaching Notes* that are added; according to the author, this is not just a second edition, but a complete rewrite.

If I were you, I'd make room for this book in your saddlebag.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Dancing Across the Spectrum: Twists and Turns in a Neurodivergent Relationship

2025-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Disconnected: Portrait of a Neurodiverse Marriage by Eleanor Vincent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eleanor Vincent's latest memoir reads like confessional prose, intimate and unsparing, yet compassionate and empathetic toward her former dancing partner/ husband, as well as herself. Revealing intimate aspects of her marriage, Vincent's experience offers a valuable lesson in understanding relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical partners.
A must-read for anyone who knows (and loves) people on the spectrum.

View all my reviews

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A Wizard of Earthsea - | - Always Coming Home Ursula K. Le Guin * Writing Women

2018-11-05T10:27:00.002-08:00

Top of the morning, 5:02 a.m. PST a day after falling back. Last Saturday it would've been 6 a.m., not an unreasonable time to start the new week. Simon and Schuster surprises me with a special offer:

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the timeless and beloved A Wizard of Earthsea, this complete omnibus edition of the entire Earthsea chronicles includes over fifty illustrations illuminating Le Guin’s vision of her classic saga.

My mind drifts, didn't I own an earlier special edition of one of Le Guin's titles? Wanting to read an excerpt, to get a taste of A Wizard of Earthsea (this links to Indie bookstores), I click on the Amazon link. Look Inside takes me to the author's list of published works, the table of content and a map of an archipelago. I scroll on to the "Introduction". The voice on the page triggers a memory of Le Guin's lecture, years ago at Centrum's Port Townsend Writers Conference. Scanning the first two pages, I'm grabbed by a sentence at the top of the third, "I've written so often of how and why it took me so long to write ..."
Intriguing and relatable.

Just a hop and a skip to the fiction book shelves and I spot the box that holds a fat paperback and old-fashioned cassette tape. Will I be able to play that? Do I still own a cassette deck? Until this moment, I have't even bothered to look inside the box. Opening Always Coming Home, Le Guin's 1984 novel, taking in the illustrations, white space, the multitude of approaches between the covers, I feel a tickling sensation in my underbelly, reminiscent of childhood excitement, of my early reader's love for books that took me away from my ordinary, to unknown worlds and places.

What Le Guin writes in the introduction about a certain literary coming of age later in life, speaks to me. I recognize the initial learning from male writers, informed by the Canon of Literature. Not until her sixties Le Guin felt the need "to write of and from my own body, my own gender, in my own voice. I'm tempted to say the latter isn't really true for me, my first published book after all was a memoir. I writing about my parents however, I've neglected my mother's point of view. High time to write of and from her body, our gender, in our voices. And time to look into Always Coming Home.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Four Inspiring Days at PNWA 2018 Writers Conference - Craft & Business of Writing + Speed Dating with Agents & Editors

2018-09-18T23:54:00.003-07:00

Last week I attended the PNWA2018  Conference, four days of intense focus on the craft and business of writing. 

Author R.L. Stine had us in stitches

I didn't know a soul aside from PNWA's director Pam Binder, whom I've met a few times, and was happy to run into Michael Doud. We both attended a November 2017 Writers' Workshop in Pacific Grove, CA. Initially he worked with the workshop's director, but he joined Andrea Hurst's group. Michael was a finalist in the PNWA contest with the memoir he brought to Pacific Grove. On Saturday we learned he didn't win the contest, but going by the look on his face and his energetic pace he had a ball the whole time he was at the conference. Not in the last part because his memoir was finished. He carried the proof around like a pocket book (pun intended).

Donald Maass on Feelings 

A generous friend's donation allowed me to sign up for two master classes not included in the conference fee. Thus the four busy days were bookended by Donald Maass's Techniques of Timeless Storytelling on Thursday and Christopher Vogler's The Story Lives in You on Sunday.

