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Apart From Love
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Apart From Love
Today I would like to introduce the narrator behind the voice of my character, Ben in Apart From Love. Take a listen to his voice, and you too would feel like cuddling in bed with the book, or perhaps with the character he plays. Which is why I thought that his name was misspelled: David Kudler. He is lyrical, intelligent, literate, capable of multiple accents and ages for the characters. So in my novel, he will become not only Ben (at the age of twenty-seven and at the age of twelve) but also his father Lenny, the bumbling lawyer, Mr. Bliss, and aunt Hadassa as well! Below, you can see how I floated his name over the folds of the fabric, red on red, in the bottom right corner of the cover image.
The first audiobook he narrated for me has just come out, check it out: A Favorite Son.
Also, if you like poetry, take a peek at what I wrote for him at the conclusion of our collaboration: Ode to the Great Kuddler.
To hear a voice clip go here.
David is lyrical, intelligent, literate, and a real voice actor, capable of multiple accents and ages for the characters. So in my novel, he will become not only Ben (at the age of twenty-seven and at the age of twelve) but also his father Lenny, the bumbling lawyer, Mr. Bliss, and aunt Hadassa as well!
David has been a voice and stage actor (AEA, SAG-AFTRA), a writer, and a book editor for over twenty years. Since 1999, he has been in charge of publications for the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Based on this experience, he added the titles of ebook designer and audio producer to his shingle. As a narrator, he has a warm, versatile voice, and a great ear for character and dialect. He loves bringing multiple characters to life at the same time. Here is what he says about himself:
"Though I'd done plenty of voice-over work, it wasn't until I was creating an ebook of my own children's story The Seven Gods of Luck and was producing a read-aloud track that it occurred to me: I've got all of the skills and facilities to create professional, high-quality audiobooks."
So in designing the cover for the audiobook, I have already added his name in the bottom right corner of the image. I chose the color of the font to be very similar to the hot red fabric in the background behind it--just a little bit brighter, so as to separate from it in a subtle way.
Voice of a Kindle Book I'm waiting to be taken, but now, be forewarned
Don't you dare come near me, or else you'd be scorned--
Unless you delight in contemporary fiction
And enjoy reading a book with detailed scene depiction
If you let me pull you in, deep inside
Until you find yourself there, in my characters' mind
I'll make you burn in hell, ablaze in desire,
I'll let you swirl like smoke, ever higher and higher
I'll bring you down here: Santa Monica, Venice Beach
For a father-son meeting, with a blame and a breach
You'll hear Lenny, Natasha, Anita and Ben
And be tortured by guilt, again and again
Find a path to forgiveness, find a way to come clean
Find the words to explain what exactly you mean
Turn page after page, then fall to your knee
'Cause Apart From Love, no feeling is free
Today only--$0.99 bargain sale!
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Apart From Love: US & India, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain.
Audiobook coming soon! Get the ebook now... Audible (an Amazon-related company specializing in audiobooks) now offers something called WhisperSync tehnology, which lets you switch seamlessly between reading an ebook and listening to its audiobook. You can learn more about it here .
I have just read a truly enlightening article written by David Kudler, the gifted narrator of my upcoming audiobook. In it, he draws parallels between two of his recent projects, especially the use of music in both of them. Here is how he opens it:"I’ve just wrapped recording on my second full-length audiobook this month — David Wesley Williams lyrical novel of sex, family, and rock ‘n’ roll, Long Gone Daddies. As I was listening through just now, I realized that there were a lot of similarities between this bluesy book and my most recently completed (and soon-to-be-released) project, Uvi Poznansky’s Apart From Love. Both books dissect tangled, dysfunctional families featuring deeply fractured father-son relationships, each of which is hiding some very important secrets. And music is very much at the heart of each.
For an audiobook narrator/producer, music is both a joy and more than a bit of a challenge. Audiobooks — for the most part — are not meant to include music tracks (Audible and Amazon don’t like them), and so any music must be created purely by the narrator in the character’s voice. When a song is known, that can be great fun; when it’s created by the author, that’s fun too… but can sometimes take your breath away."
To read more, and to take a listen to Aunt Hadassa, click the link:
You Haven't Lived Until You Heard Her Singing
So today I would like to introduce the narrator behind the voice of my character, Anita. By now we are beginning to lay out our plan for the dual-narration of Apart From Love. In this process we join our imagination and our creative forces, which is quite different from writing a novel, which takes place entirely in the author's mind.To find her I listened to numerous auditions of talented narrators and actors. But when I heard her voice, I knew instantly that I need not look any further. What set Heather Jane Hogan apart was not only her sultry voice, not only Anita's Southern twang, and not only the heartfelt interpretation of the text, but most of all, this: she did not play Anita--she WAS Anita.
So in designing the cover for the audiobook, I have already added her name in the bottom left corner of the image. Graphically, there is the 'busy factor' consideration: taken together, the book title, author name and the names of the narrators add up to a lot of text, but I wanted to avoid cluttering the image.
This is why I chose the color of the font to be very similar to the cool turquoise background behind it--just a little bit brighter, so as to separate from it in a subtle way. You will also notice that the shadow cast down from the letters is soft and fuzzy, no hard edges, which helps separate the letters from the background over which they are floating.
Here are a few quotes of what Heather says about herself:
"I work as a Voiceover. In case you’re not sure what that is, Webster’s definition of a voiceover is, “the voice of an offscreen narrator, announcer, or the like.” For me, it was an easy transition from stage and film acting to voice. I love telling a good story, so voiceover has been a great fit for me."
"In 1999, I went skydiving. I’ll never forget it. It wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be exhilarating; that I would land and shout something like, “WOO HOO!!”… but… at least for me, it was more of an overwhelming experience. Afterwards, I just wanted to sit and contemplate my belly button."
"In 2003 and 2004 I won the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), hosted by http://www.nanowrimo.org. They host a challenge every year during the month of November for you to write a novel. It doesn’t have to be good, no one reads it for proof (the contest is honor-based) – but you have to write 50,000 words in one month (the definition of a novel). It’s a great and challenging exercise, even if you’re not a writer."
"I sing in the car. Loudly. I’m that woman you see on the highway, belting out tunes as if she were on stage somewhere and blissfully unconcerned that other people on the highway can see me."
"I love roller coasters. The more twisty-turny-upside-down-back-and-forth-hair-raising, the better."
To listen to her voice clip go here: The Woman Behind Anita's Voice
"The piano towered over everything. It seemed so massive, so out of place that you had to squeeze around it, or else crawl underneath the belly of the thing. But when mom played it, all that did not matter. The walls vanished and so did the clutter, because it was so riveting to watch her. You could see her long, delicate fingers as they went flying over the keys, to the point of turning, magically, into a blur. Her hands became transparent, and her ring, I remember, turned into a glow. She was air, she was music! Even when she stopped playing, those strings inside were still reverberating..."
