Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 12

4. Ephraim’s Eighteen Valentines

I was true to my word and I didn’t pester Mim about her secrets, although I was dying to know more about why she worried that I would think she was crazy. I knew that Mim would tell me in due course, and I realize now how difficult it must have been for her to trust anyone with her secret, even me.

As the days rolled by, Mim came to feel comfortable in my aunt and uncle’s home in Berkeley, and I was hopeful that she’d stay in the Bay area forever. We made excuses to our parents for remaining i...

Ephraim’s Eighteen Valentines

I was true to my word and I didn’t pester Mim about her secrets, although I was dying to know more about why she worried that I would think she was crazy. I knew that Mim would tell me in due course, and I realize now how difficult it must have been for her to trust anyone with her secret, even me.

As the days rolled by, Mim came to feel comfortable in my aunt and uncle’s home in Berkeley, and I was hopeful that she’d stay in the Bay area forever. We made excuses to our parents for remaining i...

3. Three Months of Berkeley Bliss

I’ve got another postcard for you from my collection. I believe the publisher of this one is Edward H. Mitchell from San Francisco. This is Berkeley, back when Mim arrived. You’re looking at Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way, right near the University campus. I wasn’t much interested in college men, then, but some of the professors were entertaining. The trolley ran through the heart of town. I loved the place. So did Mim.

Uncle Edward and Aunt Helen welcomed Mim like family, which meant they...

Three Months of Berkeley Bliss

I’ve got another postcard for you from my collection. I believe the publisher of this one is Edward H. Mitchell from San Francisco. This is Berkeley, back when Mim arrived. You’re looking at Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way, right near the University campus. I wasn’t much interested in college men, then, but some of the professors were entertaining. The trolley ran through the heart of town. I loved the place. So did Mim.

Uncle Edward and Aunt Helen welcomed Mim like family, which meant they...

2. The New Miriam Josefsohn

Ah, I see there are more of you today. Good. Mim would have liked that. My dear Mim. You should have seen her that day at the Oakland depot, when the train arrived from Portland. I know now what she must have been going through, but I hadn’t a clue then.

We were at the Southern Pacific depot, of course. Here’s a postcard from about that time. The depot ran out into the Bay, and you could get a ferry there for San Francisco. This was years before the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate. Imagine!

Mim w...

The New Miriam Josefsohn

Ah, I see there are more of you today. Good. Mim would have liked that. My dear Mim. You should have seen her that day at the Oakland depot, when the train arrived from Portland. I know now what she must have been going through, but I hadn’t a clue then.

We were at the Southern Pacific depot, of course. Here’s a postcard from about that time. The depot ran out into the Bay, and you could get a ferry there for San Francisco. This was years before the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate. Imagine!

Mim w...

1. I Did It! I Did It! I Did It!

Praised be and halleluyah! It’s amazing what a character can do when she sets her mind to it. I have totally locked Ruth out—at least for now. I get to have my say, and today is a perfect day to start. July 11th. Mim’s birthday.

What year is it now? 2013? That would make Mim 117 years old today. Of course, she died long ago. I’ll get to that sad part later because I outlived her, although not by much. Foolish me, I don’t mean to be starting at the end.

Let me try this again. I am here to tell y...

I Did It! I Did It! I Did It!

Praised be and halleluyah! It’s amazing what a character can do when she sets her mind to it. I have totally locked Ruth out—at least for now. I get to have my say, and today is a perfect day to start. July 11th. Mim’s birthday.

What year is it now? 2013? That would make Mim 117 years old today. Of course, she died long ago. I’ll get to that sad part later because I outlived her, although not by much. Foolish me, I don’t mean to be starting at the end.

Let me try this again. I am here to tell y...

Blue Thread Meets Blue Tiles. Istanbul!

First, let me tell you three reasons why I’m excited today.

It’s my birthday. All food consumed on one’s birthday tastes twice as delicious and has half the calories. It’s a scientific fact—or it should be!


The Ninth Day is shaping up beautifully. The designer at Ooligan Press has come up with great graphics, and my manuscript is turning into a real live book. Hey, you authors out there, isn’t that a magical moment?


My guide in Istanbul has successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in archite...

Why Shaker Press? My Meanderings

A couple of days ago, a Blue Thread reader asked me to reveal a bit of the process behind my writing. I got to talking about Serakh and Shaker Press. Serakh, as some of you know, is the time travel guide in the story. She takes suffragist-in-the-making Miriam Josefsohn back about 3,000 years from 1912 Portland, Oregon, to meet five sisters struggling to break tradition and inherit their father’s land. At the end of Blue Thread, Miriam is back in 1912 and on a train from Portland to Oakland, C...