Back at Pacific Grove, Andrea, wearing the hat of developmental editor, introduced me to The Writer's Journey. I wasn't a stranger to author Chris Vogler's source of inspiration, Joseph Cambell's oeuvre, but Vogler's adaption of Campbell's The Hero's Journey specifically for writers was a discovery. Taking his masterclass was a great way to end the conference. Vogler has internalized his material and is an engaging storyteller. Throughout, Vogler paid hommage to many others, of course Campbell, but also screenwriters and filmmakers, including the late Laura "Stand Up to Cancer" Ziskin (beloved, departed wife of screenwriter Alvin Sargent)—repeating her words that the world needs more stories with feeling. Vogler's slides and soundtrack added to the presentation and he wove important pointers for us writers throughout his narrative. 

Writers Speed Dating Agents and Editors

On Friday I pitched three books. Forgiveness, my Post-WWII novel, Stroke Me Like A Guitar, a memoir on electroconvulsive therapy and music, and on a whim Painting for Life, the biography of an early recipient of the Dutch government's Post-WWII utopian program that subsidized artists. After speed dating three different agents I called it a day. On Thursday I participated in a preparatory workshop with Jason "Writing Sensei" Brick. Six writers and the coach around the table listened to and critiqued one another's 60 second pitches. After my second try, Jason suggested I'd pitch with his wife Rachel Letofsky, which I did. She requested a query and 25 pages with the voices of my two main characters. This means I have my work cut out for me the coming months.
Chris Vogler's Master Class

Arriving home, husband, household, and Airbnb needed attention, but today, two days after the conference, I managed to continue working on my novel. The questions Donald Maass suggested we'd raise concerning  our characters' predicaments and convictions, really helped.

On Saturday, a PNWA staf member introduced me in the hotel lobby to an agent I hadn't addressed during the Pitch Block the previous day. The most important thing I took away from our chat is that I need to work on getting stories published in Literary Magazines. An agent I talked to at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference in 2003 told me the same, but I've just not been writing short stories so far. I'm set on sending stuff out though. I've got a plan.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Write On! - Children's Books Writers and Illustrators

2018-04-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

May 17, 2011 marks the first time I used Scoop-it to share articles and blog posts on writing. Seven years later I've shared a good 900 posts. Along the way "Write On!" received a silver badge. The times they are a changing, I need to make room or won't be able to keep adding new material to my Write On! Scoop-it. So I'll attempt to republish many, if not all of my previous shares.

When relevant, I'll add a note to the previously published one.

Wiesje Wollepop still makes me feel good. I'm not quite in Kindergarten and long to be able to read.

Click on Wiesje Wollepop, the link, and you'll be able to see all the pages in this old times favorite. In my mind I'm back in my childhood slippers, on my mother's lap, her chin resting on my head as she and I turn the pages together.

Back then, I had no clue there were an writer and illustrator behind these little characters and their adventures. My mother saved stamps that came with certain groceries, in this case coffee creamer, and sent out for books such as these. Other, larger picture books required saving extra stamps for special illustrations I got to stick on the page with glue myself.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Write On! - International Screenwriters Association Membership

2018-04-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

The International Screenwriters Association is an informational resource for screenwriters worldwide. It also lobbies for pro-writer legislation the world over. Membership is currently free.

Basic membership is free. ISAConnect Member ($10 monthly / $100 yearly)

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Write On! Cambridge Dictionary Tab

2018-04-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

British versus American English? If you need to check the difference, you might want the Cambridge Dictionary Tab on your Menu bar.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Write On! - Follow Your Instinct Writer

2018-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

May 17, 2011 marks the first time I used Scoop-it to share articles and blog posts on writing.
Seven years later I've shared a good 900 posts. Along the way "Write On!" received a silver badge.

The times they are a changing, I need to make room or won't be able to keep adding new material to my Write On! Scoop-it. So I'll attempt to republish many, if not all of my previous shares.

When relevant, I'll add a note to the previously published one.

