On Writing

The Deutschland Gertie Katz (from an unknown German town) and Edith Schumer (my mother) of Stockstadt am Rhein immigrated together on the Deutschland. The ship left Bremen, Germany on a cold, gray day, March 8, 1938 and arrived in New York City on a sun-splashed March 19, 1938. Gertie and Edith, who were both 12 years old, became inseparable on the ship. "We had so much in common," Edith says. ...

In 1988, fifty years after Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken Glass,” churches marked the mournful occasion by creating a “Night of Remembrance.” Services were held, candles lit, names of survivors and escapees read at memorials and churches. During those ceremonies, many church leaders asked elder members if they remembered the Jews who once lived in their towns. A grass-roots movement emerged and Germans began to research the Jewish families who once ...

MakeIt Better.net Author Fern Schumer Chapman on Her New Book and Writing About Her Mom TAGS: Holocaust, Fern Schumer Chapman, books, authors, motherhood, book clubs, immigration Article from MakeItBetter.net by Liz Logan It’s impossible for us to know who we truly are without knowing something of our mothers. That’s why Fern Schumer Chapman of Lake Bluff has spent years unraveling the enigma that is her mother, who was orphaned by ...

From Library Media Connection: (STARRED) Is It Night or Day? "...This book is an exceptional story of survival and devotion to homeland. The author’s note and afterword contain inspiring information about the background and reasoning behind this book. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl and this book would be great companions for showing how children’s lives were affected by the Holocaust. This is a wonderful study of the Holocaust ...

WBEZ's Book Critic Donna Seaman Donna Seaman interviews Fern Schumer Chapman on WBEZ's 848 on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at 91.5 FM. Here is the link to the interview: Eight Forty-Eight - Book Reveals Story of One Thousand Children Project

McCormick Place: my rabbit hole When a book is released, a writer goes from a quiet, almost monastic existence to a minor celebrity's frenetic pace...overnight. Speeches, dinners, signings dramatically change the tenor of life. I often think of Dorothy's words in The Wizard of Oz, "I'm not in Kansas anymore." Yesterday, I signed books at the International Reading Association's conference at McCormick Place in Chicago, where I felt like another ...

The Sick Child by Edvard Munch Excerpted and paraphrased from an article in the New York Times by Susan Gilbert Adolescent and pre-adolescent girls who were overly anxious grew up to be roughly one to two inches shorter, on average, than other girls, according to a study published in Pediatrics. The reason: children and adults of both sexes with anxiety or depression have lower-than-normal amounts of growth hormone which stimulates ...

From Dr. Judith Lewis Herman's Trauma and Recovery, a definitive work on this subject: Dr. Judith Herman, author of "Trauma and Recovery" "The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. "Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the ...

"They may try to avoid people and places that remind them of the trauma..." A library patron who attended one of my speeches sent me this comment: "I enjoyed your appearance at the Warren Newport Library yesterday... I have been married for 41 years and, as a result of your speech, I learned more about my wife. "Her mother died when she was 8. She was then passed from relative ...

This week, I met with my "Young Writers-in-Progress" class, a group of talented teenagers who hope to become writers. I wrote on the board this counter-intuitive statement: Motivation Productivity Productivity Motivation Exactly what does this mean? Motivation does not result in productivity. Productivity results in motivation. Once you start writing, you will keep writing. Do not wait for inspiration!