INTERVIEW: JUDITH FEIN ("THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ"): EMOTIONAL GENEALOGY

Title: THE SPOON FROM MINKOWITZ: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands

Author: Judith Fein with Photographs by Paul Ross

ISBN:     978-0-9884019-3-8

Published 2014 by GlobalAdventure.us

Author Website: Global Adventure Web Site

Available at Amazon:  Amazon: The Spoon from Minkowitz

Summary :  Author Judith Fein embarks on a quest to call on ancestors and urges us to do the same in The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet  Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands.

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INTERVIEW

“Finding roots is the solution for a rootless life.”

 I heard the Eastern European ancestors of many people like me

 calling out. “Remember us. Don’t forget us. Our story needs

 to be heard. Write our story. Write your story."

—Judith Fein, The Spoon from Minkowitz:

                                           

     Judith Fein is a travel journalist’s travel journalist. Like a latter-day Marco Polo, she has globe-trotted without maps or preconceived notions. By her own account, she has swum with Beluga whales, consulted with a Zulu sangoma in South Africa, and eaten porcupine in Vietnam (“not with relish”). In 2011, when Fein and her photojournalist husband Paul Ross visited Tunisia during the Arab Spring, the French-speaking American Fein found herself on the radio, speaking to Tunisians about Democracy. Her popular travel memoir Life Is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel conveys her need to find out where people of different cultures come from and what makes them act, think, and behave the way they do. After decades of travel, there was one frontier that still eluded the “I-live-to-leave” Fein: the mystery of her own ancestral roots.

     Fein’s new book, The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands, takes us on the trip she finally made in 2012 to the shtetl her Jewish grandmother left behind in an obscure Russian (now Ukrainian) village.

     The Spoon from Minkowitz has garnered stellar reviews. Catharine Hamm, travel editor of the Los Angeles Times, found The Spoon from Minkowitz “as tense as a thriller and as tender as a love story.” Zelda Shluker, editor of Hadassah Magazine, noted the book is “unlike any other back-to-roots book…driven by the author's almost mystical quest to recover the past…Her curiosity, openness and passion take us along on a journey that turns out to be ours as well.”

     We had the opportunity to catch Judith Fein for a moment when she was not in perpetual motion to talk about the deeper meanings of genealogy as explored in this book:

For those who have not yet read your book, what is “the spoon from Minkowitz”?

My grandmother was from a village called Minkowitz in what was then Russia. That fact plus five others were all she would ever tell me about where she was from and why she left; she didn’t want to talk about the past. My mother told me virtually nothing.

When I met my husband Paul, we were immediately attracted. But here’s the kicker: when I asked Paul's parents about their ancestral roots, it turned out his father’s family came from…Minkowitz

Okay. So the “spoon.” When Paul told his parents we were getting married, his father offered us the only thing left from his parents’ shtetl of Minkowitz: a soup spoon they brought with them to America. I treasured that spoon because it made our ancient, ancestral connection so real and concrete. We made a place of honor for it under the chupa  (Jewish wedding canopy) on a satin pillow.

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: Be who you want to be. ("CHANGING SPACES" by Nancy King)-

“How is it possible that one minute I’m a wife

and the next I’m a discard?”

—Changing Spaces, Nancy King

MY MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

Not since Marilyn French's 70s novel, THE WOMEN'S ROOM, has there been such a groundbreaking feminist novel. Nancy King tackles 180-degree life flips, divorce, women’s friendship and the healing power of New Mexico in her novel CHANGING SPACES. Just as in THE WOMEN'S ROOM, the central character (Laura) gets an "anvil" dropped on her head when her husband suddenly wants a divorce after a longtime marriage in which Laura has been deeply in love. That King has the couple coupling a few hours before this shocking news is testimony to how skillfully she lets readers know (a) older women can still have sex with their husbands and enjoy it and (b) men are dogs.

Okay, maybe not that last one.

In CHANGING SPACES, men are not so much "dogs" as they are "dogged" in their pursuits. Laura's husband has doggedly pursued a younger woman, thus resulting in his asking for the divorce. And after Laura disappears off the face of Oberlin, Ohio where they have lived their comfortable lives, The Cad regrets his error and tries desperately to learn where she is.

Where Laura "is" determines the trajectory of this story and beats like a heart liberated from its rib cage. CHANGING SPACES is about lost and found identity--specifically the identity of married women who identify so much as wives (even if they have careers such as Laura does) that they eventually lose sight of what they really want until they get the rude "stick in the eye" of their spouse announcing divorce plans.

INTERVIEW: NANCY KING (CHANGING SPACES) - "That was before I lost my life."