Dee White writes about following your instinct as a writer and creating the story you need to write. The analogy of the big apple growing in the wild makes me hungry for more.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Write On! - Taking Note with Apple Mémoires

2018-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Taking Note

May 17, 2011 marks the first time I used Scoop-it to share articles and blog posts on writing.
Seven years later I've shared a good 900 posts. Along the way "Write On!" received a silver badge.

The times they are a changing, I need to make room or won't be able to keep adding new material to my Write On! Scoop-it. So I'll attempt to republish many, if not all of my previous shares.

When relevant, I'll add a note to the previously published one.
I'm starting with the very first one, about Mémoires, an Apple note-taking-App I used at the time.

May 17, 2011While the water for my morning tea is heating I note my first thoughts and write them down on a pad I keep on the kitchen counter. After that, while my jasmine pearl green tea is steeping I look at messages on my iPhone. Sometimes I allow myself to look at email as well. That usually is a big mistake, because my mind starts to drift. If I want to start on my Work in Process (script or book) I better not get sidetracked. I get sidetracked easily, this note is proof. Finding this program to help keep my notes together, a reward for first doing some work.

In the beginning I really liked the App, but later keeping track turned out to be a bit of a pain. The best way was to "save as" or export your journal to RTF, plain text or PDF.
Then a friend turned me on to Evernote and I made the switch, using the Evernote clipper App happily ever since. Going by the 5* reviews of the Mémoires App on the coding robots blog others swear by it.

Doesn't matter how you do it, take note!

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Dallas/ Hum

2017-10-10T15:22:00.001-07:00

APPF 2017 #19

Dallas Cowboys Cheer

Large TV screen in L.A.

Leaders kick so high

*******

APPF 2017 #20

Mechanical keyboard's
soft sound early a.m.
Hummingbirds
write stories on air
Perched stillness prevails
poetic silence

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Off Leash/ Nano

2017-10-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

APPF 2017 #17

Off leash, undone, free

Balmy wind cooling warm feet

Dog tip toes water

*******

APPF 2017 #18

Haiku for 93-year-old friend

Open drapes to view

Sunset Blvd car chase

Old gal's boobs still young

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Eclipse/ Blank

2017-10-10T15:21:00.003-07:00

APPF 2017 #15

Eclipse & Estring

Allowing things to happen

Sun & Moon will join

*******

APPF #16

At times there's nothing
like a cold drink of water
drawing a blank mind

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Heather Hyer

2017-10-10T15:21:00.002-07:00

APPF #13

Please remember her
I'm looking at the girl's face
Here for a short time

Heather Heyer I.M.

*******

APPF #14

For Heather Heyer

Chagall's cacophony in vivid colors

Heather's life in pink, purple, green

The road ahead all shades of the rainbow

Bridging worlds spread apart

Heather's portrait lit by golden rays

Her silhouette darkened by the sun

Aura sparkling, sparkling sparks

Life going by in a flash

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Star/Chase

2017-10-10T15:21:00.001-07:00

APPF 2017 #11

When you wish upon
Every thing is possible
Love ignites the star

*******

APPF #12

Overkill he said
Be here now in Hollywood
Let's cut to the chase

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Airbnb Train

2017-10-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

APPF 2017 #9

Airbnb

Washed bedspread five times
My mom on my mind always
Vinegar rinse rocks!

