annsepstein@att.net

Learn History Through Fiction: Al Capone Goes from Hitting to Hits

Discovered while researching the short story “Blood and Sand” — Al Capone showed promise as a student, but his parochial school education ended at the age of 14, in 1913, after he was expelled for hitting a female teacher (presumably a nun) in the face. He then worked odd jobs in Brooklyn, including at a candy store and a bowling alley, until he met gangster Johnny Torrio, who became his mentor. Capone later moved his family to Chicago and the rest is history. [Note: The title “Blood and Sand” comes from a popular cocktail of the Capone era, made by mixing scotch, kirshwasser, sweet vermouth, and orange juice.]

Learn History Through Fiction: German Anti-Nazi Philosophy & U.S. Racism

Working on a story about Jewish professors who fled Nazi Germany and found work at historically black colleges and universities in the U.S. (often the only places that would hire them), I came across the work of Theodor Adorno of the Frankfurt School of philosophy. His critiques of Nazism apply equally well to racism and slavery in America. One example: Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people. As a writer and visual artist, I was also struck by his statement in favor of creativity over violence: Every work of art is an uncommitted crime.

On the Shore Submitted for Award

On the Shore (Vine Leaves Press, 2017), a novel about an immigrant Jewish family thrown into turmoil when a son lies about his name and age to fight in World War One, was submitted to the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) for its new adult fiction award. Judges are looking for work that grapples with Jewish thematic content including religion, history, culture, and identity. Books published in 2017 are eligible for the 2018 award. Winners will be announced in late February or early March 2018 (a long time to keep my digits crossed). To read more about On the Shore, watch the trailer, and order copies, see NOVELS.

Learn History Through Fiction: Who Invented Life Saver Candy?

Learn history through fiction. For my WWI-era novel On the Shore, I researched the kinds of candy American sailors might buy at the “gedunk stand” (canteen) in 1917. It was fortuitous that life savers, a nautical emblem, had been invented only five years earlier. Of course my character, a Navy recruit, bought a roll. Most intriguing was that the candy was the brainchild of Clarence Crane, the father of poet Hart Crane. Clarence was a chocolate-maker looking for a non-melting confection he could sell in the summer. Thus was “Crane’s Peppermint Life Savers” born. Imagine my delight when a clue in the 05/28/17 Acrostic puzzle of The New York Times Magazine read: “Candy invented in 1912 by the father of poet Hart Crane.” I knew the answer!

Short Story Collection Submitted

I’m entering my short story collection Between the Wars in contests and submitting it to prospective agents and publishers. The collection’s fourteen stories span the years from World War I to World War II (1911-1946) with narratives that go beyond the battlefield to examine how extraordinary events change ordinary lives and how, conversely, minor happenings can affect actions, feelings, and relationships. For example, “Jamming” pits the journals of an overbearing husband and his stifled wife at the founding of the Women’s Institute in Wales during World War I. In “Undark,” a budding artist paints her family’s reluctant acceptance of her older sister’s poisoning as a “Radium Girl” in the mid-1920s. A woman scriptwriter in “So I Did” battles sex discrimination and family disapproval to break into 1930s radio. Set in the Capone era, “Blood and Sand” portrays a girl’s confusion upon discovering her adored Uncle Al is behind the killing of her best friend’s father. Five of the stories have been published in journals (see STORIES) but I’d love to see the entire collection in print.

New Novel Finished

Tada! I’m sending out my new novel Nine in Ten to prospective agents and publishers. Inspired by a bizarre chapter in Toronto’s history, and set in 1976, Nine in Ten asks whether an overbearing father deserves a chance to make amends with his alienated offspring. Widower Emm Benbow, told by his doctor he can no longer live alone, must move in with one of his many children or go to a dreaded old age home. Fifty years earlier, Emm pressured his wife Izora to enter the Toronto Stork Derby, an actual contest which offered a sizable cash award to the woman who had the most babies between 1926 and 1936. They had a large family, but it was hardly the happy one Emm envisioned. Now, living in turn with each of his adult children, Emm discovers that the true value of fatherhood is not measured in big prizes, but in small rewards.

Learn History Through Fiction: Early Penny Arcade Games

Learn history through fiction. A century ago, penny arcades were a popular form of entertainment. Attractions included stereoscopes, tests of strength and lung capacity, perfume sprayers, mechanical fortune tellers, electric shockers (thought to stimulate health), and machines like “Dr. Vibrator,” the title of my latest story. Unlike the sexual association of today’s vibrators, the devices consisted of a rubber hand that users pressed against different parts of their body to “relieve specific ailments” (such as a stiff neck or aching back) and to generally “charge and replenish the body’s vital forces.” The machines were advertised with the slogan “Vibration is life!” To learn more history through fiction, see BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: The First Policewoman

Learn history through fiction. “Dr. Vibrator” is the story of Alice Stebbins Wells, the first policewoman in the United States, appointed to the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910. She worked on the “purity squad,” where she was responsible for enforcing laws concerning “dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades, picture shows, and other places of public recreation.” Although not allowed to carry a gun, she was authorized to make arrests. Standing just five feet tall, Alice was also an ordained minister, social worker, and active member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. To learn more history through fiction, see BEHIND THE STORY.