Uvi Poznansky's Blog, page 264

My Father's Work

My father Zeev Kachel, an author, poet and artist, knew many languages, and he knew them because of the trials and tribulations of his history. Born in Russia, he knew Russian, Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew from early childhood. French, German and Spanish came later: he left home at seventeen, moved to France for his studies, and upon the German invasion he was imprisoned. He escaped the camp, and climbed a foot trail over the Pyrenees mountains, which forms a massive divider between France and Spain. He lived two years in Barcelona, until he emigrated to Israel, where he fell captive when the Jordanian forces attacked the electricity plant which he operated.   
My father published three books during his lifetime: a prose book Dams Erupting published in 1957, offering a personal account of events during his captivity in Jordan during Israel’s war of independence in 1948; a poetry book Can We Still Love published in 1961, questioning our capability to give and receive love, having witnessed the inhumanity of two world wars; and a poetry book Beyond The Window, What Day Is It Today, published in 1977, bringing to light an unusual creative collaboration with me. How did this happen? When I was in my teens, my father said to me: Uvi, give me your poems, lets publish them. I resisted, because to me they were intensely private. He said, these poems, locked in your desk, are not yours anymore. The minute your ink left the pen, the words exist on their own. They belong to your readers! At last he prevailed, and a poetry book with his work and mine was published. And now after all these years, the upcoming book titled Home celebrates once again the spirit—and the action—of joining forces.

The Carousel

When first I spot it, all seems stillBut in my heart--a sudden thrillThe cables sing with a raspy soundAnd into place I am now boundNow being lifted, faster, fasterNo longer of my fate a masterMy mouth gaped open--but not a screamThe ground's dropping, beam under beamA beat, then silence, then a beatI'm nearly flying off my seatThe beating quickens in my heartMy limbs are stretching part from partRound and round the carouselRise to heaven, sink to hell--
As I installed the latest feature here, on my blog--a Carousel Widget with books swirling in the air--this poem demanded to be written...

Book Review for Home: Deeply Moving

Dolores holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology as well as teacher certification in Manitoba, Canada. During her teaching career Dolores furthered her education by completing her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology from the University of Winnipeg. Her self-help books--It's Not Perfect and It's OK, Growing Up and Liking It, and UP THE "DOWN" LADDER--are written in retrospect based on a proven recipe, one she has incorporated step by step into her own life. So I am honored that she has just posted this review, which she titled Deeply Moving, for Home on Amazon:
"Home" by Author Uvi Poznansky is a well-written compilation of poetry and prose. She shares some of the works of her father Zeev Kachel as well as her own talent.

This is the second book that I have read and reviewed by this gifted author. It is hard to put into words the emotion one feels after reading her work. There is a great sadness found here...almost sorrowful in its content. Her writing touches my heart to the core as I sense the courage it takes to show such deep feeling and pain. Yes...the release of pain is what I hear in her words. Her artistic gift is the expression of Ms. Poznansky's experiences. Perhaps, she is vicariously living and writing through the eyes of her father and touching our lives with her unmistakeable ability to share her feelings as well as her dearly departed father's innermost self with her readers.

Ms. Poznansky does not shy away from dealing with some darker subjects nor does her father. It is apparent to me that Zeev Kachel, the author of many of the numerous poems included in "Home", suffered a great deal. His poetry shows the depth of his loneliness in his later years and the therapeutic outlet he embraced in his poetry. In doing so, he is able to release some of his pain as well as share his talent. It is obvious to me that father and daughter share a common artistic gift. Ms. Poznansky is showing so much of both their talents in this thought-provoking and touching book.

"Home" is not for the faint of heart. It is meant to reach deep inside the reader's soul and stir those raw emotions that not all can...or want to, identify with. It appears to me that Zeev Kachel suffered a great deal throughout his life as he so poetically states "Now I cry out of a burst of pain and howl in darkness out of loneliness."

Yes indeed...Ms. Poznansky has captured not only the depths of her father's despair and turned it into a masterpiece, she has shared her prose and poetry as well. Once again, she has put her artistic talent out there for all to read and see. There are no "masks" as she shares her gifts with those keen enough to feel the true essence of her efforts. I wholeheartedly agree that, "Now after all these years, "Home" celebrates once again the spirit and the action - of joining forces". Father and daughter have done just that!

♥.•**•..((¯`♥´¯)) ✰¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥.`*.¸.*´¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥...♥

This review is posted here.

A Literary Symphony

Ashley Fontainne is an avid reader of classic literature. She is also the author of Zero Balance, Accountable to None, and Ramblings of a Mad Southern Woman, and the host of a Blog talk radio show, which is dedicated to interviewing Indie writers. So I am honored that she has just posted a review of my novel on Amazon. Ashley titled her review "A Literary Symphony" which makes me happy, in part because of the presence of the white piano in the story, and the musical themes it touches on, and in part because it tells me how Apart From Love touched her heart. This is what she says:

"Uvi Poznansky has penned a literary symphony, complete with a cast of likeable yet bruised characters.
The story unfolds as each central figure takes center stage, allowing the reader to slip inside and vicariously experience their true emotions--no matter how damaged they are.