*****

APPF 2017 #10

Poem mail like a train
Connects sender and sendee
Tying thoughts unseen

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard 2017 - Inking/ Hunting

2017-10-10T15:20:00.001-07:00

APPF 2017 # 7

Imagine the art

Secretly inking lady

Double entendre

*******

APPF 2017 #8

Hunting Dish

Not for faint at heart
Image triggers aroma
Dutch hazepeper

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Summer/ Fruit

2017-10-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

APPF 2017 #5

The art of picking
fruit beckons to be tasted
color coded ripe

*******

APPF 2017 #6

High blush full body

Pick fruit with eye of artist

Object d'art to eat

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Traveling Light/ Azular

2017-10-10T15:19:00.001-07:00

APPF 2017 #3

Traveling Light

In Paris, a blind man's flat my home
I was painting, writing poetry
Pere Lachaise my backyard park
Pain du campagne staple picnic
Lunch, dinner plus petit dejeuner
at Rue de la Reunion
Lit by one lamp on extension cord

*******

APPF 2017 #4

AZULAR

Color of sky today faint
Longing for blue, blue, blue what say you?
Yesteryear's hue
Dreaded forest fires
Eliminate famous
Northern firmament
AZULAR por favor!
Succulent berries
Hummingbirds galore
Yet people inside
they walk no more.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Poetry Postcard Fest 2017 - Picture Life/ Wildfire

2017-10-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

APPF 2017 #1

Picture Life

A moment in time

that never changes

a heart beat

oxygen exchange

A sigh, a pulse,

and next

A galaxy of your

own, a star

that winks

*******

APPF 2017 #2

Wildfire

Last nigh's sunset erie
fraught with sinister smog
Mercer Island villas viewed from Seward Park
veiled red, not caused by nature's curtain call
Today we mourn with B.C. across the border
death of trees no longer there to see.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

August Postcard Poetry Fest aka PoPoFest 2017

2017-10-10T15:16:00.002-07:00

Hi Ku or Low Ku?

Cards received from unknown senders

In July I signed up for August Postcard Poetry Fest.
Once upon a time the Austin Writers' League named me Traveling Poet 1994. After a hiatus I started tweeting as DutchessAbroad.
The idea of the Postcard Poetry Fest is —to use a postcard the way you would any piece of paper, pinning down words. And then you address the folks on a list of 31, one by one, starting with the name underneath your own.
The first eighteen days I wrote random (bad) haikus or other shorts. Then a friend posted on Facebook that she was feeling sad for no apparent reason. "Weltschmerz", I said.

APPF #21through 31, misspelled with T before Z

I linked the last twelve cards by the letters in Weltschmerz. This brought me closer to how I had initially hoped the project would develop. If I participate again, I'd give more attention to the whole design. Did APPF inspire me to write poetry? May be yes, may be no. As I mentioned above, I tweet, and 140 characters in response to what's happening around me, or in the world, is about my speed.

I may post some of cards 1 through 20, plus the off the cuff poems separately on this blog.
August 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, 7+8, 9+10, 11+12, 13+14, 15+16, 17+18, 19+20,

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

The Finishing School for Creatives Stuck in Limbo

2017-02-28T10:11:00.003-08:00

Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can't Seem to Get Done by Cary Tennis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First off the bat, Finishing School is not about etiquette (nor espionage). It is however about learning and unlearning habits. This book reads like a dual memoir.

Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton share in personal essays where they're coming from. Readers find out what it was, that kept otherwise productive writers from finishing (certain) projects, and how they overcame inertia. Along the way they offer a method to follow, and they share how to start a Finishing School of one's own, for two or more.

Cary is a long time devotee and teacher of the Amherst Writers and Artists Workshop. The workshops he leads at his home help writers produce material, as he has himself, following Pat Schneider's Amherst method. A few decades ago, Cary and his friend Alan Kaufman attended meetings of "Artists Recovering through the Twelve Steps (A.R.T.S.) Anonymous". They found buddying up to make sure they would send material out for publication was a great help. In a way Finishing School is a follow up on Cary's experience with ARTS.
"Making your intentions known, committing to them, having an (art) buddy: these were genuinely useful things."

Danelle Morton started as a beat journalist and has co-authored many a book, and written book proposals. Yet when it came down to writing from the heart, writing about what mattered to herself, she felt paralyzed. Learning about Cary's ideas on finishing projects, she embarked on a month-long try-out. In a way the book Finishing School is partially a longitudinal report by journalist Morton. She shares what it's like to succumb to a method when one is stuck with unfinished material, even as a professional.

