Lynda Lippman-Lockhart

The trials and tribulations of a writer

Writing your "Great American" novel is the easiest part of producing a book. The joy of developing characters and becoming involved in their lives presents you with friends who never let you down. Your setting can be anywhere in this world or beyond and the premise of the story gives you an opportunity to spout off on topics near and dear to your heart. You can get away with more in your writing than you can if placed on Facebook or other social media.

After you have perfected your work, the real job begins. Finding someone who believes in you and your work is the most difficult part of getting published. My best suggestion is to discover a conference that speaks to your genre and go. Jump in with both feet. Conferences are the most effective way to find out what you don't know and make friends who are as passionate about their work as you. It will pump you up. Make sure that the conference employs editors, literary agents and publishers and that you will have the opportunity to speak to them on several occasions. Before you go, create a one sentence pitch that will dazzle. If you don't know what that is, go on the Internet and look it up. You can find anything on the Internet.

Do not expect a publisher to accept your work unedited. Many fiends are eager to be the first to read your work. Ask several, giving each something different to focus on. If someone can be trusted to line edit, all the better. Have one look for content, another for specifics: people are wearing the same outfits on the same day or their appearance and if it changes with time, or checking for unnecessary adjectives.

Of course there is more. This is just to whet your appetite.

Join in on a book talk with Lynda Lippman-Lockhart and her historical fiction The Laundry Room at the Gulfport Library on Wednesday, November 9th at 12:30 pm. She will also be updating you on her two newest novels .

**Radio Event**!!!!

**Radio Event** - Friday 8/5/16 @ 4:00 - Tune in to 1110 AM!!!!! To The Pete O'Shea Show where The Laundry Room will be featured as a representative of the OnPoint Book Fair at West Shore Mall on Saturday 17th!!!!!

New Release: The Laundry Room, a Novel of the Israeli Resistance of 1946

The Laundry Room: The British Mandate over Palestine is coming to an end. The purpose of the Mandate was to divide a portion of the now defunct Ottoman Empire into two British protectorates: Palestine, which would include a home for the Jewish people and Transjordan, an emirate under the rule of the Hashemite family.

The problem: how would these two diametrically opposed peoples survive after the mandate ended? On the day in 1946 the King David Hotel, outside the “Old City” of Jerusalem, is bombed, peace-loving Laila Posner becomes a victim. Swept up in the blast, she flies through the air like a “dove” but lands, transformed, into a “hawk,” but for all the wrong reasons.

Upon recovery, Laila joins a group of young people—many of whom had been orphaned by the Holocaust—sent to Palestine for protection. Forty-five of these Young Pioneers form a kibbutz and resolve never to let someone else direct their lives. Hence a new generation filled with determination and strength of purpose arises from the ovens of the Holocaust. The success of the kibbutz reaches the ears of the Haganah, the Jewish secret police, who approach the kibbutz with a proposition: participate in a clandestine operation to save the Jewish state. It is during her time at the Ayalon Institute—a name given to disguise its activities—that Laila comes of age, taking a leading role in the operation of the kibbutz and running the secret factory.

In the face of daily challenges to survive—volatile compounds, marauding Arabs, and the fear of discovery by the British—Laila finds the strength to go on. Amid the turmoil of the time, a close-knit community is formed, spawning lifetime attachments and love. Laila, however, never forgets the young British soldier who came to her assistance during the bombing of the King David Hotel causing friction between her and her kibbutz sweetheart. His presence in and out of her life leaves her uneasy about her future. The selflessness of these youths, many no older than eighteen, who came to the aid of their country, is a testament to how heroes are formed out of ordinary human beings.

Authors on Characters: Capturing Heroes

Recently my publisher Penmore Press offered a series of posts by its authors to write about developing characters in their novels. I contributed a short reflection on the task of rendering real heroes into fictional characters. Here's a snippet from the post -- which was illustrated with some terrific vintage photos of the time: 

While writing The Laundry Room, a historical novel, I began fashioning my main character, Laila, around an eighty-seven-year-old woman I had interviewed over the Internet. For two years I attempted to capture the young person inside of her; however, I found, after a year, that she was withholding that youngster, either because she really didn't remember or because she was having trouble letting go of who she was. With that in mind, I did what I do best—made up my characters. I imagined what it would take to create characters who had been torn from their parents during the Holocaust, either by death or after being sent to Palestine for their safety. I decided to let them participate in their own creation....  Read more >>>