Ben in Apart From Love
Going back to his childhood memories, Ben unveils his unflinching admiration to the most important woman in his life, up to this point: his mother, the inspired and inspiring pianist. His admiration will later stand in the way of him accepting her present condition. But for now, it is focused on one aspect: her hands. Long, delicate fingers, a symbol of her talent, and the one physical aspect that serves as a contrast between her and Anita.
Click here to listen to Ben (narrated by my gifted narrator, David Kudler, for the audiobook) describing his mother's hands: She Was Air, She Was Music
“What matters is only what’s here. I touch my skin right under my breasts, which is where the little one’s curled, and where he kicks, ‘cause he has to. Like, he don’t feel so cosy no more. Here, can you feel it? I reckon he wants me to talk to him. He can hear me inside, for sure. He can hear every note of this silvery music..."
It ripples all around him, wave after wave. I can tell that it’s starting to sooth him. It’s so full of joy, of delight, even if to him, it’s coming across somewhat muffled. Like a dream in a dream, it’s floating inside, into his soft, tender ear.
I close my eyes and hold myself, wrapping my arms real soft—around me around him—and I rock ever so gently, back and forth, back and forth, with every note of this silvery marvel. You can barely hear me—but here I am, singing along. I’m whispering words into myself, into him.”
Anita in Apart From Love
What she is envisioning is motherhood, which is the subject of my sculture by the same name. It is hard to imagine this is actually bronze, because the patina is made to look like marble. I polished the piece until it became completely smooth to the touch, as if nature--by gusts of wind and the flow of water--has buffed this rock over time, the way pebbles come to be.
But in the back, I 'carved' into the piece, so as to make it look as if it has broken. This makes for an interesting balance, as if you try to make a rock stand on edge. But more importantly, it is symbolic, for self-sacrifice is the nature of motherhood.
Looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift?
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Audiobook coming soon!
What is the Next Big Thing? It is a way to 'pass the baton', if you will, between the new writers of today, allowing each one of them in turn to give an insight about her upcoming work, then tag her fellow writers to do the same. This time I was tagged by the inspired poet Bathsheba Daily. So here is a glimpse into my upcoming work:
http://uviart.blogspot.com/2012/12/th...
In addition to the Writing Contest in my launch event, I am announcing a new fun activity, somewhat similar to Join the Musical Chorus, which happened a few weeks ago. So, what will it be this time, you ask? Wouldn't you want to know! Together, we will be transforming the space of my large oil painting, titled There is no room to grow here anymore II, taking it from isolation to embrace, just in time for Mother's Day.
This painting has been inspired by an earlier one, titled There is no room to grow here anymore I (the banner image of my blog) where the space was harshly lit, parched dry, yellow, and utterly desolate. At the time, I asked myself: what would happen if I turn off the light, and turn every line in the first painting into a metal wire? What would happen if I drench the space in darkness, and let characters emerge from it? How would they relate to each other, and to their flimsy, confined existence, hanging somehow inside this contorted cage?
Despite the presence of these characters, the space retains an atmosphere of isolation... So here is what I ask you to do: help me transform it!
✿ First, join the event (if you haven't already.) Go here: ♥ Love ♥ then click Join.
✿ Then--in celebration of the upcoming Mother's Day--find an image of the most important woman in your life: your mom, or the mother of your children... The image can be a photograph or even a freehand sketch--anything goes! In it, she should give--or else, receive--a hug or a gift. The gift can be anything: flowers, wine, or a book (and why not give her my novel, Apart From Love... Hint hint...)
✿ Send her image to me through a private message on facebook; use Add Photo in that message. I will then add her into this scene, and we--all the mothers--will party together with a lot of hugs, gifts, and flowers!
Today I am happy to invited to Laurie Hanan's MONDAYS ARE MURDER interviews. This is how she opened the conversation: "It’s my pleasure to have as my guest today Uvi Poznansky. While she doesn’t write murder mysteries, according to Uvi her characters do harbor murderous thoughts. Here’s what she has to say about them..."
Check out my interview, which she titled Murderous Sparks and Murderous Rages.
On a different note:
A new author page now showcases highlights of my literary work: book descriptions, cover images, author's bio, excerpts, links and what not...
What, you may ask, is AUTHORSdB? Here is a quote that explains it:
"There are very few places where authors are able to add their information, one time, including promoting links to buy their books on all bookseller platforms. A place where authors continue to write while expert SEO people can assist in Social Media Marketing for free. Authors need an unbiased place to shout out about their creative works without 'big brother's' control—without fear of loosing to unknown algorithms."
-Angel Investor-
Take a look at my new author page and please, tweet or like it:
Uvi Poznansky's New Author Page
Have you ever listened, I mean, really listened to the lyrics of 'Twinkle, twinkle'? The words can truly take on different meanings, which is something I explored in moments of despair and moments of hope in my novel. When Ben goes to Sunrise Home to visit his mother, who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, he wonders about her. Can he reach her, can he evoke some memory in her mind? Her body is intact, but is it now merely an empty shell? He knows not what she has become, who she is... In the background, an old woman's voice can be heard, croaking a lullaby. And somehow, the words take on a meaning of a heart-wrenching farewell:
"Then, to the sound of the thin, painful voice in the distance, breathing the words, Though I know not... What you are... Twinkle, twinkle... Little star, I glance at my mother.
I wonder if what I am going to say about this or that photograph will make any difference, because now I am starting to lose heart. I doubt we can ever find a way—be it a way back, or a way forward—to connect to each other.
The time I remember is no more than a wrinkle for her."
Ben in Apart From Love
In another scene, Anita raises her eyes to the musical animal mobile, which she has hung up overhead, for her baby. She sings the words as she crosses her hands around her body, embracing him. Expecting new life, the lullaby takes on a meaning of hope:
"For now, I mean, until I get a cradle for my baby, it’s hung up in the bedroom window, right in the center, where the blinds meet.
So at night, when I feel sad, or tired, or just sleepy, I pull out the little string to wind the thing up, which makes the animals go fly—fly like a dream—so slowly around your head.
And at the same time, it brings out a sweet lullaby, chiming, Twinkle, twinkle, little star... How I wonder what you are...
I stand here, by the window under the mobile. I touch the glass between one blind and another, and watch them animals, mirrored. They come in like ghosts, one after another, right up to the surface, swing around, and fly back out, into the dark. Then I gaze at them stars up there, so far beyond, and ask myself if they’re real—or am I, again, misreading some reflection."
Anita in Apart From Love
The subject of motherhood is near and dear to my heart, and I express it in my writing and in my art, as you can see here:
To listen to the voice clips of these excerpts go here: A Mother's Lullaby
Gone Viral:I thought I knew what I was doing: Usually, an image of one of my sculptures, combined with a thought around the same theme, or about the process of my writing, calls the attention of readers. But yesterday morning, a simple post has gone viral, and I am still trying to figure this one out... This is what I posted on Facebook:
"Brian M. Hayden, a dear friend of mine and a great author, offered me the opportunity of writing a guest post for his blog. This time I chose to write about The Cyclical Process of Writing. Check it out..."