Readers may relate to either or both authors' situation and point of view.

Journaling without a clear aim what all those entries are good for, and even "winning" the yearly NaNoWriMo challenge, can leave one with a pile of material, left to mature on its own in the dark hole called CPU.
Working on assignment, writing about others, or with others, with a clear deadline, is a piece of cake compared to finishing without a contract. Judging your own stories as important enough to be published, is another thing all together.

Finishing School may help you overcome hurdles.

The unusual "." (period) behind "School" and "Done" in the title is a clever choice, suggesting The End. Given words Happy", "Writing" and "Done" may be substituted by anything else that would apply to the readers' endeavors.
Eager to get back to work after a hiatus due to family caregiving responsibilities, I felt inspired by the Finishing School method to get my studio/ writing den back in order.

I received a complementary e-galley as well as a hard copy from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

View all my reviews

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Survivor - Euphemism

2014-08-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Bare with me, in the following piece, written in 1999 I allowed myself a long warming up (or barfing as Morris Berman taught us in his U.W. non-fiction workshop) to get to the point. And that's the point I want to make here in 2014, how big a struggle it was, has been and still is (more barfing) to come forward with my own stories. In the fifteen years that have passed, I've moved ahead, I've made progress, I've written my stories, but I'm not "out" yet.

Adonai, Why? - Jaap van Praag 1955

Thanksgiving - 1999 - Euphemism 

Oblivious to the holiday frenzy, even after years of living in the United States, I traveled to New York City and back to Hartford, Connecticut on the day before Thanksgiving. The Amtrak train rolled into Penn Station with only forty minutes delay, leaving me with half an hour to get to my doctor’s office in Chelsea. Plenty of time to pop in at a drugstore to buy a Christmas gift for my father-in-law. 

Gary’s idea was to present his dad with a pair of good sunglasses, but since his mother had set the limit to twenty-five bucks (for us including postage) I offered to use my thrifty sensibility in finding something fun and useful. I left the store with foot care products for the man in the Lazy-Boy. Translate that household name in any other language and the guy in question would think twice before giving his weight to the backrest, lifting his legs off the ground, to take a leave of absence from the world. English, if not every living language is plentiful with euphemisms. Take "Play Footsie", foot powder promising a playful future for smelly feet, a lotion dubbed "Sole Soother", or a scrub that claims to be "Good for the Sole". 

According to the dictionary, a euphemism is a word or phrase that is less expressive or direct but considered less distasteful, less offensive than another. I say I went to see my doctor instead of shrink, or even psychiatrist. 

On my way back to Hartford I tell the man in the seat next to mine, someone I get vaguely acquainted with during the two hour delay of the evening rush, that yes, I went to the city for my work. "I’m a writer and kind of stuck," I explained. Would he have been the wiser if I had told him I’m a writer and I keep on telling other people’s stories while aching to tell my own?

Yesterday I spent hours on a letter of regret for the man who was coaxed into leaving his comfortable job and home in the Pacific Northwest for a job in the Northeast, which turned out not to be what he’d been made to expect. 

I can take on the voice of the oppressed, the sad and sorry; I write inspired speeches for group leaders, caring letters for adult children to their aging parents, texts for birthday cards and slogans for the local day-care center, but when I talk about myself, words leave my lips, go in one ear and come out the other. 

I read fictional and non-fictional accounts of troubled people, crying my eyes red and sore. I relate to the hardships of abused children and mixed-up adults and still I cannot accept my own fate. 

I tell myself I should not read the books that make me cry. I vow I’ll never move again, for each time I move the lack of a support group, friends and familiar neighborhoods makes me turn to the earliest solace I knew, books. 

Back at the library I read. Stories about people, stories that make me cry, stories that make me believe there’s a beginning, a middle and an end to each tale. Stories about heroes and heroines who learn from their mistakes, or not. 

