It's finally here! Today is the official publication date for Book Two - MIRIAM (however I've heard that some folks have seen it in bookstores already). Some of you may have received postcards from Plume, since I gave them over 3000 names and addresses of people who bought JOHEVED from me at one of my speaking gigs.
Now begins my official anxiety as I wait for reviews of MIRIAM, which is sure to be more controversial than Book One. Will they be good ones? Will there be any at all? I hope that you, my fans, will post something nice on Amazon once you've read it.
Luckily I have the perfect antidote for my anxiety. Starting this afternoon, and continuing through Sunday, I'll be studying at the URJ Kallah at Cal State Pomona with some of the best Jewish scholars in the country. My classes will include 'Talmud as a Way of Thinking' with Jan Katzew, 'Becoming Text People' with Judith Baskin (expert on medieval Jewish women), 'Great Trials and Disputations' with Elliot Strom, and for fun 'Rhythm and Jews' with Cantor Wally Schachet-Briskin. Of course the davaning will be awesome and meals great (especially since I don't have to cook them). And to top things off, on Thursday night I'll be giving a lecture about Rashi's Daughters.
Several readers have pointed out mistakes in my last post. First, and
most important, this year Tisha B'Av is July 23 (NOT August 23).
Also it appears that the Jews being expelled from Spain on Tisha B'Av
is not quite accurate. From the Jewish History Sourcebook:
"The following account gives a detailed and accurate picture of the
expulsion and its immediate consequences for Spanish Jewry. It was
written in Hebrew by an Italian Jew in April or May, 1495.
And in the year 5252 [1492], in the days of King Ferdinand, the Lord
visited the remnant of his people a second time [the first Spanish
visitation was in 1391], and exiled them. After the King had captured
the city of Granada from the Moors, and it had surrendered to him on
the 7th [2d] of January of the year just mentioned, he ordered the
expulsion of all the Jews in all parts of his kingdom-in the kingdoms
of Castile, Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca, the Basque
provinces, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the kingdom of
Valencia. Even before that the Queen had expelled them from the
kingdom of Andalusia [1483]
The King gave them three months' time in which to leave. It ,vas
announced in public in every city on the first of May, which happened
to be the 19th day of the Omer, and the term ended on the day before
the 9th of Ab. [The forty-nine days between the second of Passover and
Shabuot are called Omer days. The actual decree of expulsion was
signed March 31 and announced the first of May, the 19th day of the
Omer. The Jews were to leave during in May, June, and July and be out
of the country by August I, the 8th of Ab.]"
At long last I received my copies of Book Two - MIRIAM, and she's
beautiful. The cover is extra nice, with some matte and some glossy
parts, as well as a little cover portrait on the spine. It was so
frustrating knowing that my editor and PR people in NYC had theirs,
but I had to wait. Only two weeks more until the publication date.
For those in the LA area - on Monday, Aug 23 at 7 pm, I'll be at
Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim (6000 W. Pico, LA 90035) for Tisha
B'Av, and I'll have books available. It will be a great program about
Jews in Spain, past and present - did you know that Ferdinand and
Isabella expelled the Jews on Tisha B'Av in 1492, shortly before
Columbus sailed?
I've been working with the folks at Plume who write the Reading Guide Discussion questions for their new releases; can you believe that somebody does this for a living? They're finally ready, and much better than anything I could have come up with. I expect to have them up on my website by the end of the week. Interesting, they wrote an introductory Q&A - their Q's and my A's - which I'm including below.
A Discussion with Maggie Anton
How did you gain your expertise on medieval Jewish life and, in particular, the lives of women during that period?
I did research for over seven years, and I'm lucky to be living in Los Angeles. where we have two rabbinic schools (HUC and UJ) with excellent Judaic libraries (where I found many fascinating scenarios in the medieval Jewish responsa literature; it was like reading "Dear Abby" of 900 years ago). I also used UCLA's, USC's and the Claremont Colleges' research libraries.
How many years did you have to research the lives of Jews in medieval France, and specifically the lives of medieval Jewish women, before you felt comfortable enough to write your books on Rashi’s daughters?
I started my research 3 years before beginning to write. However, I have been constantly doing more research and incorporating what I’ve learned into what I’m writing. I actually changed the ending of Book I: Joheved the month before it went to the printer because I learned something new about medieval brit milah.
How did your experience of writing Book I: Joheved differ from your experience of writing Book II: Miriam?
I had never written anything before Book I: Joheved, so I had a huge learning curve and it took me ten drafts. Book II was easier; I knew much more about plot and character development.
What is it like working on Book III: Rachel (which is due out in bookstores in 2009), knowing that this is the last of Rashi’s three unusual daughters, and therefore the end of the trilogy? How hard will it be to leave this particular cast of characters and their extraordinary narrative?
Actually, I’m still learning lots of interesting things about medieval Jews as I research Rachel’s story, perhaps more than I can use. So depending on how successful the trilogy is, I may decide to write Rashi’s Granddaughters. In any case, I expect to keep studying Talmud for many more years, so Rashi and his family will continue to speak to me.
What other subjects are you interested in writing about? Do you have any other historical figures or time periods, and any other projects, in mind?
When I first decided to write Rashi’s Daughters, I had in mind another possibility, a historical novel about a woman mentioned many times in the Talmud, Rav Chisda’s daughter, who was married, in turn, to scholars who headed the two great Talmud academies in Babylon. I think the time period when the Talmud (500 CE) was redacted is also a fascinating one that few people know about. So I still want to tell her story.