My Featured Author Day
Dec 03, 2024 by Harold Emanuel
What inspired you to switch genres from cozy mysteries to historical fiction?
Aliyah – A Jewish Family Saga was inspired by stories I heard growing up about my own family’s immigrant experience on the Lower East Side in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. I read many novels about immigrants on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They all began and ended in the same locale, and in the late 19th Century. I wanted a story that shows a family prospering and moving from the Lower East Side to Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs, like my family did.
Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?
I get my inspiration from history. I place my characters, members of the Hermanski family, at the center of historical events and I have them interact with historical characters. For example, Lazar and Fiorello LaGuardia work on Ellis Island as translators. Lazar’s daughter works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the day of the fire.
Can you give us some insight into what makes your main characters tick?
Family cohesion. The Hermanski family faces many obstacles adjusting to a new country and culture and learning a new language. They face these hurdles as a family, supporting each other against the outside forces tugging at them.
Tell us about your current work in progress
I am working on a sequel to Aliyah – A Jewish Family Saga, tentatively titled The Saga Continues. It follows Lazar and Daria, their son, Marvin, daughter, Nellie, and Marvin’s children, twins Peter and Ariel, through the roaring 20s, the 1930s depression, and World War Two.
What book are you currently reading?
Broadcast Hysteria by A. Brad Schwartz. It chronicles the evening of October 30, 1938. On that date, Orson Welles’ broadcast of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds on CBS radio’s Mercury Theatre convinced thousands of people we were being invaded by Martians. I plan to have the characters in The Saga Continues in the middle of the hysteria which occurred during and following the broadcast.
Are you offering a gift?
Of course. You can go to Amazon.com on December 5 and 6 to download a free copy of my collection of murder mystery stories, Murder in the Sunset Years, on Kindle.
Aliyah – A Jewish Family Saga was inspired by stories I heard growing up about my own family’s immigrant experience on the Lower East Side in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. I read many novels about immigrants on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They all began and ended in the same locale, and in the late 19th Century. I wanted a story that shows a family prospering and moving from the Lower East Side to Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs, like my family did.
Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?
I get my inspiration from history. I place my characters, members of the Hermanski family, at the center of historical events and I have them interact with historical characters. For example, Lazar and Fiorello LaGuardia work on Ellis Island as translators. Lazar’s daughter works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the day of the fire.
Can you give us some insight into what makes your main characters tick?
Family cohesion. The Hermanski family faces many obstacles adjusting to a new country and culture and learning a new language. They face these hurdles as a family, supporting each other against the outside forces tugging at them.
Tell us about your current work in progress
I am working on a sequel to Aliyah – A Jewish Family Saga, tentatively titled The Saga Continues. It follows Lazar and Daria, their son, Marvin, daughter, Nellie, and Marvin’s children, twins Peter and Ariel, through the roaring 20s, the 1930s depression, and World War Two.
What book are you currently reading?
Broadcast Hysteria by A. Brad Schwartz. It chronicles the evening of October 30, 1938. On that date, Orson Welles’ broadcast of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds on CBS radio’s Mercury Theatre convinced thousands of people we were being invaded by Martians. I plan to have the characters in The Saga Continues in the middle of the hysteria which occurred during and following the broadcast.
Are you offering a gift?
Of course. You can go to Amazon.com on December 5 and 6 to download a free copy of my collection of murder mystery stories, Murder in the Sunset Years, on Kindle.