Then I gave the link, and here it is: Guest Post by Uvi
As you can see when you go there, this little post garnered 196 'likes' on Brian's blog (let alone all the likes and shares it got all over Facebook, which I cannot even count, but for which I am so grateful.) Brian tells me it was the highest visited post. Over 1,100 visits in a single day!
Funny thing is, I wish I knew what magic dust was used here, because then I could repeat this feat with my next post... My best guess is this: here is a case of two authors combining forces, one opening the door for another, creating an inviting environment--and therefore, the friends and followers of both of them come in too, and they do it in great numbers!
"A week drags by—seven sleepless nights—during which I find myself missing my ma so much that it hurts, because now that the little one is finally here, I don’t even get how she did it, like, how she managed to take care of me all these years, all on her own. No wonder she ended up being grumpy, which is one thing I’d rather forget." Anita in Apart From Love
I so enjoy writing a character with an accent! It is such a delightful challenge! Anita Southern twang, her way of speaking and even thinking, marks a boundary between her and the people around her. She is a stranger in a strange land, if you will.
Take a listen to the how faithfully my narrator, Heather Jane Hogan, gives voice to Anita: Missing Her When She's Gone
I love the idea of listening to a story. But being new to the technology I can understand the hesitation many of you may feel. If you have never listened to audiobooks before, perhaps you find yourself wondering, hmmm... What device do I need? As it turns out, you already have it:You can listen to audiobooks on any device that is compatible with the mp3 audio format, including: Sony Walkman, Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod; mp3 players by Sony, Archos, Coby, Creative, SanDisk and many more; Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7 smartphones and tablets. Here's a good article about the use of your Smartphone for listening: How to Listen to Audio Books on Your Smartphone with Audible
You can listen to audiobooks on your computer, using iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any other program that plays mp3 files.
You can listen to audiobooks on your e-reader. Both the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook can play mp3 files. Here are two good articles about the use of e-readers for listening: How to Listen to Audiobooks on an Amazon Kindle or a Barnes and Noble Nook, and Listening to Audio Books on Kindle 1st Generation.
Even simpler: Audible, the Amazon company specializing in audiobooks, will gladly help you--24 hours a day, 7 days a week--to download the audiobook to your preferred device. It is quick and painless... Here is their help line: 1-888-283-5051 (US & Canada) or 1-973-820-0400 (international.)
If you spend a lot of time driving on long trips, doing yardwork, or even sitting around the fireplace, you can imagine what a great companion audiobooks can be to spin away the hours. Great narrators make books come alive. Being so close to you, breathing words into your ear, they make the experience both intimate and heightened, with every nuance in the story becoming fully expressed.
The audiobook of A Favorite Son is already here!
Download Apart From Love ebook
The audiobook is just around the corner...
Stay tuned!
This time, I will open in a round-about way. Do you like a 'open-ended' story? I mean, a story with an end ties most threads in the yarn but not all, so the story lingers in your mind--so you have to keep looking at it, this way and that, trying to imagine what else happened? In effect, you become the writer of the future events of the story. Two of the chapters in Apart From Love are open-ended, and I am not going to tell you which ones--you will have to read the novel, and find out for yourself! What I am going to tell you is the trouble I found myself in, because of these open-ended ends--first, with both of my narrators, and then with ACX, the place where the audiobook is undergoing an intense process of Quality Analysis before it is offered for sale to you.
Most audiobooks are carried along by the voice of a single narrator. Apart From Love is unusual because we have a dual-narration project: he said, she said. For her part, Heather (who plays Anita) sent me three version of the last sentence, so I may choose the best variation of an unfinished end. And David (who plays Ben) did a couple of variations on the last sentence in another chapter, before I approved the entire project. In hindsight I have a better way of suggesting to them how to perform this feat: first, extend that last sentence, write something outrageous, horrible, funny beyond the last letter, and then stop just short of it--
Yesterday--taking a short break from chatting with you, and running the launch event--I sent a note to ACX. I was becoming worried that their approval process is taking too long, and started asking myself, Will I have to extend the launch event beyond Mother's Day? Will I have to stop and restart it later? I would hate to do anything like that... So here is what I said:
"I approved the audiobook production of Apart From Love on April 12, 2013, and received a note from you saying, 'Barring any issues in the quality check, that process should take around 2-3 weeks'. It is over 3 weeks now, and I am eager to let listeners know the audiobook is out. I am at the end of a great launch event for it, I do not want to lose their interest if it takes longer. Please let me know the status of Apart From Love."
The reply came in later that day:
"Chapter 17 has a truncated audio issue (file cuts off before audio track is finished)"
I replied, as did David from his end, that the end of this chapter is cut off by design, so as to let the reader imagine what happened. In response, they qualified their instruction, which--I hate to admit it--did make a lot of sense:
"Since the 'cutoff' is intentional there still needs to be a certain amount of room tone (spacing between the end of the narration and end of the file). It sounds too abrupt as is.... after being reviewed the files get sent to our encoding team, during this process they examine the files (the book was initially rejected due to the abrupt end of chapter 17)"
With that, came a list of instructions to please revise the audio files, recompile the entire fixed audiobook into a single zip file, with specific naming instruction; upload the zip file to their online dropbox; let them know it is ready for them, and wait for them to review the new submission, which they would do as soon as possible.
What happened next? At this point, this story is open-ended, too--
Stay tuned
I aim to make my books a work of art, inside and out. My artistic covers have won several contests. And when you open them, you can see how carefully I have considered every detail inside. This includes the choice of font, the size of different fields of text, the white space around blocks of text, the indentation of the first paragraph in the story as compared to the indentation of following paragraphs--all of which create a balance; a black-and white environment for you to sail away into the story. In the case of my novel, Apart From Love, I have focused on several design details. For example, the first letter of each chapter in the book is unique, in the traditional manner of illuminated manuscripts. This special attention to the first letter signifies a beginning of a new thought, and an invitation to the reader to pause before delving in.
I chose a fancy font for the first letter, called Kokonor. Furthermore, I placed it carefully, like a piece of art, in relation to the following letters. This can not be done simply by typing the letters and selecting different fonts--but rather by adding a 'text box' and carefully placing it on the page, letting the text rearrange itself around it.
Here, in Anita's voice, is the text for the opening of the chapter shown above:
"Since the bleeding began, I’ve been missing my ma more and more. If she was here I could ask her, like, How come I feel so alone. How come I can see, all of a sudden I can now see how my youth is wasting away in this place. Like, I have no air, I’m wilting here. And Lenny, he don’t even pay no attention, ‘cause he’s back to his usual thing, which is: comb his thinning, gray hair—sleek it back, real slow and careful—and then work all day, write all night, either out or away.
Me, I thought getting married was meant to change things—but then, if things are changing it’s not for the better."
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Dubbed "A literary symphony"
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★★★★★ "Uvi Poznansky has penned a literary symphony complete with a cast of likeable, bruised characters" Review by Ashley Fontainne
♫ °˚˚ Happy Mother's Day! ✿*‿*) ♡♥ ◦°˚˚ And what about ♥ Love ♥
A Last minute update
This is my watercolor titled A Thousand and One Nights, in which I explored how the roundness of the female figure is complemented and contrasted by the rectangular divisions in the picture plane. Here is Shahrazad, whose life depends on her story-telling ability. If the king is bored with her, he will send her to her death, as he has done with his previous harem girls. As long as he is intrigued by her words, he will let her live. In a way, she is the perfect symbol for what I am doing here: tell a story, and hope it will entertain you.
