Annette Gendler's Blog, page 7

Ode to My Hiking Boots: Saying Farewell to My Feet’s Best Friends

This summer, I finally had to give you up.

I embarked on my trip to Peru with a new version of you,
Just as comfortable and snug, but water tight.

It felt odd not to have you along,
My hiking boots who have been with me on every trip since 2004,
When I bought you for a shooting class in Texas.

I wore you whenever I really had to walk,

Be it through a downpour on the way to the office in Chicago,
Or along the undulating walkway of the Great Wall of China.

But last winter, after fifteen...

Sharing a Tried-and-True Writer’s Tool to Review the Old Year and Plan for the New One: the Writer’s Workbook

The new edition of my Writer’s Workbook is here! All you gotta do to receive it is subscribe to my newsletter. If you are a subscriber, you will have received it already.

This is my 7th year of sharing my end-of-the-year review process with the Writer’s Workbook. I hope it helps you review this past year, take a close look at what has transpired, so that you may discover what’s working and what isn’t.

I wish you good fun reviewing the old year and planning for the new, as well asall the best...

How Should You Handle Blemishes on Your Family’s History? Write About Them or Not?

Family stories aren’t always happy go lucky.*

Welcome to installment one of my new advice column where I answer any question readers ask about writing compelling stories from family history.

Jim asks: As a general rule, are you okay with leaving out the blemishes in family stories? (I’m not talking about something horrific that is required to be included in order to make your point.)

My answer:

I think this depends on a) whether that blemish had any consequences that affected later...

Sharing a German Grandmother’s Recipe that Became a Jewish Family’s Favorite Treat on Chanukah

Snippet of my grandmother’s original handwritten recipe

For Chanukah it was become a tradition in my house to make one of my German grandmother’s recipes, Gebackene Mäuse. The recipe itself has nothing to do with the holiday.

However, it involves frying delicious yeast dough in oil, and what could be more appropriate for Chanukah than that?

As with all my grandmother’s recipes, it is a simple. It only requires time, i.e. not so much actual cooking time–the frying goes pretty fast–but time for...

In Memory of Michael Steinberg, One of the Greats of the Creative Nonfiction World, and a Most Generous Man

This week I was immensely shocked and saddened to learn that my mentor Michael Steinberg died. I found out via a Facebook post from a mutual acquaintance.

I had just corresponded with him in October about my new book coming out! How could he be dead now? He’d told me about his upcoming partial cornea transplant, which is why he declined endorsing my new book–he had trouble reading. But you don’t die from eye surgery! A subsequent Facebook post from his wife clarified that shortly after that...

My New Book is Published! How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History is LIVE! And the Kindle edition is FREE today!

I am happy to announce that the ebook as well as the paperback versions of How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History are published and LIVE (as they call it in the KDP publishing platform) on Amazon.

To celebrate the book launch,the Kindle version is free today, December 6!

For one day only, so be sure to grab your copy today!

How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History makes a great gift for anyone who’s always “wanted to do something with” family records, documents,...

Revealing the Cover of my Next Book: How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History (First Few Pages Available for Download!)

Last week, after two months of much back and forth with my book production team at Inspire Books, I finally signed off on the cover of my forthcoming book How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History.I wanted to share the story of how this cover came about right away but alas, I was simply too exhausted to put that together because I was also dealing with multiple revisions to the interior pages.

I still can’t believe how much work it was to arrive at a cover that would work for the...

Who Names Her Publishing Company After Her Mother-in-Law?

My husband and I with our first two kids and my in-laws (Nana is on the left), April 1999

Seminal moment for me today: I filed a Doing Business As (DBA) application with the county clerk’s office. Turns out that is necessary in order to legally operate a company with a name other than your own in the state of Illinois. And that’s what I want to do:

I’ll be publishing my books under the company name Nana’s Books.

I only found out about the DBA certificate requirement when I checked what I needed to ope...

“When the Leaves Drift” – the Perfect Time to Share my Favorite Poem, Autumn Day, by Rainer Maria Rilke

One of my favorite stretches through the woods

I have been out in the country, reveling in the glory of autumn. The fall foliage spectacle is on full display on our property in northwest Indiana. I just love, love, love walking through the woods, or simply driving along the country roads at this time of year.

As most of today was taken up by work duties, and I didn’t have time to prepare a longer blog post,

this is a good time to showcase my favorite poem, Herbsttag (Autumn Day) by Rainer Maria...

A Peek into a Book by Rachel Hollis, Who Writes with Spunk, Attitude and Energy about What’s Actually Going on in her Life and Shares How She Does It All

Lately, I have been taken with books by young female dynamos: Tami Lahren’s Never Play Dead captivated me in August, and now I have a new one to share: Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis.

In both cases, I had not heard of these media personalities before. They were not people I followed nor had really come across in the media I read, watch or listen to. Goes to show there is always more to be discovered!

Again, the book cover caught my eye in a bookstore. This time, I was browsing the Valparaiso University bookstore after...