I continue writing for others, their letters, their outlines, analysis of the stories they write and hope to enter in a contest, but my personal writing is stuck. 

I wonder about writing fiction or non-fiction and immediately tell myself I have no imagination, so fiction is out. And I really want to write my own story as non-fiction, but something holds me back. I don’t know whether I’m paralyzed by shame or fear.

My brain runs onto a dead-end track when I think of the plot lines of my life.

The urge to generalize is strong as a runaway locomotive. Overpowering, hard and cold as steel yet hot with the passion of fire that feeds the engine. I’m afraid to get burned, afraid to be run over, afraid to be shred to pieces, afraid to be left by the side of the track, unrecognizable, a Jane Doe, a Holocaust survivor without a tattooed number on my arm. 

Years ago I was qualified (what a term), as a second generation Holocaust VICTIM. That was in the beginning, while I still lived in The Netherlands. In Europe we were called victims. Then the term survivors came across the ocean, from the United States. 

Survivor, a euphemism for one who was not gassed, burned, nullified, but perhaps just left for dead, or  persecuted. The word victim, as those who knew best proclaimed, would further the victimization and therefore members of the surviving generations had to be called survivors.

Once a week I get on the Amtrak train in Hartford, Connecticut for a three hour ride that will take me to New York City where I visit the office of my doctor. I do so because I do not know what is keeping me … From what? 

In order to find out, I have to go back in time. Back to before Jake made me promise I would never forget his story, the story of our family and our people. Back to before I was born. Back to the time when I was a mere thought on my father's mind.

  



This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Sanity Patrol Critique Partner Insists on Conflict

2013-08-05T16:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had a work meeting with my CP (Critique Partner). I came away from our 3-hour session filled with insight on how she perceived what happens in my screenplay, and also a little miffed.

For one, as an American she "reads" stories that take place in my home country in a different way than people who have grown up on the same soil. History connects country folk and creates a natural bond. People close to me lived through one or two World Wars. My peers and I grew up in the aftermath of WWII. If you weren't there, if your folks weren't there, or even if they were, but became Americans, who chose not to share, you won't have the same kind of understanding as my country men and women.

On top of that, apart from non-fiction and philosophical works, and the Bourne Identity etc. series, my CP doesn't care much for the kind of novels I read, or movies I watch, and therefore the kind of writing I do. Not really. Meaning, even if she appreciates my voice, the way I write, and the stories I tell, she prefers to read, write and watch what I consider weird fantasy stuff, whereas I'm into realism.

Notwithstanding our differences in taste, the woman knows how to critique, and to ask questions. This makes me think —I beg your pardon for going off on a tangent— of the time that I worked as an assistant buyer for a small, classy department store in Amsterdam. I learned about craftsmanship, quality of materials and design, and that none of those elements needed to have anything to do with my personal taste. I learned to judge an item for the way it was made, how well the object worked, and not whether I liked to give the thing a place in my home.

My CP saw an extended metaphor in the liquids shared by characters in my screenplay, where I had recognized only the solid food as such. No, this is not a metaphor in itself. So, in a way we agreed. She reinforced what I already knew, but needed to hear from someone else. Nutrition or in other words food, is important in this screenplay, and let's face it, in all of the books I hope to deliver in the near future.

Talking to folks who write —fiction from life— I always stress, "don't get too stuck on how something really happened." So imagine my surprise when my CP shakes her head and says: "Oh, you and your, 'this is how it happened'."

"What? Really? I'm stuck on that?"

