Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
Author: annsepstein@att.net
Ann S. Epstein is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays.
“[I prefer] open-ended conclusions, in which there’s some resolution at hand, but it’s not tied up in a perfect literary bow. A well written-ending offers a sense of where the characters end up and where they might be headed beyond the final page” (Midge Raymond in “The Last Chapter” by Jack Smith, The Writer, December 2020). In my own writing, I want to “nail” my endings, but not “nail them down.” Ambiguity allows the reader’s imagination to continue working. The book ends but the story keeps spinning. Read more of my thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.
The book ends but the story keeps spinningWhy writers write: “I write to discover what I know.” – Flannery O’Connor
If your gift list for others or wish list for yourself includes the joy of books, take a look at these novels:
From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.: “Wanting something was a worthwhile challenge, wanting someone was too big a risk.” A probing fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz. Order on Amazon.
From On the Shore: “He made men angry enough to spite him by surviving.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI. Order on Amazon.
From Tazia and Gemma: “There’s something about a first love that you never let you go of, or that never lets go of you.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of an unwed Italian immigrant who survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire and the daughter who seeks her father 50 years later. Order on Amazon.
If your holiday gift list includes books for family, friends, and/or yourself, consider these five-star novels:
From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.: “Just because midgets were short was no reason to treat them like children.” A probing fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz. Order on Amazon.
From On the Shore: “The rabbis taught that kindness superseded honesty.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI. Order on Amazon.
From Tazia and Gemma: “Understanding and forgiving don’t happen at the same time.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of an unwed Italian immigrant who survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire and the daughter who seeks her father 50 years later. Order on Amazon.
“When I’m writing, I often think of endings in fiction like the close of a piece of music. Am I imagining a noisy, rousing crescendo? A minor melancholy chord? A single note that slowly fades into silence? And then I try to use language to create that same effect” (Alix Ohlin in “The Last Chapter” by Jack Smith, The Writer, December 2020). For me, music, more than any other creative medium, can discharge tears or release joy. So when I write, I aim to inspire in readers the same intense emotional reactions evoked by music’s magical powers. Read more of my thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.
Can words capture music’s power to evoke strong emotions?Why writers write: “Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled.” – Henry David Thoreau
If you’re looking for a holiday gift for someone or a great read for yourself, add these to your list:
From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.: “The coroner broadcast authority when he pronounced the Witch of the East ‘not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.’” A probing fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz. Order on Amazon.
From On the Shore: “If you thought drowning was a Navy man’s biggest fear, you’re dead wrong. Fire’s your worst enemy.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI. Order on Amazon.
From Tazia and Gemma: “Thieves don’t just steal money or possessions. They steal hearts.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of an unwed Italian immigrant who survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire and the daughter who seeks her father 50 years later. Order on Amazon.
My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Rating 3) – Not Enough Rounds on the Watchman’s Shift. Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman, which tracks the lives of a Chippewa elder and his niece, was disappointing. I wanted more chapters (rounds) devoted to Thomas, the title character, and his fight against the U.S. Government’s Termination Bill to “emancipate” Indigenous people from their land. The novel is set in the 1950s, with an historical nod to the 1890s, but it echoes today. Erdrich makes clear what the Turtle Mountain clan will lose if the bill passes, namely a way of life that cohabits with nature, respects tribal wisdom, relishes language, and survives on irreverent humor and serious love. Erdrich wrote this book as an homage to her grandfather and her reverence for his strength and determination flow like spring sap through its pages. That said, the story of young Patrice is less compelling, even though hers ends on a hopeful note. Erdrich has a talent for weaving recurring characters within and across her books but in The Night Watchman, she is overextended. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I know that “killing your darlings” is hard, but necessary. Like the ghosts that populate her writing, however, Erdrich can always make these other characters come alive in future books. I just wish she’d given them a diminished role in this one.
A fight to save the Turtle Mountain clan from government termination masquerading as emancipationWhy writers read: “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler)
If you’re looking for a book for someone on your gift list, including yourself, look here:
From On the Shore: “Gratitude to this country drove Shmuel’s decision. Also, a desperate need to escape his father.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI. Order on Amazon.
From Tazia and Gemma: “Let people think what they want, but don’t put the idea in their heads.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of an unwed Italian immigrant who survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire and the daughter who seeks her father 50 years later. Order on Amazon.
From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.: “Judy Garland told Variety that the ‘little people’ got smashed every night.” A probing fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the movie classic The Wizard of Oz. Order on Amazon.
If you’re looking for a book for someone on your gift list, including yourself, here are three engaging novels:
From On the Shore: “There would be no way to notify his parents if he were hurt, captured, or killed. So be it.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI. Order on Amazon.
From Tazia and Gemma: “It’s worse to lie by what you say than what you don’t say.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of an unwed Italian immigrant who survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire and the daughter who seeks her father 50 years later. Order on Amazon.
From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.:“Meinhardt Raabe didn’t want to be one of 122 nameless Munchkins. He was after a one-of-a-kind role.” A probing fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner in the movie classic The Wizard of Oz. Order on Amazon.
When Spanish flu cases spiked in 1918, then as now, revelers were warned not to trade their health-saving masks for Halloween masks. Street celebrations and indoor parties were prohibited. People were reminded that dancing was nonessential and that blowing horns spread germs and disrupted the sleep of the sick. State and city bans may have curtailed those seeking treats, but the number of tricks rose. Dallas police, for example, reported overturned bread boxes, an absconded horse, and a stolen piano. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).
Halloween during Spanish flu pandemic a century agoGenerations of immigrant family in conflict
A truism of writing instruction is “Show, don’t tell.” Anton Chekhov admonishes “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Ernest Hemingway exhorts “Show readers everything, tell them nothing.” But not every writer agrees with this advice. Alexandra Schwartz, interviewing novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar (“Making a Scene,” The New Yorker, September 21, 2020), reports “Writers of the show-don’t tell school might worry about didacticism undermining artistry, but Akhtar has a different philosophy. ‘Telling is amazing — some of my best experiences have been being told stuff,’ he told me.” My view is that it depends on the skill and balance with which each form is executed. A skillful teller can be engaging; an endless monologue devoid of interaction. An inventive shower can be enthralling; the relentless hammer of action exhausting. As Francine Prose says of Alice Munro, “Needless to say, many great [writers] combine dramatic showing with long sections of flat-out authorial narration.” More thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.
Novelist, playwright, and autodidact Ayad AkhtarWhy writers write: “When I’m asked my advice for people who want to be writers, I say they don’t need advice. They know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it.” – R. L. Stine
