The holidays are looming! What better way to get into the festive spirit than with a Hanukkah-themed romance! This week's Writer's Corner Wednesday features Stacey Agdern, author of The B'Nai Mitzvah Mistake, The Dating Contract, and the very adorable, heartwarming Hanukkah novel Dreidl Disaster. Read on for my conversation with Stacey!
Q. Tell me a little bit about how you began writing professionally and your journey to getting published.
A. I've always written fiction- but my first traditionally, professionally published piece was actually non-fiction. I wrote reviews and commentary for a bunch of different romance focused publications, so many of which no longer exist. All of that lead to an essay being published in a BenBella Books Smart Pop Anthology called "50 Writers on 50 Shades of Grey.' It was exciting for many reasons, one of which was that it fulfilled a bit of a professional writer goal of having something of mine be part of the Smart Pop series! My first traditionally published piece of fiction appeared in the anthology 'Burning Bright' - the first Hanukkah romance collection Harper Collins Avon published. In between those two titles, I was (and still am) very very lucky to be a part of a bunch of different indie/self pubbed anthologies with some of the most brilliant writers. All of this lead to Miracles and Menorahs, and it's publication in October 2020 with Tule Publishing. Since then, Tule has published five more of my books, including Dreidl Disaster
Q. What's one of the biggest roadblocks you've encountered on this journey, and how did you get past it?
I'm one of many writers who, in that space in between books, seems to forget that I'm capable of writing one. Nothing happens unless a story gets written, and I am ridiculously lucky that I have a bunch of amazing people in my life who are very good at reminding me that I'm capable.
Q. Can you tell readers a little bit about the real-life inspiration behind Dreidl Disaster? What made you want to incorporate it into a novel?
In 2018, the Washington Capitals hockey team donated a bunch of game-used sticks to a Chabad in Olney, Maryland. They used the sticks to build a menorah and held this gorgeous Hanukkah celebration. I had been looking for ways professional hockey teams recognized, collaborated with and/or celebrated their local Jewish communities and the article I read about the ceremony, including the mention of participation by Capitals Alumni, exemplified those ideas to a *T*. I knew I'd wanted to do *something* with that piece of joy, but I wasn't quite sure what. I needed something different. And, eventually, came upon this idea of how people get Hanukkah 'wrong' and how we fix it and get it right.
Q. The novel begins with a very well-written but totally cringey scene in which a non-Jewish event planner tries to stream-roll a Jewish community event. It is obvious she has not consulted a single Jew in writing her proposal, and that she is very oblivious to Jewish customs. As a reader, this felt painfully familiar (I mean, how many times a year do grocery store chains drag out huge displays of matzoh...). Beyond setting up the plot, what was the purpose of beginning the novel with this charged scene?
A. It's funny - in earlier drafts, this scene didn't exist. The book actually started with the scene following this meeting, showing an angry Liv as she sent the junior PR person on her way. But my editor pointed out that this scene was necessary. Not only to set up the plot, but also to make the reader understand on an emotional level why the only possible reaction anybody could have had to ANY of this is anger. (But also, see below for another way I look at it).
Q. Do you have favorites among the characters you've written? If so, where would Artur and Liv rank on that list?
A. Artur is my first series jumping character to get a main role, so he's definitely high on my list - he was a secondary character in Love and Latkes, the third book in my Friendships and Festivals series :) He was fun to write then and writing him now was so much better :)
Liv is definitely up there- I love seeing her fall in love and step out from the wall she's hidden behind.
Q. What is the best advice you've ever been given as a writer?
A. I used to go to songwriter shows in NYC, where some of the greatest, award-winning songwriters would give the behind the scenes stories to some of their biggest hits. I'd take notes, my friends would laugh at the beginning, but they'd eventually come to expect the writer, sitting with pen and notebook in a darkened bar or music hall, taking notes as the songwriters spoke their hard earned lessons . Shane MacAnally, a pretty famous songwriter was one of them. And to this day I still think about something he said:
"It isn't write what you know, but take what you know and make it universal."
Part of the reason why the opening scene is so important, is that it takes that visceral pain/disgust that you or I would feel if we were in the room, and pours it into a scene that would make any reader understand how hurtful and offensive that initial proposal was. It takes those feelings and makes them universal.
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