And yet I immediately knew she was right on the mark, and that I've been waiting for the sign that I can go beyond the reconstruction of what I've perceived as the truth. My attempt to recreate the lives of people I knew, knew partially, or could not have known, has landed me with a good jumping board. I've got the scenes of the story in place the way I think they occurred, and now it's time to give the folks something to sink their teeth in. The characters that is. Trouble, they've got, but they need to show some serious emotion, they need to express that serious, underlying itch that they want to scratch real bad.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Taming the Dragon May Provide Solace/ Remedie for Wary Writers Paws After CampNaNoWriMo

2013-07-28T11:15:00.002-07:00

This morning I woke up with my hands stiff. Half asleep I noticed how painful it was to make a fist. This is what always seems to happen by the end of a NaNoWriMo run. Camp NaNo Day 28, and I have 5,799 words to go. Minus the 433 I wrote this morning before breakfast.

That pain in my hands is worrisome, and while dozing (off), I started thinking of the Dragon speech recognition program. Years ago, I played with the trial version, and discovered the program had a problem with my accent. However, the Dragon can be tamed, or at least trained to recognize the particularities of my tongue. Still, the learning curve is what I fear, for Dragon as well as myself. I dream on, about dictating interesting parts from my journals, now wouldn't that be convenient?

After my first cup of jasmine green tea, I tried the Dragon App on my iPhone, speaking Dutch. Not bad, although some words went missing, and the App clearly is made for short runs, for more wordy dictation Dragon Dictate for Mac must be the way to go. Then I changed the language back to American English. Surprise, surprise, in the years since my first encounter with the Dragon my pronunciation has become more recognizable.

Dragon's misinterpretation of certain words is understandable and funny. See below. NaNoWriMo becomes nano rhino, and iPhone becomes Twitter. This could be an unexpected and useful extra for ESL speakers to check on their pronunciation. That my "dozing" is spelled with an "s" reminds me of the father of a friend up north in the Netherlands who claimed he could hear I was from Amsterdam, because of the way my zees sounded like esses. Which I could not imagine to be true. There was no way on earth my parents would have let me get away with that.
No "We gaan naar Sandvoort aan de See," where it should be "Zandvoort aan de zee" in our home!

This morning I woke up with my hands stiff half-asleep I noticed how painful it was to make a fist this is what always seems to happen by the end of the nano rhino run camps nano date 28 and I have 5799 words to go minus the 433 I wrote this morning before breakfast that pain in my hands is worrisome and while dosing I start thinking off to Dragon speech recognition prep program I play Twitter trial version and discovered the program had a problem with my accent however the Dragon can be changed or at least trained to recognize the particularities of my tongue still the learning curve is what I fear for Dragon as well as myself I dream

Dragon does well by me. Still, I'm not confident enough about my tongue to connect the Dragon App with Facebook and Twitter, imagine the trouble I could get into ...
Meanwhile, the old paws have unfurled, while writing this post, there's hope, with or without Dragon.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Audio Book Listener Charmed by Elizabeth McGovern's Narration of The Chaperone

2013-07-06T23:56:00.001-07:00

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I was looking at chauffeur duty for a good month, I thought to do what a librarian told me works for her, listen to an audio book in her car, and read whenever she can. Take it from me, the combination of listening and reading worked like a charm. Twice a day, in the morning on my way back home, and in the evening back to the city, Elizabeth McGovern kept me engaged with her narration of the story of Cora Carlisle, and in between the rides I read.
Was it a coincidence that the main character's name is the same as that of the character our narrator Elizabeth McGovern plays in Downton Abbey? For some reason I kept on thinking, I know that voice, and I started to expect a certain behavior, and in a way Cora Carlisle and Cora Crawley née Levinson do have something in common. The times, the corset, their roles as wives and mothers in society, even if their station in life, their lifestyle and the era is (slightly) different, and one is the wife of a lawyer, the other of a British Lord.
The story of both the chaperone, and that of her charge, silent movie star Louise Brooks as a fifteen-year-old going to N.Y. City to try her luck in the dance world is compelling.
The housewife, the teen and people around them all have secrets that color their own and one another's lives.
While a historical novel, much of the subject material in The Chaperone will resonate with readers of today. Adoption, forbidden love and lust, abuse, fame and glory, Moriarty kept me engaged from the beginning to the end.

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This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.