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.
My craft essay “The Five Percent Rule: How Much Background Detail is Essential for Authenticity in Historical Fiction?” is now online at The Artist Unleashed website http://www.theartistunleashed.com/ If you’re curious about the other 95%, the interesting details that get left out, see BEHIND THE STORY.
Vine Leaves Press (VLP) is an independent publishing house based in Australia, with an international staff and roster of authors, that offers something of value for every literate reader. Writers and readers depend on small presses like VLP to promote and disseminate the work of authors whose voices might otherwise not be heard. Under the leadership of the multi-talented Jessica Bell (writer, musician, artist), VLP publishes memoir, creative nonfiction, literary essay collections, novels, short story collections, poetry, vignette collections, and writing reference books. Please check out their website http://www.vineleavespress.com/ to find something for yourself and all the appreciative readers in your life.
My Amazon review of What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (Rated 3): Too Meager to Satisfy the Reader’s Appetite – With careful scholarship, Laura Shapiro portrays the kitchens and tables of six women across a variety of times, places, and social classes. The collection is mixed. My favorites were the Edwardian cook, Rosa Lewis, whom I’d never heard of before, and Eleanor Roosevelt, a long-time idol of mine, in which I was disabused of long-held myths about her indifference to good food. Shapiro sticks close to the data, which unfortunately, sometimes makes for a spare and unimaginative meal.
WWI era slang was quite colorful. Some of my favorites (and their meanings) stem from typical adolescent preoccupations, namely sex, cars, and booze: Hayburner (gas-guzzling car); iron (motorcycle); iron one’s shoelaces (go to the restroom); orchid (expensive item); skatey (vulgar, cheap); struggle buggy (car for making out); barney mugging (having sex); mazuma (money); and splifficated (drunk). Discover additional bygone slang expressions in BEHIND THE STORY and read more about popular culture during the WWI era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
My Amazon review of The Burning Girl (Rated 4): Sifting Through the Ashes of Friendship – Claire Messud captures the intensity of pre-adolescent female friendship and the pain that follows its inexplicable dissolution. As Julia, the smart protagonist, puzzles over the loss of her best friend Cassie, at once her soul mate and her opposite, readers glimpse the wise woman Julia will become. One wishes only for a few more singe marks to burn this book into memory.
(In honor of Halloween) Candy manufacturers began using corn syrup during WWI because sugar was rationed. Corn syrup was so cheap that they never stopped the substitution. Popular confections during WWI (dubbed “war candies”) were Amalkaka (chocolate-covered animal crackers, perhaps derived from a baby’s pronunciation of the popular plain cookies) and GooGoo Cluster (a mound of caramel, marshmallow nougat, peanuts, and milk chocolate). Its shape was harder to wrap than conventional rectangular or square candy bars of the day, and it was the first time multiple elements were mass-produced in a retail candy. Read more about WWI-era history and popular culture in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and go to BEHIND THE STORY (03/06/17 post) to learn about other candies invented in the 1800s that are still with us today.
New York City’s Grand Central Terminal (opened in 1913) has the world’s largest Tiffany glass clock, surrounded by sculptures of Minera, Hercules, and Mercury. It is 48 feet high with a circumference of 13 feet. The four-sided clock has a secret door that leads to the ticket booth. Read more about New York City landmarks at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and the city’s historical events and places in BEHIND THE STORY.
On New York City’s Lower East Side in the early 1900s, 2,500 pushcart peddlers haggled and sold every type of goods imaginable, including shirt collars and shoelaces, pots and pans, and vegetables and pretzels. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
Women smoking became less taboo as they took over men’s jobs in WWI. Cigarettes were manufactured and marketed expressly for ladies. One early brand was Milo Violets, which was advertised as “Delicately scented gold tip cigarettes for the discerning woman.” Another was Murad Turkish cigarettes. One ad featured a ringed hand holding a cigarette with the tagline line: “Which is the jewel?” Next thing you know, women would want to vote! Read more about women’s history during this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
My Amazon review of The Mother I Imagined, the Mom I Knew: A Hybrid Memoir by Paul Alan Fahey (Rated 5): Turbulent and Touching – Paul Fahey’s hybrid memoir – an interweaving of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry – recaps his fierce, fractious, but ultimately fulfilling relationship with his mother. Fahey takes readers on a lifelong journey from their nomadic existence in his childhood to their memorable travels in Africa (when he was in the Peace Corps) to their truce when his mother was battling terminal cancer. Fahey is at once honest and compassionate.
