Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
“Within two days of the 1941 invasion of Poland, Germans were in my hometown, using the synagogue as a stable, destroying Jewish symbols, and demanding that Jews be identified by a Star of David. We were moved by peasant cart to the Mlawa ghetto, finding the place empty because previous inhabitants had all been transferred to Auschwitz.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Nazis and their sympathizers desecrated Jewish synagogues, homes, and businessesBerlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
The Wizard of Oz officially opened 83 years ago today, on August 25, 1939. MGM previewed the movie in Wisconsin two weeks earlier to test its popularity in the Midwest. Viewers were wowed by Technicolor, a film first. Still, production was marred by mishaps and it was a decade before MGM recouped its $3 million investment. Read more about the making of The Wizard of Oz and its “big” and “little” stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner (see NOVELS).
The Wizard of Oz released August 25, 1939A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) by Ann S. Epstein
My novel One Person’s Loss (coming September 2022) is about German Jewish newlyweds sent to Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter, admonished by their parents to have children to “save our people.” A new a set of posts, “Survivor Stories,” will share the tales of real people who lived through the Holocaust and their memories of the millions who didn’t. The images are informative without being voyeuristic or degrading. Learn more at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Read about the book in NOVELS.
“Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.” – Elie Wiesel, NightJewish newlyweds flee Berlin for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
After 50 “Bad Dad Tales” (all archived here), I am retiring the series that introduced readers to The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. I will soon launch a new series, “Survivor Stories,” in honor of my upcoming book, One Person’s Loss, which will be released in September 2022, a World War II era narrative about Holocaust survivors torn between relief and guilt. Read about both publications and my other books, all available in print and electronic formats, in NOVELS.
Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prizeBerlin, 1937: Jewish newlyweds Petra and Erich flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
According to LitNuts, an online book promotion service that only features publications by indie presses, “A book by an indie author (many of whom have created their own imprint) is definitely an indie book. So are books from the small, university, and micro presses competing for attention with the Big Five corporate publishers and their ~250 imprints. (The Big Five are HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan. They may be about to become the Big Four, pending the outcome of the antitrust suit to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.) The Big Five have an 80%+ market share in the United States. That translates into 80%+ of shelf space in bookstores and 80%+ of online book real estate, as well.”
My novels are all published by indie presses (Vine Leaves Press and Alternative Book Press). When you buy books from indie presses and encourage others to do the same, you support their efforts to publish a wider variety of voices than those represented by large commercial presses. Thank you for investing in this vital share of the literary and publishing world!
LitNuts promotes publications by indie presses as a counterpoint to the Big FiveWhy writers write: “Language is the oldest and most human thing about us. And, of course, writers are working in language.” – Margaret Atwood
Eleanor Roosevelt’s father Elliott, younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt, inherited a fortune and squandered it on a rich and idle life. A heavy drinker, he was exiled to Virginia and rarely visited his daughter. She was jealous of the servant girl with whom he fathered a son. Elliott died of a seizure days after jumping out a window. The future First Lady never got over his loss but developed a compassion that benefitted the nation and the world. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Losing her alcoholic father as a girl made Eleanor Roosevelt a compassionate First LadyToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Automatically Hip: Stories by John McCaffrey (Rating 5) – Seriously Jazzy. At first, the tales in John McCaffrey’s collection Automatically Hip appear easy, effortless, even flip. Then he drops an insight that makes you realize, “This story is more substantial than it seems!” Like being hip, there’s nothing automatic about good writing. It takes work and McCaffrey has done his. I say this as both a reader and a fellow fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page). While the protagonists in these stories are not hip, neither are they losers or geeks. Just run-of-the-mill guys who wish they could be cooler. And yet, every now and then, something extraordinary happens to them. Just like those magical moments that can strike all us ordinary mortals if, like McCaffrey, we’re open enough to let them. Each piece is finely crafted, designed not only to entertain but also to enlighten us about human desires, foibles, and quirks. The result is seriously satisfying.
There’s nothing automatic about the craft in this collectionWhy writers read: “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – W. Somerset Maugham
My creative nonfiction essay “Riley and Lucille” will appear in the Winter 2022 issue of The Blue Mountain Review, published by The Southern Collective Experience. Written on the eve of surgery to save my right eye, “Riley and Lucille” ponders how my habit of naming ailing body parts is a tool to confront, communicate, laugh about, and adapt to the physical challenges of aging. I’ll post the link when the essay is published. Read more in MEMOIR.
The Southern Collective Experience publishes The Blue Mountain ReviewWhy writers write: “Fiction is like listening to someone’s heartbeat through a stethoscope. Memoir is like open-heart surgery and holding someone’s heart in your hands.” – Maya Shanbhag Lang
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor (Rated 3) – Razzle Dazzle.Things They Lost by Kenyan novelist Okwiri Odour is the story of 12-year old Ayosa, whose mother, a world-traveling photojournalist, abandons her daughter for unpredictable stretches of time. Ayosa longs for her mother, herself the daughter and granddaughter of neglectful mothers. She says of a radio poet, “She knows what it’s like to want something with all your heart and not get it” and observes that “Botched up love isn’t any kind of love at all.” Alone and self-sufficient, Ayosa keeps company with ghosts, is wary of wraiths who threaten to snatch her, and is befriended by Mbiu, a girl (or possibly a spirit) her age, whose own mother is dead. Despite her longing, Ayosa is gleeful when she (mistakenly, if briefly) believes that her mother is dead. In this game of “I love her, I love her not,” Ayosa is filled with joy at the prospect of no longer waiting for her mother’s return or aching for the love she’s incapable of giving. She can leave home with Mbiu. They need each other at least as much as they need their absent mothers. Sisterhood is more dependable and doesn’t leave deep-seated scars. Ayosa’s story is moving. The portrait of pain alleviated by the escape of magic realism can be dazzling. But therein lies the novel’s problem. The book is so taken with its technical prowess that it often sacrifices an engaging narrative. It’s like a movie that’s boasts special effects but ignores its characters’ inner lives. Oduor’s magical scenes grow repetitive; Ayosa’s status remains static. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), my foremost concern is character development. Ayosa’s fantastic encounters enthrall at first, but ultimately fail to add up to a satisfying journey.
A fraught mother-daughter bond awash in magic realismWhy writers read: “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – W. Somerset Maugham
An excerpt from the first chapter of my upcoming novel One Person’s Loss was published in the August 2022 issue of Washtenaw Jewish News, a free publication with a circulation of 4,000 households and a readership of 10,000 in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Thanks to WJN editor, Clare Kinberg. If you don’t get a print copy, read the WJN August issue online. The excerpt is on page 23. The story: It’s 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Nazi Germany for Brooklyn, admonished by their parents to have children to “save our people.” More about the book in NOVELS. Enjoy. Share. Read the whole book when it’s published in September 2022. Thanks!
Can a marriage survive clashing personalities and the horrors of the Holocaust?Why writers write: “Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. I have 10 or so. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.” – Gore Vidal
