Uvi Poznansky's Blog, page 256

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

It feels so rewarding! My blog, which is centered around themes of creativity in art and writing, has been in existence for barely a year, with traffic sky-rocketting to 8,875 visits during my launch event last month--and now it has been tapped by fellow author and blogger Colette L. Saucier for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. 
Colette has been writing poems, short stories, and novellas since grade school. She devoted fifteen months traveling to Britain and researching Regency England, as well as vampire lore and literature, to complete her first full-length novel 'Pulse and Prejudice.' Colette is also the author of 'All My Tomorrows,' a modern tale of 'Pride and Prejudice' for the twenty-first century.

Seven things about me:
In high-school I wrote a research project about the Israeli poet Uri Zvi Grinberg, who was politically out-of-fashion at the time. As a result, I received a failing grade for this project. The failing grade could have been corrected by taking an exam, which I refused to do, on principle. This meant never finishing my matriculation requirements for completing high-school requirements.I earned my B. A. in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion in Haifa, Israel,  my M.A. in Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY, then my M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.Never having learned the proper technique for breast-stroke, I taught myself to swim using my own 'technique', swimming underwater for three strokes and coming up for a breath on the fourth.My first book was a collaborative poetry project with my father, the poet, artist and writer Zeev Kachel. It was published in Israel and is now out-of-print.My career spanned several professions—first as an architect, and later as a software engineer, software team leader, software manager and a software consultant, with an emphasis on user interface for medical instruments devices. The longest stretch of work was my eight years for Philips Ultrasound, developing a high-end ultrasound machine that never made it to market, because the company went out of business. This experience gave me the fine detail for the scene in my novel, Apart From Love, where Anita's womb is being scanned.I travelled to China, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.During this last year, I published four books: Home (poetry and prose), Apart From Love (a novel), Ropes, Separation, Tear (poetry, Hebrew Edition) and A Favorite Son (a new-age twist on an old yarn of a biblical story.) Single-handedly, I designed the book covers using my own art, formatted the text for print, and converted it to ebook format.
My choice of inspiring blogs you will want to check out:
Ao Bibliophile Joss LandryBill Zombiezak Snider Rossandra WhiteDeborah BattermanJeff Whelan Bathsheba DailyRenee Pierce Williams Carmen DeSousa Sherri Christian-Samson Patricia Macias Roy RoyIa Uaro
The Rules:
    Display the award logo on your blog.    Link back to the person who nominated you.    State 7 things about yourself.    Nominate 15 bloggers for this award and link to them.    Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements

Amazon Promo: Dust, Settling

A big thank you to all of you who helped me spread the word about the one-day Amazon promo; and to all of you who took the opportunity to get  Apart From Love,  A Favorite Son or  Home. Here are some of the book sales Amazon results, both on the promo day and on the day after. You helped make this happen! The last hours of the free promo, free ranking:A Favorite Son:Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Religious Fiction > Biblical
Home:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: 227 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > World Literature > Jewish #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Poetry > Anthologies
Apart From Love:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: ##334 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Saga

A day later, paid ranking:
A Favorite SonAmazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,478 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Religious Fiction >  Biblical #7 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Literature & Fiction >  Biblical Fiction
Home:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,472 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Poetry >  Anthologies #30 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Anthologies & Literary Collections >  Poetry #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > World Literature >  Jewish
Apart From Love:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,146 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Best of all, Amazon added this recommendation for A Favorite Son at the top of their page:

An Old Tale Given New Life!

It is such a thrill to read a review written by Michelle Bellon. She is a young yet prolific author. I have read two of her recent books, Embracing Me, Embracing You and her newest work, Rogue Alliance, both of which were thrilling to read. She writes as easily in one genre as another and her love for the music of language is ever present. This is what she posted on Amazon for A Favorite Son:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Old Tale Given New Life!, January 15, 2013By Michelle Bellon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   Amazon Verified PurchaseThis review is from: A Favorite Son (Kindle Edition)Uvi Poznansky has done it again!