So now, bear with me: For various technical glitches at Audible, the audiobook edition of Apart From LoveApart From Love has not come out yet... So instead, I have changed course during the last couple of days, and offered you my gifts: my ebooks, just in time for Mother's Day. All the same, I so wanted you to have the opportunity to give the audiobook to mom on her special day... She would have loved it! How can I describe this experience? It's like witnessing a great performance, not in the theatre but in the intimacy of your own home. Still, the audiobook is coming, and soon. I hope you will consider getting it then. And so, here is my last minute update: I am rescheduling the last day of the event.
Please make a note of it: the launch event ♥ Love ♥ (please join, if you haven't already) will come to its high point on Friday, May 17th, 5:00pm--8:00pm PST. Until then, I will do my very best to promote the Writing Contest, where your beautiful entries are showcased. This way, more readers can come, and appreciate your work. So far, over twelve hundred page visits to the entries page during this month!
Then on Friday, I will announce the winners. Three front-runners will be chosen, and in addition, I will pick one more winner--a wildcard--out of a hat.
Please forgive me this last minute change of plan. And now, happy Mother's Day! If your mom is nearby, give her a big hug for me!
♥.•**•..
((¯`♥´¯)) ✰¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥
.`*.¸.*´¸.•*¨`*•..¸♥...♥
Come one, come all! Cast your vote in the writing contest! Beautiful writings about love. Which one deserves to win?
Vote HERE
A new author page now showcases highlights of my literary work. Take a look at it and please, if you will, tweet or like it:
Friday night we have a dateCheck your watch... Don't be late!
Just don't ask, Will you be mine?
Here's the bottle: uncork the wine
I'll bring chocolates, no need to cook,
Oh wipe my tears: the audiobook
Is still not here... But luckily
I just enjoy your company
No more sadness, no more blues
Lets put on our dancing shoes!
Friday night we have a date
Check your watch... Don't be late!
¸.•**•.¸¸.•**•.¸¸.•**•.¸
Come Join me Friday night, the last night of my launch event
♥ Love ♥
Get the print edition
Apart From Love
Audiobook coming soon
My sculpture, The Dance of the Old Virgin
Did you notice the new slideshow feature on my blog? Right at the very top?If you are reading any one of my books--Apart From Love, Home, or A Favorite Son (in either Kindle or print edition) I will gladly feature your image here!
To learn more, click here: Your Image at the Very Top!
I am so thrilled that my interview with Author Alliance has gone live! I loved the way it opened, with this question:I understand that that your father was a great influence on you becoming a writer?
I started telling stories and composing poems before I knew how to hold a pen between my fingers. My father, a poet, writer and artist, would write these for me, and even quote words I invented. He would ask me to help him rhyme his poems, and later on, when I was twenty years old, he asked me to give him a selection of my poems, for inclusion in a book of poetry he was about to publish...
To read more, click here:
Author Alliance Interview with Uvi Poznansky
Wow! It's Here! It's finally here! This is a magical moment for me, one I have been waiting for! Apart From Love the audiobook edition, is finally out! Highly praised 5-star novel, 48 reviews:
"There is a quality so deep and raw in Apart from Love that it's almost impossible to put this book down. In my opinion, Uvi Poznansky writes like a painter. She starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint here and a little paint there as she develops her characters and creates her masterpiece. Her strokes then become broader, more passionate, more vivid and vibrant as she continues to let her characters' stories unfold. She draws you in to a deeper level than you might actually want to go as she ignites the fire to your own love, passions, and fears."
Treat yourself to gift! Download the audiobook:
Apart From Love
Print edition is here, too:
Apart From Love
"After a while I whispered, like, 'Just say something to me. Anything.' And I thought, Any other word apart from love, ‘cause that word is diluted, and no one knows what it really means, anyway..."Listen to the voice sample
It was such a pleasure, and an honor too, to be invited for a chat with Lisette Brodey, the author of Crooked Moon, Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! and Squalor, New Mexico.Just being here, at Lisette Writer's Chateau, makes you feel as if you have arrived from a ride at the French countryside, the gate opens before you and now a place is cleared beside her in front of the fireplace, where a little flame is dancing before your eyes...
Check it out: My Chat at the Chateau
A chance is not something that is given. It is something you takeMy very first 'real' job was at T.O.A.M., a small architectural firm in Haifa, Israel. The work done in this firm was not part of the architectural mainstream. On the drawing board were the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, which "dabbles it feet in the water" (as architect Ram Karmi described it.) Also, Beit Halohem (The Fighter's Home) which exhibits "impressive virtuosity in geometric combinations" (as architect Abba Elhanani wrote of it.)
At the beginning of my four years at the firm—a period which coincided with my studies at the Technion—I was thrilled at the opportunity to learn. But after a while I started to feel uneasy with the limited responsibility I was given, designing various details, such as staircases, railings, and small spaces in Beit HaLochem.
I went to my boss, the notoriously famous architect David Yanai, who at the time had exposed a corruption scandal in the construction of the project. The public fight which ensued meant that Beit Halochem was already doomed to remain on paper. I was young, and oblivious to this. All I wanted was to take a greater role in the design. I told him, "I want to be given a chance."
He replied—I will never forget it—"A chance is not something that is given. It is something you take."
Either way, I came out of that meeting with the chance I wanted: My new responsibility was to design the entire landscape around Beit Halochem, which was to be built on the side of the Carmel mountain, overlooking a breathtaking view of Haifa Bay.
In later years, when I came to visit the site, I saw the skeletal remains of the building, rusting there among the rocks on the steep slope, which is overgrown with thorny, wild weeds. Still, I see in my minds eye is papers upon papers of my landscape design, still rustling there, waiting. And all I can hear are those words, "A chance is not something that is given. It is something you take."
Now that two of my books have come out in audiobook edition, is this the time to rest on my laurels? The answer--you guessed it!--is this: absolutely not! So what I am working on now?
First of all, my poetry and prose book Home is about to enter production, so I am listening to auditions, enjoying both the voices and the interpretations of the writing.
And second, a new book will soon be coming out... I will announce its name and unveil the cover next week. Stay tuned!
Treat yourself to a gift!
Download the highly praised audiobooks
★ A Favorite Son ★ Apart From Love ★
A little sketch by Rembrandt--showing the master and his students observing a model, who is posing for them onstage--inspired me to create a variation on the theme. I used the same grouping of figures. But here, in my watercolor, the studio turned into a cave, and the art students--to a primitive mob. Which brings out a primal urge in them. 
In this painting the woman turns her head away: she has no voice. But in my novel, Apart From Love, Anita talks loud and clear. Here is what she says:
In my defense I have this to say: When men notice me, when the lusty glint appears in their eyes, which betrays how, in their heads, they’re stripping me naked—it’s me they accuse of being indecent.
