Rebecca Klempner's Blog, page 4

Want to Learn How to Write a Genuinely Helpful Book Review?

Someone pointed out to me that one of the reasons that people don’t write reviews is that they don’t know HOW to do so. And then another someone confessed she was interested in writing reviews, but didn’t know how.

So I made an infographic.

[image error]

It’s a nice shape. If you printed it, you could probably make it into a nice bookmark. I tried to narrow it down to the most basic tips without overloading people.

Do you write book reviews? Do you find it hard? Easy? Do you have tips of your own? Share i...

Barbara Bietz’s interview of me, working on a new short story, and other news

It’s been a busy week, and I have a lot to share. First, the wonderful author Barbara Bietz (The Sundown Kid, Like a Maccabee) interviewed me for her blog. She posted the interview today, and you can see it here.

I’ve been meeting the last couple weeks with my editing clients, Ganit and Adir Levy, authors of the What Should Danny Do? series. They’re working on the third book in their series, which promises to be as good as the first two.

[image error]

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

I’ve drafted my f...

Finally Turning the Corner on Seasonal Doldrums and Lots of Publishing News

[image error]

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

The last week of February, I had one of those nice “published four times in one week” moments last week. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s nice when it does. If you haven’t caught them up, I’ve got the links all lined up for you!

The first piece covers improvement in my winter blues, and how it ties in to prayer and faith. Here’s the article I wrote after interviewing Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin–he was wonderfully approachable and a pleasure to work with. I g...

They’re here….

Finally, my copies of Adina at Her Best have arrived! (

[image error]

They got lost in transit, so my publisher sent out a second shipment.

It’s always a magical moment when you hold your new book in your hands. Also, over the next few days, I get to give out copies to people who lent me a hand in making this book a reality.

I’m hoping that all my readers get the pleasure of seeing a prayer come to fruition, a goal to become reality. Such a great feeling!!! Anyone who saw a creative project of any kind a...

Adina at Her Best finally up for sale!

[image error]While I have not gotten my copies yet (they are in transit, and they arrived in NYC on Thursday), Adina at Her Best is indeed on sale on the Menucha Publisher’s site.

In other fun news, I just posted a second video about writing picture books. This one is broadly applicable to all writing, especially narrative forms. It’s about getting into the heads of your readers and into the heads of your characters. You can view it here.

And I just got great feedback on some changes I made to the adult...

Video #1: So, you’ve told me you want to write a picture book…

One of the things I’ve been hoping to do this year (and I’m talking 5779, not 2019) is make some videos about writing. I finally took the plunge after receiving a number of phone calls, PMs, and other queries about what it takes to write a picture book.

In this 9 minute (or so) video, you’ll hear:

7 & 1/2 minutes answering the following very basic questions:
1) Should you write a picture book at all? What kind of person does well writing a[image error] picture book?
2) What is the very first step you shou...

First post of 2019: What’s ahead

I kept telling myself that I didn’t want to make any resolutions–I don’t really celebrate secular New Year’s Eve. But something that happened that made me reconsider.

I’ve been struggling to write short fiction lately. I’ve been knee-deep in some big fiction projects, long-term, book-length projects, and my editing business has grown. I’m writing two (non-fiction) columns a month. But there are all sorts of itty-bittier bits that I’d like to get out, and which I think would be publishable. Y...

Ehhh…a little backsliding

So, remember my big plans to finish the novel manuscript that I didn’t finish during NaNoWriMo? Well, that is taking a bit longer than I anticipated. Last week, I had good excuses–Chanukah, the fact my kids had a few days off of school, and it was an editing week for me.

On the other hand, this week has involved me being distracted: housework, driving my kids to their appointments, drafting shorter pieces to meet my monthly obligations, and just being plain old distracted. My output on the no...

I’m a NaNo Loser and Proud of It

It’s now four days into December, and NaNoWriMo is all wrapped up. The goal was to write 50,000 words, and I will tell you straight up: I did not make it to 50,000 words.

But, the good news is, I wrote about 39,000. That’s great! I’ve never written a number of words anywhere near that big in any other month, ever. I’m glad I signed up for NaNo, because had I not, I’m pretty sure I would have written zero words of that book.

I’m hoping to work consistently on that manuscript throughout Decembe...

Been very busy! Three pieces running this week, a NaNoWriMo update, and Adina At Her Best coming soon

Howdy readers–long time, no write.

So, I’ve been rather busy lately, but after the family we had over for Thanksgiving has gone home and the kids have gone to bed, I have a moment to catch everyone up.

First piece of exciting news: My work is appearing in three separate places this week.

Tablet Magazine is running my personal essay about an ongoing genealogical adventure bequeathed to me by my maternal grandmother. Speaking of my maternal grandmother, The Wisdom Daily contains some of my ref...