With masterful storytelling and rich, poetic prose that feeds all of the senses, she has breathed life into an old tale, giving it layers and depth which gives the reader a thought to pause and think.

In A Favorite Son, Yankle is a character which is so complex, I struggled to decide how I felt about him, or anyone in the story for that matter. At times feeling both anger, sympathy, sadness, and betrayal, all at once. It is a difficult thing to bring forth so many emotions and not lose the reader. But Uvi does it beautifully.

I highly recommend this quick, powerful read.

A Well Woven Tapestry that Fits Seamlessly Together

To my surprise, just when I was not looking, a new review appeared on Amazon for Apart From Love!  It is written by Brian V. Menard, the author of the self-help books Leaning How To Eat (Again) and The Test Slayer, in which he guides the reader in techniques for absorbing information through fast reading. However, I was glad to learn that there was no fast reading here, as the characters came back to visit Brian after each chapter... This is what he says: 


 I truly enjoyed this unique book!, January 13, 2013By Brian V. Menard (Author)Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)"Apart From Love" is a truly unique story. It's written as a narrative and I found The characters to be very interesting and well developed. As a result of this effective style of writing, I found myself thinking about Anita, Ben and Lenny for hours after reading each chapter. I especially enjoyed how the Author was able to convey the personalities of Ben and Anita as they told their stories throughout the book. I had the sense that these characters were actually giving me a credible first hand account of their own personal perceptions and feelings for each specified situation. This book touches on several very difficult topics such as family dysfunction, infidelity, jealousy and even Alzheimer's disease. However, they are all tactfully dealt with in a well woven tapestry that fits seamlessly together. This is the first book I've read by Uvi Poznansky and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work in the future!

On Me Your Sin, My Son

At that second it dawns on me—I understand, in its entirety, my mother’s plan; which nearly brings me to split my sides and roar with laughter—but at a single hint from her, I hold it in. No need for other people to hear us.Intoxicated, I marvel in her plan; and in my mind I shout: My God, this is so clever! So deceitful! This costume, I think, is so much fun! Designed for the pleasure, so to speak, of a blind man... Ha! What does he know! That damn blessing may yet be mine, after all.In my excitement I stumble across a thought, which is so outlandish that immediately, it makes me sober up. “What if he suspects something,” I ask, in a whisper. I hate to admit it, but it is not love for my father, nor respect for his age, that drive me to such hesitation. Rather, it is fear: The fear to be found out.She lowers her eyes, thinking intensely, searching for an answer.So I press on: “What if he touches me? He will guess, perhaps, that I am not the son I pretend to be; and so, instead of a blessing, I will end up, God forbid, being cursed!” What can she say, I wonder. True, my mother is close to me. We could always think alike. But for the life of me, I cannot understand her right now. She is the mother of twins, so in my mind, she should love us both, in fairly equal measures. In the years to come I would often wonder: Why would a woman do this, why would she pit one son against another?
This is how Yankle describes the plot, which his mother Becky (Rebecca) conceives to cheat both Esav, her other son, and her husband Isaac who is lying on his deathbed. Her plan is for Yankle to fool his blind father, and wear a costume, pretending to be his twin brother. When she tells Yankle, "On me your sin, my son," it is not love for him that drives her. 

This is the moment depicted in my sculpture of Rebecca: her hand gesture is meant to wave away his fears--but at the same time, it is only herself that she hugs. You can see nother view of this piece here.

The Bare Essentials of Apart From Love

This morning I woke up to discover my 'book brief' on the Indies Unlimited site. It gives you the bare essentials of my novel, Apart From Love. Check it out here.



One more piece of good news: thanks to the readers, Apart From Love is rising up the ranks in the competition Best Independent Novels on Goodreads (a social network for readers. So if you are a member of Goodreads, and if you have read the book and think well of it, please cast your vote. 