Problem is, men notice me all the time.
To hear these words in Anita's voice, click here
Listen to the whole story:
Apart From Love
Something Special, a Gift for Father's DayAt the end of the cab ride to Sunrise home, the silence is finally broken when my father glances at me, and his face softens, and he says, “Anita is right. I have been tearing her, inside. I need to separate what is real and what is not.”
And I say, “This here between us, this is real. And the loneliness, too.”
In return he says, “I am so sorry, Ben. I do not know what came over me tonight. I guess I was not prepared for you. Forgive me.”
Listen to Ben's voice here
A few months ago, a pile of bones captured my fascination. Scattered across my desk, they were ashen, rather small, and of fanciful shapes. I was unable to identify the animals whose remains these were, nor could I name their skeletal parts. Which left me free to mine—out of these crumbling, fragile relics—an entirely new presence. Coming to life on brown paper with with a few stokes of white, red, and brown pencils, there she was: my Bone Princess. Set upon a patch of scorching desert sand, she casts a one-eyed look at you, which masks how vulnerable she really is. Her soft flesh is shielded—and in places, nearly crushed—by her armor of bones. She is damaged: no arms, no legs, yet she accepts her pain with pride, and with regal grace. Inside and out, she carries a sense of morbidity.
As all creations, she became an independent spirit. As such, she made me wonder what had happened to her. I imagined her turning to me, with the elegant, elongated lines of her neck, to tell me her story. This was how my novella, the first story in my upcoming collection—I Am What I Am—came to be.
Twisted.
New on Amazon! My novel Apart From Love just came out on Amazon in its audiobook edition, with a nice discount: $21.83 (instead of the List Price: $24.95) Treat yourself to a gift--listen to the story: great performances by two gifted voice actors, David Kudler and Heather Jane Hogan.
Apart From Love (audiobook edition)
Oh what a lovely review of Apart From Love! Many thanks to the reader, whose nome de plume is Astarte:★★★★★ stars THERE IS NOTHING APART FROM LOVE, June 8, 2013
By Astarte - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)
Many grateful thanks for "Apart From Love": The characters are still inhabiting me. It gives me hope that by revealing our secrets, we who are radically different from each other may understand and be understood; come to embrace and be embraced. A difficult story, from a heart as big as the world. I plan to read all her other books. Hers is a unique voice, very deep and much needed.
Today was a good day for me! Fifty eight readers bought the ebook edition copies of Apart From Love: it shows up in the book best seller's rank:Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,862 Paid in Kindle Store
Also, it shows up in the author's rank:
A big hug to all of you who downloaded it today! My characters, Ben and Anita, are giving you a little nod...
The author of the highly rated book Jaded Hearts, Olivia Linden, also provides services to self publishing authors: ghost writing, book covers, and book reviews. This morning she invited me for an interview on her blog. She opened with an ice-breaking question about my guilty pleasures...Ok, ice breakers:
Guilty pleasure?
Chocolate…
What kind of book do you read in your spare time?
Anything goes: poetry, drama, novels, short stories…
Ok, now let’s dig a little deeper with something that others would be surprised to know about you.
You may have seen my art, but do you know about my animations? If you visit my Amazon author page, you will find two of them under the subtitle Author Video (on the right-hand side, about the middle of the page.) Check it out here: Amazon Author Page
Where did you find the most support as far as your writing goes?
You may be surprised by my answer: Fellow authors! I spend a lot of time reaching out to readers, and in the process I engage with a great number of authors. Promoting your work is incredibly hard for those of us who are not celebrities, those who start in obscurity. But I have learned one thing: in these conditions, the more you give–the more you receive! If you share the work of a fellow authors you admire, they are likely to share yours; if you retweet what they say, they are likely to return the favor. Mutual support is a win-win proposition.
That is great advice to us Indie writers. Uvi, do you consider writing a career or a hobby?
No–I see it as a passion! Which is why a work in such a relentless manner to reach out to readers. I believe, with all my heart, in my work. When my characters are in your hands, when you lift them off the page and let them take shape in your mind, it simply thrills me.
Wow, your love of writing is very evident. How would you describe your writing style?
Great question, and one I was never asked before! I simply write the way I think, so it’s a bit difficult for me to define my own style, because it requires me to step out of my skin… But I can quote several of the reviewers, who say my writing is ‘lyrical’, and inspired with an ‘artistic’ insight. Here, for example, is the opening of an Amazon review by Dolores Ayotte:
“There is a quality so deep and raw in Apart from Love that it’s almost impossible to put this book down. In my opinion, Uvi Poznansky writes like a painter. She starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint here and a little paint there as she develops her characters and creates her masterpiece. Her strokes then become broader, more passionate, more vivid and vibrant as she continues to let her characters’ stories unfold. She draws you in to a deeper level than you might actually want to go as she ignites the fire to your own love, passions, and fears.”
So like any artist has a muse, was there something that inspired you to write Apart From Love?
Over a year ago I wrote a short story about a twelve years old boy coming face to face, for the first time in his life, with the sad spectacle of death in the family. The title of the story is Only An Empty Dress. In it, Ben watches his father trying to revive his frail grandma, and later he attempts the same technique on the fish tilting upside down in his new aquarium.
“I cannot allow myself to weep. No, not now. So I wipe the corner of my eye. Now if you watch closely, right here, you can see that the tail is still crinkling. I gasp, and blow again. I blow and blow, and with a last-gasp effort I go on blowing until all is lost, until I don’t care anymore, I mean it, I don’t care but the tears, the tears come, they are starting to flow, and there is nothing, nothing more I can do—”
I set the story aside, thinking I was done with it. But the character of the boy, Ben, came back to me and started chatting, chatting, chatting in my head. It became the seed of my just-published novel Apart from Love. In writing it I asked myself, what if I ‘aged’ him by fifteen years? Where would he be then? Would he still admire his father as a hero, or will he be disillusioned at that point? What secrets would come to light in the life of this family? How would it feel for Ben to come back to his childhood home, and have his memories play tricks on him? What if I introduce a girl, Anita, a
redhead who looks as beautiful as his mother used to be, but is extremely different from her in all other respects? And what if this girl were married to his father? What if the father were an author, attempting to capture the thoughts, the voices of Ben and Anita, in order to write his book? So the process of writing became, for me, simply listening to the characters and trying, as fast as I could, to capture their thoughts. My role as an author was merely suggesting a place, coming up with the stage set and illuminating it as appropriate for the time of day, and allowing the characters to describe what they see and to act out their passions and fears.
Yes, I believe in listening to the characters and letting them write the story, and keeping up with their thoughts can be tricky. What other aspects of writing Apart From Love did you find challenging?