The story centers around Ben, his father Lenny, and Anita--Lenny's new wife. The underlying currents of a myriad of emotions are woven throughout each chapter as each of them struggle to deal with their new role and place in the broken family dynamic. Although Ben is an adult, he still feels the pain of the divorce of his mother and father years ago and holds an almost religious awe of his mother in his memories of her. He also harbors deep resentment toward his father for the demise of the marriage.

Enter Anita, the vivacious, and younger, new wife of Ben's aging father--and the reason for the divorce of Ben's parents. The family unit was shattered the day Anita came into the picture, and for years, the relationship between father and son simply did not exist. However, time, space and tragedy tend to soften deep-seated anger, and Ben reunites with his father after Lenny's most recent bout in the hospital.

Upon Ben's arrival back to the home he fled years ago, the tension he feels toward Anita is immediate for a variety of real and imagined reasons. Even as an adult, Ben finds it difficult to come to terms that another woman attempting to perform the role of wife and step-mother--and the fact that he finds himself inexplicably attracted to her.

This eloquently written tale provides a look into the damage caused by infidelity and the long-term emotional scars a broken home leaves on everyone involved. It also shines a light on the testosterone filled battle that each father and son share as they pursue more trophies to add to their internal mantle.

This book was lyrical--the words graced the pages like a tragic opera. It is apparent that Ms. Poznansky is a talented artist, painter and lover of the arts in each delicately crafted sentence.

This novel was a true pleasure to read and I recommend it to anyone that loves a compelling story of family struggles and affairs of the heart."

♥.•**•..((¯`♥´¯)) ✰¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥.`*.¸.*´¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥...♥
This review is posted here.

Be the First to Take a Peek

The 'Look Inside' feature of both the paperback edition and the Kindle edition of my upcoming poetry book, Home, has just gone live! I invite you to check it out. 

You can see the links posted at the top right-hand side of my blog, under the title Get the Book. They are pointing at the book page on Amazon US & India, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, as well as Barnes and Noble. On Amazon sites, you can even Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.
Also, under the title Get the eBook at the right-had side of my blog, you can see links to the Kindle edition on Amazon US & India, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 

How Good It Is to be Here: A Place that Honors Indie Writers

The Cover Contessa and Never Too Old for YA Books (a group on Goodreads) are continuing to honor indie authors this month. Today they welcomed me to the group and blog to chat about what it is being an author.

You can read the interview here The Cover Contessa, Reviewing Books for Fun!  
Or here: Never too old for Y.A. Books discussion

Home: Interior Design of a Book

You may ask, what is the 'interior design' of a book? It is the graphic arrangement of the text, and of every piece of information printed in it, from the title page in the front to the period on the last page. This includes the choice of font, the size of different fields of text, the white space around blocks of text, and the indentation of the first paragraph in the story as compared to the indentation of following paragraphs--all of which create a graphical balance; an environment for you, the reader. 
In the case of my new poetry book, Home, I have focused on several interior design details, which I illustrate in the two pages below. The odd-number pages bear the title, Home, centered at the top. The font I chose for the entire book is Baskerville (more on this font and why I prefer it to others will be posted on my blog in a separate entry.) The first letter of each story, each poem in the book is unique, in the traditional manner of illuminated manuscripts. This special attention to the first letter signifies a beginning of a new thought, and an invitation to the reader to pause before delving in. 

 I chose a fancy font for the first letter, called Kokonor. Furthermore, I placed it carefully, like a piece of art, in relation to the following letters. This can be seen in the page below, where the tail end of letter N carries the following letters, ow, embracing them. This can not be done simply by typing the letters and selecting different fonts, but rather by adding a 'text box' and carefully placing it on the page. 


The even-numbered pages of the book bear the names of the writers (my father's name, Zeev Kachel, and mine.) To eliminate confusion, the first half of the book contains my creations, the second half--his, and I credit the writer under each individual piece, as you can see in these two pages.) 
Note: this discussion is about the interior design of the paperback edition of Home. The choices I made here are similar to the ones I made for Apart From Love, so the environment is similar in its feel. The look of the Kindle edition is somewhat different, because of the limitations of the conversion tools. Therefore the first letter of each poem or story is not done with Kokonor font but rather with Baskerville.