Title:   Changing Spaces
Author: Nancy King
Genre: Women's Fiction 

Published 2014 by Plain View Press 

ISBN: 978-1-891386-43-5
Author Web Site: Nancy King Stories
Available at Amazon:  Amazon: Changing Spaces

“How is it possible that one minute I’m a wife

and the next I’m a discard?”

—Changing Spaces, Nancy King

    Santa Fe author Nancy King’s newest novel (Jan. 2014, Plain View Press) about a Midwestern runaway soon-to-be-divorced wife who gets a “makeover” in Santa Fe could end up doing for New Mexico what Moby Dick did for whales.

     Changing Spaces grew out of three incidents. “First there was a woman who said to me, ‘That was before I lost my life,’” said King. “Her husband of 40 years had divorced her to marry a younger woman.” The following week, another friend “showed up in tears because her husband wanted out of their 40-year marriage so he could marry his secretary.” By the time Nancy King spotted an Op-Ed about the author of a book that touted the joys of being a stay-at-home-wife whose husband now wanted a divorce after 40 years—she knew she was on to something.

     Into this familiar scenario, King injected a “What if?”. What if a Midwestern 60-year old woman woke up as she always did, made love with her husband of 40 years, and several hours later, learned her husband had fallen for a younger woman and wanted a divorce—and what if—she hit the road and ended up in the healing bear-hug that is Santa Fe, New Mexico?

     As one reviewer put it: “Heartbreak turns to intrigue. A season of grief leads to a wig, a closet, a script, cookie recipes, new friendships, and a wide-open future.”

“Hey, ya got the Santa Fe idea. No need to be who you were.

Be who you want to be.” —Changing Spaces, Nancy King

    In 2001, King moved from New York City “and never looked back.” The decision to leave friends and job would have been bold for anyone, but since 1985, King has been living with a rare form of leukemia known as Hairy Cell. 

     “When I realized I had a chronic disease with no cure, I made the decision that it was not going to run or ruin my life. I focus on what I can do; not what I lost or what I used to be able to do. Even when I don’t feel well, I force myself to walk or hike or play tennis because I always feel better afterward.”

     The unsinkable Nancy King has trekked Thailand, hiked the Grand Canyon, and “run people 50 years her junior into the ground,” according to one friend. “She overcame the odds of a disastrous diagnosis.”

Laura tried on outfit after outfit, hoping to alter her personality

from the outside in. She practiced taking bigger steps…

—Changing Spaces, Nancy King

     Why Santa Fe? “The nature around Santa Fe is spectacular. Many people find it has a magical energy that renews and regenerates. Even those born in New Mexico talk about this area’s special energy, nature, culture.”

     It’s not unusual for newcomers to experience difficulties. “It’s as if Santa Fe were trying to spit them out. Those who manage to survive their initial problems often experience personal transformations that they couldn’t have articulated before coming.”

     Nancy King also authored the novels, Morning Light, A Woman Walking, and The Stones Speak, which was optioned for a film and won first place in the New Mexico Presswomen’s Communications Contest. She has facilitated international arts-based healing workshops, which she detailed in Dancing With Wonder: Self-Discovery through Stories.

  

   “If there is a theme that runs throughout my writing, it is an exploration of the need to reconnect with the disconnected Self after trauma,” King said. “I’m interested in what happens when characters realize their old lives and ways no longer serve them.”

     What helps the most when living with illness or a life out of balance? “Having a sense of humor about every aspect of life. And good friends.”

     Just as in her novel where Santa Fe women form a circle of care around the stranger in their midst, King’s friends have seen her through the best and the worst.

     “When a nurse expressed concern that I don’t have family here to support me while I undergo treatments, I told her. ‘Don’t worry. My friends are the best support network in the world.’”

==============

     Nancy King, Ph.D. lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she weaves, writes, and finds inspiration hiking in the mountains. She is a contributing writer for the online journal Your Life Is a Trip.


     To read more about Changing Spaces and check out early reviews, please visit:

Book Publicity by Marlan

REVIEW: ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS ("Keeps Recovery Real")

Title:                           ALL STORMS PASS: The Anti-Meditations
Author:                     Luke Benoit

Date published:     2012 by CreateSpace

ISBN-10:                    0615520138
ISBN-13:                    978-0615520131

Author’s Web Site:  All Storms Pass

Available on Amazon: Amazon: All Storms Pass

 "If anyone ever told you that you were less than wonderful...
They lied."