The hardest part was daring to break the rules, and in that decision,
relying on the internal rationale of the story. Most books have a set of rules for literary style and for punctuation marks in order to distinguish ‘pure narration’ from ‘dialogue’. But in Apart From Love, the story is told entirely from the point of view of the characters–to the point that my voice as the writer is nearly silent. Therefore, the punctuation, or the rhythm of the story, should follow the way they utter sentences and breathe in-between. So by design, Anita had to become a sharp contrast to both Lenny and his son, Ben. She is an antidote, if you will, to their refined, complex hesitations. Her grammar, therefore, is utterly atrocious… I couldn’t just drop in a double negative here and there, because that would be more even more jarring, so I dropped it in quite liberally… I threw in the word ‘like’ in every one of her paragraphs, just for good measure, and had loads of fun with the way she talks!
So you set your characters free and they brought the story to life. What else did you learn from this experience?
I learned that to anchor fiction, to make it true, you must weave in a lot of facts. This is particularly important to establish the setting: the time and place of your story. In my novel, Anita is surrounded by yellowing pictures, besieged by forgotten history, which must seem distant to her, because it belongs to others. So, if you had to design a movie set to bring this situation to life, what furniture would you use? What objects would you place on the furniture? How old would these objects be? Whose style do they reflect? How would these objects appear in daylight? In the dark? In what ways would the sight and sound of them create a mood for the characters? I chose all the objects in the story to reflect a dated taste–that of the previous
wife, Natasha–so as to force Anita into surviving in a world that she had no hand in creating. Here is one of the earlier descriptions of her use of the coffee percolator:
"Now there she stands, by the counter, measuring the coarsely ground coffee, one tablespoon then another, right into the basket of our coffee percolator. He groans, which sounds like a bubble over a flame."
The Clock appears numerous times, at daylight and at all hours of the night, to punctuate a mood of anticipation. So you know that when it would finally ring its alarm, it would bring the characters to an abrupt halt. Of course, it is not a digital clock–much too sleek and simple!–but an old alarm clock with the little hammer on top:
"Under the glass crystal, the black hand moves around the dial, from one minute mark to the next. It advances with a measured beat, the beat of loss, life, fear…
At first, all’s black around me—except for the two luminous tips, which mark the hands of the alarm clock down there, in the hall…
For him, all them sounds are being drowned out by the tick, the incessant tick, tick, tick of the old alarm clock. The little hammer on top of it is idle, and so is the twin bells. They’re just hanging there, left and right of the hammer, reflecting this whole room, and the piano, and us, too. We seem so unlike ourselves, bent out of shape in their brass finish. So tense, so distorted, so small."
Uvi, your answers are very moving. I would love to hear how you decided on the title for Apart From Love.
I have give a lot of thought to the use of the word Love. It is used sparingly in the novel. It is so rare that when it is finally uttered, its power is surprising. The theme of the book is the fear we all have, men and women alike: the fear of coming out to the open with our most intimate feelings, and risking rejection and pain.
“I cannot make up my mind whether it has been a mistake, I mean, just standing there in confusion, facing her, saying nothing—when in fact, in spite of what she may think, I had it: really, I had the words right there, at the tip of my tongue, to tell Anita how desperately I want her. There is no need, no need, no need to torture myself. This woman is not for me.
No, I repeat, not for me. I am lucky, so lucky I have managed restrain myself, somehow, and bite my lips. Nothing has been said, nothing surrendered.
For my own sake I should have been much more careful. Now—even in her absence—I find myself in her hands, which feels strange to me. I am surrounded— and at the same time, isolated. I am alone. I am apart from Love.”
Was there a special scene that spoke to you the most?
Oh, that’s like asking who is your favorite child… So here is one of them. In this scene, Ben imagines his mother at the crucial point, when the doctors finally come up with the diagnosis of what ails her: Alzheimer’s.
"I picture her staring at the black-and-white image of her brain, not quite understanding what they are telling her. The doctors, they point out the overall loss of brain tissue, the enlargement of the ventricles, the abnormal clusters between nerve cells, some of which are already dying, shrouded eerily by a net of frayed, twisted strands. They tell her about the shriveling of the cortex, which controls brain functions such as remembering and planning. And that is the moment when in a flash, mom can see clearly, in all shades of gray blooming there, on that image, how it happens, how her past and her future are slowly, irreversibly being wiped away—until she is a woman, forgotten."
I love the descriptive and romantic quality of your writing. Do you find yourself wanting go back and add or change anything about Apart From Love?
No, I would not change a word.
And that’s incredible!
So what can we look forward to from you in the future?
I am planning to come out with a new book very soon, perhaps as soon as two months from now. It is still forming, I keep adding and changing, and I keep coming up with new possibilities for the title. Last night, it was I AM (and other strange stories); this morning it was Twisted Yarn; and now I think that just Twisted will do…
The book will include a novella called I Am What I Am, and other stories with the same feel of a hyper reality and a twisted, strange character. Please stay tuned…
Twisted…I like that! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Uvi, it has been a definite pleasure learning more about you. Thank you for sharing with me!
Read the interview here.
My father swallows his breath several times, his face turning pale, his eyes—miserable, until finally he bursts out shouting, “Listen, it’s Lenny! Can you hear me, dear? In God’s name, Natasha, it’s me—” Which makes me take a step forward, fumbling to find the right tone, the right words but at the same time, crying, “What? You’re talking to mom? Where—where is she? Give me, let me talk to her—”
For a moment, his eyes seem to pop right out of their sockets, and his face reddens in embarrassment, as if he has just been caught in a covert little hideaway, committing some shocking, scandalous sin. He freezes, with the handset suspended in midair. Then slowly, and with full intention, he sets it down in its cradle, and stays there guarding the thing, which is still clasped firmly in his hand.
“What is that? What are you doing?” I plead. “Mom is back! It has been a long time, five years I think, since I heard her voice—”
“Yes,” he says. “It has been that: five years. But first, we need to talk—"
"We,” I insist, “have nothing to talk about. All I know is, mom is back from her tour.” And with that I leap forward and try to snatch the thing, I yank it right out of his hold; which is when he pounces on me, and his knuckles turn bone-white around my arm, and I feel him gripping me tightly, until it hurts. I have forgotten how strong he is.
"Listen,” says my father, between clenched teeth. “Listen to me! It is about her.”
By now I am yowling in distress, “What? What the hell do you mean? What is it, about mom?”
And so he releases me. “You better sit down,” he says. “It is something you need to hear.”
For a moment I consider the pleasure I could get out of arguing with him over whether or not I should sit, and what does he know about me, about what I need, or about anything else, for that matter—but then I take control of myself and, noting that there is no chair here, in the hall, I just clear some papers off the console table, and stand there, with my back to it, leaning against its edge.
All the while I consider what to say, and how to stay on the attack, before he can come out—as I know he will—and give me some bad news.
And so, I charge him, “It is always secrets with you. I hate you for that."
Which, to my surprise, he accepts. "I hate it too,” he admits. “Having to have secrets."