The Thought of Modesty Lost

"My mother, you ask? She was—how shall I say it?—different. No woman among us in the camp, or out there in the grazing fields, was as captivating as her. It was not just her beauty; nor was it the regal manner in which she carried herself, as if her tent served only as a temporary, makeshift shelter, a place to stay until the completion of a some new, modern wing in an imaginary palace. If there was something that set her apart from all other women, it was her garments.She would never wear a burka, unlike my grandmother Sarah, bless her soul, who must be turning in her grave, horrified at the thought of modesty lost. Instead of the traditional loose clothes covering the entire body, my mother adorned herself with exotic silks, bought from merchants in Damascus, which hugged her figure tightly. The silks, I mean—not the merchants. She collected an array of translucent, sheer veils of fantastic rainbow colors, which she wore, I am told, on her wedding night. My father found it enchanting. The first time he had actually seen her face was, of course, the morning after. With the veil removed, she had fainted upon seeing him. It was not the excitement of first love. No—it must have been the corset; a tight undergarment contraption which, according to gossip, she had brought with her from the North, to keep her figure in shape.  Everyone knew she was homesick. It was no secret she would have done anything, back then, for a trip back home; but this being the middle of nowhere, far away from the towns and the settlements, out there in the densely populated regions to the west of us, there was no bus to be found; and my father insisted that a plane ticket was out of the question."
Yankle introducing his mother, Becky (Rebecca) to his listener, in A Favorite Son.


This piece, in which I described Rebecca, Jacob's mother, is a companion piece to the one I showed earlier of Jacob. I imagined her rather elegant, delicate, young--much younger than her righteous husband Isaac--and most of all, unsatisfied in her married life, which in my story brings her to scheming against her husband. In a future post I will both pieces together, which will make clear the relationship between these two souls. 

Unbelievably Moving and Real

I am truly amazed by this review of Home, written by a talented poetess, Angela Davis. I find it incredibly estounding that she used the poems and prose in my book--some of which were written in moments of sheer isolation and despair--to read aloud to patients and families, as a way to let the words wash over them and allow their pain to dissolve. This is what she wrote:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievably Moving and Real, January 11, 2013By Angela Davis - See all my reviewsAmazon Verified PurchaseThis review is from: Home (Kindle Edition)Home. How does one describe, "Home"? An indelible reality of thoughts and feelings, intertwined, to allow one to experience, or perhaps, re-experience, the connections, of lack thereof, from childhood, throughout the stages of grief.
I have had the luxury of reading Ms. Poznansky's novel, Apart From Love, prior to experiencing this delicately insightful view of her collaborative effort with her father. Initially, when I read this book, I was working as a hospice social worker, and was astonished at the numerous profound statements that were imparted by both father and daughter. At that time, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to read, aloud, certain aspects of this book, to patients and their families. The ability of both Ms. Poznansky and her father, Zeev Kachel, to express the depths of being, of the human condition, allowed for others to acknowledge the reality of human nature, which was simply priceless. Certain aspects of Ms. Poznansky are captured in this book, her ability to relate to others,as well as her father's very overt nature, are provided for the reader in the most elegant manner. Beautiful, delicate, angry, aggressive, solitary, painful, anguished, and paradoxical-the writing is simply breathtaking and the words will take you to another realm.

Vote for the Cover of A Favorite Son

My cover image of my ebook, A Favorite Son, has now entered a cover competition on Good reads (a social network for readers.) If you like the cover, and if you are a Goodreads member, please vote or it here: Best Illustrated Book Covers

Figures on the Battlefield

Have you joined my launch event, Favorite Figures? It celebrates my new ebook, A Favorite Son (a new-age twist on the biblical story of Jacob and Esau.) As part of this celebration I am announcing a new activity (in addition to the Writing Contest): 

Which figure from history, mythology or the bible inspires you? Joan of Arc? Moses? Perseus? The good samaritan? Spiderman? The snake in the garden of Eden? Mary Magdalene? If you find an image that depicts that figure--or if you draw that image yourself-- send it to me via a private message on facebook. Hint: in the private message, you can either Add Photo or give me a link to the url where you found it. One good source is Wikipedia; another is searching Google images. 

I will combine everybody's images into a single scene: a battlefield! What meeting place would be more exciting? The battlefield scene will be updated here, on my blog, as well as on the page of my launch event, every time one of your favorite figures comes in.