15June 2009

What am I reading?

It’s Monday and the topic for today is “what am I reading”.

I’ll start with the backstory. At the Princeton conference I registered for a one-on-one with the super sweet agent, Emily van Beek from Pippin Properties. She read the first fifteen pages of my WIP about a reincarnated teen. She liked my idea. We discussed a problem with the pacing. I knew it went too fast — in my first draft I tend to write like a race horse approaching the finish line.

She was fascinated by a little nugget of information I had found regarding two victims of the holocaust. She surprised me by suggesting I write a novel on that subject and save the reincarnation bit for another book.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this new idea. The characters immediately started talking to me — I had to really try to quell their voices and keep my attention on the workshops.

Now, I am in research reading mode. This weekend I read two memoirs of people who had survived the Auschwitz camp. The first book was called Roman’s Journey by Roman Halter. The second — Because of Romek by David Faber. Both told of shocking events, but what really got to me were the photographs included in the books. Looking into the eyes of the people before the war, happy, not knowing the horrors that awaited them and their families. I wished I could have gone back in time and warned them.