(¯`:´¯)✿
(¯ `•.\\\\|/.•´¯)(¯´v´¯)
___(¯ `•. .•´¯)*..*´
___ (_.•´/|\\\\`•._)¸.•´¸.•) ¸.•¨)
_______(_.:._).•´ (¸.•´ •´ ´
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Apart From Love
"Looking at them I became kinda curious. I asked myself, who was the one screaming, ‘cause they all seemed to be so sleepy, so eerily quiet, even though from time to time you could see a head turning, or a hand lifting or falling. And me, I even became angry, madly angry at that unseen woman, whose voice pierced me. She roared, arousing something in my heart which was so annoying, so alarming, so crazed even—until at last I thought, Enough! Just shut the hell up! Why isn’t nothing being done here, I mean like, anything to silence her! Slap the madwoman! Restrain her! Strap her in a straightjacket! This is a clinic, after all! Tie her up, so she can’t stir up trouble no more!
And on that note, all of a sudden it came to me: somehow I knew, right then, that she was no other—no one else but me."
Anita in Apart From Love
This week I have the incredible honor of being featured on Mcv Egan's blog, for an entire week!
My first article was this: Why History is the Agreed Upon Lie .
Today's article is this: Three Sisters with a Colorful History :
"Having fled from Poland during World War II, the three Rosenblatt sisters arrived in Paris, where they discovered glamor, or at least the chance for it.
They bleached their hair super blond, so as to put the shtetl, and the horrors they must have suffered, right out of their mind, along with the old way of life.
Around the same time, they changed their names to Brigitte, Monique, and Veronique. Along with their names, they threw out a few other things which had failed to serve them: their long, dark skirts, and their modesty.
Wearing frilly underwear and black stockings, they auditioned for a show at a nightclub, a highly acclaimed nightclub called the Folies Bergère—only to be rejected, because sadly, their dance routine was too nice and conservative; which made them furious, and even more driven to make it.
So with clenched teeth, they learned how to lift their skirts, and flap them about in a highly erotic, flirtatious manner. After several months of hard, painstaking work, the three sisters finally became an overnight sensation.
They ended up joining a cheaply produced show in the nightclub district of Montmartre. Their fame spread. They became known for their fancy cancan costumes, which left them practically naked."
In my contemporary fiction novel titled Apart From Love, the three Rosenblatt sisters have a colorful history. I invite you to listen to the voice of one of them, the acid-eyed aunt Hadassa--narrated by the gifted actor David Kudler--in a letter she writes to Ben, her nephew. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard an aged Jewish lady singing Bryan Adams...
Listen to her voice here.
Take a listen to a ★★★★★ novel with 49 reviews
Apart From Love
I am so grateful! As part of featuring my work on her blog, Mcv Egan has displayed a wonderful book showcase with links to all the editions--audiobook, paperback, and kindle--of my book. Check it out here: Treat Yourself to a Great Gift
My interview at The Criterion has just been published! Check it out:Your story is extremely rich in detail and in content. Where does one learn to write like that?
Writers that captivate you have a way with the pen, they can sweep you off your feet and into the page, into the story, to a different time and place. So, how do we do it? Like Yogi Berra used to say, you can see a lot just by looking. For example, when Anita stands on the Santa Monica peer, and spots her husband out there, in a sea-food restaurant, with another woman--you can be sure that I have studied every detail about the restaurant--especially the menu--by going online and selecting the dishes Anita might wish to remember. Here is her voice:
"I could see the slice of lime on the lip of his glass, and closed my eyes—but still, was blocked from smelling it. I tried, in vain, to bring back the touch of salt around the rim, and the scent of butter on mashed potatoes, and the meaty flavor of wild mushrooms, and the pleasure you get with every gulp of hot, thick clam chowder. I could almost lick the spoon, and pinch the bread, and wipe the bowl with it, ‘cause I had known all that. Me, I had been there with him, like, a lifetime ago."
Your characters seem to come to life on the page; they capture us with the anguish and heartbreak of real life. As a writer, how did you get to know your characters: Lenny, Ben, Anita and Natasha?
The characters sprung to life so vividly because they were living in my head for a whole year. The story is told from two points of view, Ben’s and Anita’s, which gave me an opportunity to illustrate how the same events, seen from different angles and through difference experiences in life, are interpreted in an entirely different way.
Anita, the girl in the center of this whirlwind of passion in Apart From Love, had to become a sharp contrast to both Lenny and his son, Ben. Unlike their refined, learned grammar, hers is utterly atrocious... I couldn't just drop in a double negative here and there, so I dropped it in quite liberally... I threw in the word ‘like’ in every one of her paragraphs, just for good measure, and had wicked fun with the way she talks!
Natasha, Ben's mother in my novel Apart From Love, has few lines of dialogue--and yet she leaves a profound, sometimes troubling affect on the other characters. When she appears in the story, it is to mark the distance between what she is and what she used to be, a distance that is expanding in time. Her first line of dialogue, when she asks her husband, "Are you having a thing again," can give you the first inkling you get that words started to escape her.
Music plays a part in your story. Do you listen to music while you write? Where do you go to write?
When I start writing I jot little notes to myself where ever inspiration strikes. But as I go deeper into the writing process, I find myself at home, with my laptop, and the hours fly by. I start early morning, and after what seems like a minute, I realize it’s already time for dinner!
In Apart From Love, I introduced a white piano into the story. The mere presence of this instrument in Ben’s apartment suggested a variety of scenes, such as the musical duet in chapter 18. Now, how would you go about writing a duet, when your knowledge about playing the piano is nothing but a faint memory from the age of six? I found several ways of learning the intricate details. I watched numerous videos of playing a duet on the piano, studied every note of how to play ‘The entertainer’ --and as a result, wrote this. Here is Ben’s voice:
"And before this phrase fades out Anita straightens her back, and places her hand on the keys. Then, to my astonishment, she plays the next phrase of music, this time with raw, intense force, which I never knew existed in her, bringing it to the verge of destruction, making it explode all around me. And I, in turn, explode with the following one, because how can I let her outdo me? I am, after all, The Entertainer..."
Alzheimers certainly plays a critical role in your novel. Can you tell us about any personal experiences or research that you did to bring this subject into your story?
I knew the impact of Alzheimer’s, of how is robs the patients mind and leave a shell behind, from watching the last year of my father’s life, and also from visiting patients in a home--but in addition, I did extensive research about how it is diagnosed, how do you solve the problem of placing a loved one at such a home, and the emotional roller-coaster ride of blame and guilt that takes place in a family. I even looked up medical analysis of brain images, which allowed me to write this about Natasha:
"The doctors, they point out the overall loss of brain tissue, the enlargement of the ventricles, the abnormal clusters between nerve cells, some of which are already dying, shrouded eerily by a net of frayed, twisted strands. They tell her about the shriveling of the cortex, which controls brain functions such as remembering and planning.
And that is the moment when in a flash, mom can see clearly, in all shades of gray blooming there, on that image, how it happens, how her past and her future are slowly, irreversibly being wiped away—until she is a woman, forgotten."
You had a very unique way of telling the story in Apart From Love. Can you tell us about the decision process that was involved when you first thought of how you would write it?