The Next Big Thing

What is the Next Best Thing? It is a ripple of creativity, spreading across the new writers of today! Each one gives an insight to her upcoming work, then tags her fellow writers to do the same. The fabulous Deborah Batterman tagged the talented Rossandra White who tagged yours truly... So here is a glimpse into my upcoming book:
What is the working title of your book?My book is titled Home. It will be available in paperback edition as well as Kindle edition. The launch is scheduled for October 10, 2012. To join the celebration, come one, come all! Click here!Where did the idea come from for the book?The idea for the book ripened over six years, looking at my short stories and poems and realizing that a selection of them relate to a central theme, a theme of longing for a place that exists only in memory. Then I realized that the same longing can be found in my father’s later work. This book combines two bodies of work.What genre does your book fall under?This book is a poetry and prose anthology, around the idea of home. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?For a book containing poems and stories, that is not an easy question. My father’s writing is always autobiographical in nature; you can view it as an ongoing diary of his life. My writing is rarely so, especially when it comes to my stories. I delight in conjuring up various figments of imagination, and fleshing them out on paper. So there is one short story in this book, titled ‘A Heartbeat, Reversed.’ It is cinematic and somewhat strange, if I say so myself, because it allows time to go backwards... So for this particular story I would love for one of the most skilled actresses of our time, Meryl Streep, to play the lead role.What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?Expressed in the voices of father and daughter, you can hear a visceral longing for an ideal place, a place never to be found again: Home.Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?Like my novel Apart From Love, published earlier this year, Home is self-published too.How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?This is not easy to answer, since there are two authors here. My father’s poems were written during the last twenty-four years of his life. He had published three books during his lifetime: a prose book Dams Erupting published in 1957, offering a personal account of events during his captivity in Jordan during Israel’s war of independence in 1948; a poetry book Can We Still Love published in 1961, questioning our capability to give and receive love, having witnessed the inhumanity of two world wars; and a poetry book Beyond The Window, What Day Is It Today, published in 1977, bringing to light an unusual creative collaboration with me. But the new body of work, which I found during the mourning period for his passing, had never been shared with anyone.As for my contribution to the book, most of the poems and stories were written in the last ten years, and selected for inclusion here either because they relate directly to my father’s life, or because they relate to the idea of home.What other books would you compare this book to within your genre?In a way this is similar to Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, by Billy Collins, which is described as a dazzling new anthology of 180 contemporary poems, selected and introduced by America’s Poet Laureate, Billy Collins. Who or What inspired you to write this book?Six years after that moment of discovery, which happened in my childhood home while mourning for my father’s passing, I present a tender tribute: a collection of poems and prose, half of which is written by me, and half—by my father, the author, poet and artist Zeev Kachel. I have been translating his poems for nearly a year, with careful attention to rhyme and rhythm, in an effort to remain faithful to the spirit of his words. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?Coming back to the states after my father’s funeral, I recreated the sketch I drew of my childhood home, from memory. In my new drawing I used a fish-eye perspective. What does that mean? Like regular perspective, the horizontal lines converge into a vantage point in the distance. But—here is the difference—the vertical lines are not straight, nor are the parallel. As you look up, vertical lines converge to a point up there, beyond the edge of the paper. You can call it Heaven. And as you look down, the vertical lines converge to a point below, call it Hell. Which makes the entire perspective embrace you, as if you are in the middle of a fish bowl, seeing the world curve around you.And looking though such a perspective, what did I see? An earthquake, really, in the aftermath of my father's death. Books falling off the shelves; the lamp swinging like a pendulum; the little side table (in the front) overturned, so my father will never lay his pen upon it; and instead of the persian rugs that used to adorn this space once upon a time, I floated blank pages on the floor; pages he will never again use for writing.In my next sketch I let the lamp swing even higher into the air. The place has completely tilted, and my father's armchair is ascending above the rest of the furniture. This is the sketch I used for an oil painting called My Father's Armchair, which later became the cover of this book. 
 
Now it’s my turn to tag people. Please visit their blogs. They will be publishing their answers to the questions in week 13 (between the 18th September and 24th September)
Carmen DeSousa Sherri Christian-Samson Patricia Macias Ia Uaro Payal Roy 
Message for the tagged authors and interested others: Rules of The Next Big Thing:Use this format for your post Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress) Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.
Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:What is the working title of your book?Where did the idea come from for the book?What genre does your book fall under?Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?Who or What inspired you to write this book?What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.
Be sure to line up your five people in advance.

Tell It Not In Gath

Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, 
Lest others will find me, and you'll be left behind, to roam
Amidst the ruins, the confusion of Babylon
To grasp at the words that will take you back home.

But between us--can I whisper? Without a shade of a blush--
The links are already up here--don't tell anyone... hush, hush...



Even though the paperback edition is not available yet, I have already posted links where you will be able to get my new poetry book, Home. The links are here, at the top right hand side of my blog, to the book page of Home on all Amazon territories--US & India, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan, as well as Barnes and Noble. The 'Look Inside' feature of the book, and the ability to order it will become operational sometime between now and the date of the book launch, October 10, 2012.

Revital Shiri-Horowitz Talks about Home

With a BA in Hebrew Literature and Geography from Tel Aviv University, an MA in Geography from Haifa University and an MA in Hebrew Literature from Tel Aviv University, Revital Shiri-Horowitz is the renowned author of Daughters of Iraq--a compelling story of three women from the same family describing the emigration from Iraq to Israel in the early 1950’s. Revital writes writes a blog in “Haaretz” an Israeli newspaper, and a blog at revitalsh.wordpress.com, which is where she introduces my upcoming book, Home. 

To read it, and to visit the rest of her blog, please go here.