--All Storms Pass: The Anti-Meditations by Luke Benoit

I love this book. It fell into my life during a rocky time of self-doubt, anxiety and regrets, and I started dog-earing pages five minutes into my first reading. The title "All Storms Pass" is fitting since the book's brief passages (written in non-rhyming poetry format) focus on the transitory nature of life. At a whopping 635 pages, an alternate title might have been "The Big Book of Self-Esteem."

Benoit urges readers to share these "anti-meditations" with others to stimulate dialogue and promote healing. They function as the jumping off place for discussion rather than the end of it. "They beg for personal interpretation," says Benoit on the back cover, while acknowledging that "All of them require introspective rumination."

This is such a personal book and at the same most of us can relate to the struggle to gain peace and balance in our lives. Life Coach/Therapist Benoit has obviously suffered and continues to wage war against internal forces that threaten his peace of mind. This honest approach makes the book riveting.

Reading this book is like reading someone's life-journal, and as you gather the bits of wisdom, you realize you're looking in a mirror. What Luke Benoit has suffered and transcended one day at a time, each of his readers can suffer and transcend one page at a time, right along with him.

It is a brave masterpiece.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: LUKE BENOIT - "ALL STORMS PASS NOT FOR STUPID"

Title:                              ALL STORMS PASS: The Anti-Meditations

Author:                          Luke Benoit
Date published:            2012 by CreateSpace

ISBN-10:                         0615520138
ISBN-13:                         978-0615520131

Author’s Web Site:       All Storms Pass

Available on Amazon:  Amazon: All Storms Pass

SUMMARY: Author and Life Coach Luke Benoit knows from personal experience what it feels like to rise up from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix, and lives to help others do the same. His book has helped me in my own dark times.

all storms pass

 and happiness will always be a decision

even when I feel like I can’t make it.

 I can learn to stay out of my own way

no matter what has happened to me

or where I’ve come from

or what I’ve done or not done

in the past.

 and I can let the good inside me

take and carry me

and let that shape be

revealed

to me

    - All Storms Pass:  The Anti-Meditations by Luke Benoit

“You’re not going to get this book if you’re stupid,” said author and Life Coach Luke Benoit during a chat about his new book All Storms Pass: The Anti-Meditations. “You’re just not.”

I would love that on a t-shirt. Hope they come out soon.

Taken out of context, this statement may sound a tad arrogant, but what author hasn’t thought that about their book and kept it private? In context, Benoit was saying different people will get different things out of his book and some may never get it. The way he said it is typical of his straight-from-the-heart / take-it-or-leave-it style that forms the spine of All Storms Pass which opens with this “Statement of Self-Esteem”:

 “If anyone ever told you that you were less than wonderful…they lied.”

Okay, so what about Hitler? Shouldn’t he have listened to people who said he was less than wonderful? But this proves Benoit’s point. The stout-hearted narcissistic sociopaths (aka “stupids”) of this world will never seek wisdom, humility and healthy self-esteem. You won’t find them searching their souls in a 12-Step or hiring therapists or “life coaches.”

Benoit has alchemized tried-and-true “recovery” maxims, pop culture sayings and lyrics, and a dollop of his own raw honesty to create a series of healing “poems” that move the reader and stimulate contemplation. On the back cover, he acknowledges the book's similarities with classic meditation books such as Melody Beattie’s The Language of Letting Go, but advises his meditations are “very different.”

All Storms Pass has only been out a few weeks, and is already gaining popularity as it garners great reviews, including one Midwesterner who admitted Fear of Californian Superficiality before actually reading it and finding resonance.

I also reviewed the book favorably, so it was a pleasure to be able to pick Luke Benoit’s brain about the book’s process and publication. Before we launch into the interview, Benoit expresses happy exhaustion: “It’s like having a baby!”

Q:  Are you from the West Coast originally?

A:   I was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Prep School educated. Escaped at 18 to be as far away from every part of my life as possible. I came to Los Angeles to go to USC Film School and study screenwriting. But as the B-52's said, "Remember, wherever you go there you are..."

Q:  Where do you live now?

A:   Orange County, California.

Q:  Tell me about the Anti-Meditations.

A:   They are called the Anti-Meditations because they are very different from meditations that you would read in traditional meditation books.  A lot of them are dark or challenging, and some of them are like poems.  But they're never simple and they don't necessarily give you a simple answer or tool for a "one day at a time" solution.  Because sometimes I think life just isn't like that.

Q:  How did you come to write this book?

A:   Well,  All Storms Pass is me.  It just came out of me.  It has my personality.

I had a lot of different trainings in Recovery and the 12-Step Program, and in mental health and personal therapy and reading and reading and lots and lots of work on myself. I suppose it sounds big-headed but it just truly a reflection of who I am.