Randy Susan Meyers's Blog

Stories abound of Jewish people who grow up warm and secure in their faith. Those for whom the eight days of Hanukah didn’t compete with Christmas: Jewish nurses, firefighters, and doctors (the ones my mother wanted me to marry) who took Christmas Eve shifts to ensure that their Christian brethren were home for the holidays—the ... Read more

The post Can I Have Santa PLUS the Bagel Guy? first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

This Older Woman Talking to the Younger Women in the Room (what I should have said) Sunday night, I had the pleasure of gathering with fifteen brilliant women (writer-friends) to discuss a much-buzzed-about book. None of us had written it, but the conversation sparked strong opinions (writers, after all) and deeply personal disclosures (women, after ... Read more

The post first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

Yesterday, while playing bumper carts in Wegmans, fearful I wouldn’t find shredded carrots (oh, the agony of having to shred with my own hands!) I fumed at carts left unattended, blocking the chicken stock I needed. My desire to ram into the young man idling across two lanes in the baking stuff aisle could barely be checked. ... Read more

The post From Supermarket Rage to Talking to Strangers first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

When I was newly married—at 19, no less— my then-husband and I moved to a farm between Binghamton and Ithaca, New York. His job was being a farmhand. Mine was reading twenty books a week, watching the one television station available, and gaining weight. The cookies below helped wildly in that last endeavor. We lived far ... Read more

The post Joyously Baking for Book Events first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

Each time I teach “Structuring a Novel with Good Bones,” I learn again how difficult it is to condense the process into six hours and how exhilarating it is to step back and examine the entire process. At day’s end, it seemed as though I’d climbed a mountain where (for a day) I could look ... Read more

The post Impossibly Condensed Steps to Writing a Novel: A Baker’s Dozen first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

  Years ago, “women’s pages” were in the newspaper, and The Boston Globe featured “Confidential Chat,” I was home with young children (usually many more than my own—we got through the days by sharing kids; it’s better to have a crowd of six one day and none on the other), often baking to conquer my ... Read more

The post How the “Boston Globe’s” Confidential Chat and Banana Bread Inspired Me first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

“KENT, Ohio, May 4—Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded. The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus ... Read more

The post Protest? Deadhead? Young Republican? (What Did You Do?) first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

A friend once called me a ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and a ‘bagel Jew,’ meaning my understanding of Judaism came from a movie and some food. She wasn’t that far off. I did go to synagogue once. At fourteen, I attended my stepcousin Gary’s bar mitzvah. I knew my sister and I were different. We didn’t go ... Read more

The post Fiddler on the Roof, Bagels, and Avoiding Purgatory first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

Writing a first draft is a bit of torture. Planning and outlining are intense. Research is fun. Revising is immersive. Copy editing requires chocolate and coffee. And then there is pure joy—building a Spotify playlist for The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone. The last time I thought in depth about a playlist for a novel ... Read more

The post Nina Simone to Lady Gaga: Building a Playlist for “The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone” first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.

  Do we have just enough Miep Gies in us? “I am not a hero. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did or more—much more—during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the hearts of those of us who ... Read more

The post Echo Chamber or Circle of Good? first appeared on Randy Susan Meyers.