In any task you undertake, you often hear the advice: start at the beginning, continue down the middle, and finish at the end. Writing is no different. Problem is, as you advance diligently down that path, you may find--to your surprise--that you are getting better, more proficient at your craft. Suddenly the opening of this chapter sounds so much catchier than the previous one; and the ending more powerful. Which requires constant re-evaluation and reworking of previous chapters. So in my opinion, the process of writing is Cyclical. By the time I completed the last chapter of Apart From Love, I knew I had to discard--or at least, restructure--the first chapter.
The story gained speed and purpose when right in the middle of writing it I stopped, and turned to write the last chapter, called ‘Editorial Notes’ which is appended at the end. In this chapter, a character called Mr. Bliss comes to visit the Santa Monica Apartment after Ben and Anita have left the place for good. The description given by Mr. Bliss provided the ‘stage set’ for the last scene: the white piano is gone, and the mirror lies broken on the bedroom floor. How would these things happen? I did not know yet, but now I had the end waiting for me.
We also have learned that you have been an artist, architect, poet and software engineer. How has these other careers influenced your novel writing?
Being an artist is tightly-coupled with the way I see the world, and the way I write. One of the reviewers of Apart From Love wrote this about me: “Uvi starts with a clean canvas and dabs a little paint here and a little paint there as she develops her characters and creates her masterpiece. Her strokes then become broader, more passionate, more vivid and vibrant as she continues to let her characters' stories unfold. She draws you in to a deeper level than you might actually want to go as she ignites the fire to your own love, passions, and fears.”
Through the use of rhyme and rhythm, the words in poetry become overlaid with meanings, and so they impact you, they evoke feelings and thoughts. Which is what I bring from my poetry into my prose, into Apart from love. I listen for the rhythm of speech, the way we all stumble over our words when overcome by emotions, and then, I write the dialog in Apart From Love in the voice of my characters, in the rhythm of their breathing.
Now my previous reincarnations--my master degree in Architecture, my master degree in Computer science, and the work experience in both fields, are invaluable to me when writing. For example, as a software engineer I developed software for medical devices, including ultrasound machine. Which allowed me now to write the scene with Anita watching the ultrasound image of her baby:
“With a soft, squelching sound, little specs glitter in the dark fluid. And there—just behind them specs—something moves! Something catches the light and like, wow! For a second there I can swear I see a hand: My baby’s hand waving, then turning to float away. This isn’t exactly what I’ve expected, ‘cause like, not only is that fluid kinda see-through—but to my surprise, so is the little hand. Like, you can spot not only the faint outline of flesh on them, but the shine of the bones coming at you, too.”
There is more of the interview (if you did not have enough of this by now...) here: The Criterion
Wow! What a day! Two reviews at once for my novel Apart From Love--one from Deborah Patterson, the other from Susan Aylworth! Thank you so much! This book now has 52 reviews:★★★★★ Apart From Love, July 10, 2013
By Deborah Patterson - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)
It was a well written book. It really stayed intersting till the very last page.It is really worth reading. Great !
★★★★ Odd, off-beat literature, July 10, 2013
By Susan Aylworth - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)
Nothing genre or predictable about this unusual story of love and loss, broken hearts and minds. This book is not for the faint-hearted. Start with a mismatched couple. Throw in Alzheimer's, narcissism and a little incest, and you still end up with a touching, hopeful tale that's hard to put down and harder to forget.
Read these reviews here: Apart From Love
☻//▌
/ \ Looking for a great summer read?
In the next three days, each one of my ebooks is at a third of its price. Of course, that's not the reason to get them--the reviews are!
★★★★★ Check them out:
★ Twisted ★ A Favorite Son ★ Home ★ Apart From Love ★
"It was a hot summer evening, and the place was awful packed. I paced back and forth behind the counter, serving the customers, dishing out fresh smiles, scooping Dutch chocolate here and vanilla there, and trying to get a beat going, trying to sway my hips and at the same time, steady my step over my new, hot pink high heels, which isn’t near as easy as you might think—at least, not on the first try. After a while I noted that he started pacing just like me, back and forth, and with the same beat, too. I liked the bounce of his step. Right away I thought he was gonna make a fabulous dance partner. And I knew, really I did, it was gonna to be a wild night."
Anita in Apart From Love
Summer Bargain SaleApart From Love --only $0.99 today only!
And while you're at it, I warn you: do Not check out the audiobook, because you may be seriously tempted to get it...
At the end of each month, I check the 'behind the scenes' statistics to analyze trends, and to learn if there is anything I can do to make this blog more attractive to you. Guess what? Having taken a slight dip last month, the number of pageviews has...Guess: Going Down Or Coming Up?
Christoph Fischer is a high-ranking reviewer on Goodreads: #46 best reviewers #9 top reviewers. And, he is the author of two highly praised historical fiction books, Sebastian and The Luck of the Weissensteiners. I am greatly moved that he posted this ★★★★★ review on Goodreads and Amazon for my novel, Apart From Love:★★★★★ s Powerful story, August 1, 2013
By diebus - See all my reviews
This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)
"Apart from Love" by Uvi Poznansky is yet another amazing novel by this very talented writer.
The book concerns Ben, a twenty-seven year old student, and his family at a time when the marriage of his parents breaks down due to the father's infidelity. The father, Len, marries Anita.
Told in two separate narratives we get to see Ben's and Anita's 'sides' of the story.
Poznansky gives a magnificent close-up of the family breakdown, exploring the themes of seduction, blame and love and a variety of conflicting emotions.
The characters are multidimensional and with their background stories and the use of changing perspectives the book makes for some intense and at times emotional reading.
The situation is uncomfortable for all involved but nobody is purely bad or reduced to klischee, everyone tries in their ways to find harmony and love.
We question why the divorce had to happen, there is still love between the divorced couple, admiration for the pianist mother and what she brought to the family, but now that she is here Anita has also valuable things to contribute. And Ben and Anita are becoming close, too.
Poznansky asks what love is and also who really does love and means it.
Conflict and contradiction never seem to go away completely and we are left with these questions.
One of Poznansky's biggest talents is to challenge and change our perspective with her sharp-minded observations and powerful prose and she does so very well.
"He can’t help kicking the wall; in the kitchen he kicks the refrigerator and then opens it, to look for an ice pack..."Apart From Love (audiobook edition)
☆♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ¸¸.♪♫•*¨*•♫♪ Check out my audiobooks on my Author Page on Audible--you might like a one of them enough to get it...
My dear friend from down under, Ia Uaro, is the author (as well as the cover artist) of the coming of age story Sydney's Song. Today she features an interview with me on her blog. Check it out:Meet Uvi Poznansky, California-based Author, Poet and Artist
Audiobooks
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My purpose is to display the title, author, and narrator names in a way that complements the underlying image. So I had to adjust the brightness of the text, so that the name "Heather Jane Hogan" stands out, blue on blue, by the same degree as "David Kudler" stands out, red on red. It is all a question of balance...
I chose the Golden color of the title so it stands out the most over the image. Under it, the author name is displayed in a peachy flesh color, same as the figure. I wanted to impart the feeling that light comes from above, and it is caught by the text, more so at the top--Apart From Love--and less and less as it trickles farther and farther down.
Audiobook coming soon!