As… um… Manuel informed you, By Light of Hidden Candles was officially released on October 16th, and I hosted a small launch party for family and friends last Monday evening. You can see the full album of photos here on my Facebook page (no FB account necessary to view it).
Undoubtedly my favorite part of the evening was getting to present my friend Abi with her copy of the book. The book is dedicated (in part) to her, and I kept this a secret from her until this moment:
Here I explain a little more about why the book is dedicated to her and how By Light of Hidden Candles grew out of our friendship and her chronic illness (there are English captions if you have trouble hearing):
Feel like you missed out? Not to worry! On Sunday, October 29th, I’ll be hosting a Facebook Live “virtual launch party” at 9pm Israel time. (We’ll have just turned back our clocks, so that’s 3pm New York time.) I’ll do a reading and answer questions in real time. Join the event here for updates; you can also already start posting questions for me to answer during the broadcast. Make sure to “like” and follow my FB page to get a notification when I go live. Unfortunately, you do need to have a FB account to join the event–but Facebook will save the video and I’ll be able to post it here afterward.
In the meantime, my husband interviewed me for his podcast, Jewish Geography! He also started off the podcast with a recording of me reading a prayer I wrote for the occasion and read aloud at the launch party, and had me read a short excerpt. Have a listen:
You can download this and more of his podcasts and/or subscribe on iTunes here or on Android/RSS here–or listen/subscribe on YouTube.
I’ll be back soon with more behind-the-scenes posts. Next up is a “deleted scene”–an alternate opening to the historical narrative!
Daniella, I received your book yesterday, and read the beginning pages. I’m hooked! Looking forward to reading it! I’m intrigued by the grandmother/ granddaughter opening, and the secret gold ring. I’m writing a book now with a granddaughter/grandmother connection. The grandmother entrusts her granddaughter with grandfather’s gold pocket watch, his ritual, and a woman’s picture inside. The granddaughter’s task is to find out the identity of the woman, and to uncover a hidden secret in grandfather’s life. Now that I read your opening, I think mine will work! That gives me encouragement (as a new writer). Christine
I hope you enjoy the rest! Yours sounds interesting too!