I met a charming young woman last week, a most unusual person. She is the forty-something daughter of a friend of mine who is the most open person I’ve ever met. Tall and thin with curly, not kinky, shoulder length hair, she dresses in jeans, peasant blouses, and cowboy boots. Her ear lobes will sport either chandelier earrings or large hoops. She is a writer of county songs which she performs wherever she can book a gig. I had the pleasure of being at one of her perfomances and thought she was a real talent.

What amazed me was the complete honesty and openness of her song’s lyrics. With one of her two guitars hooked up to an amplifying system, she hangs it from her neck and sings about her disfunctional family, her mother’s advice to have her eggs frozen before she would get too old to bear children, and the fact that her four year old daughter was conceived on a one-night-stand date. A stunned audience applauded her loudly.

Two weeks later, she was in my home at a dinner party where she continued to charm all my guests. I found her openness completely refreshing. I don’t know anyone quite like her … especially me. I must remind you that I, as a Jewish child in Vienna in World War II, was drilled into knowing that I must keep my mouth shut. I didn’t quite understand that a slip-up on my part might just land my whole family  in Auschwitz.

I’ve come a long ways since those early years of childhood and adolescence, but I think a little of that philosophy has remained with me. What I have learned as an adult is that most everyone I know has a more closed orientation than not. I’ve learned that it sometimes takes years before a friend will open up about something in their past that they think will make them look bad.

I love being a writer and a reader. It is the one place that some of us  will bare all. Books abound about drug addiction, rape, incest, crime, psychological abuse, etc., etc.  I was told I was brave to write about Herr Meyer in my book. My feeling was that if I was to write a memoir, I had to be honest about what happened. If I couldn’t do that, I’d be writing fiction.

Now my dilemma is knowing how to write all the stories that I have seen happen in a lifetime of experiences. I would be writing about people who might just recognize themselves. I’d risk losing their friendship. I’m not sure I want to do that. If only I could have a little more of the free-spirit-orientation of that charming country music performer, I could have such a good time as a writer.

Marketing Becoming Alice has become quite an adventure. I could have hired all kinds of companies to help me set up my website, do my press releases, synopses and bios, produce MGM-quality videos about me and my book, and handle all my PR, including getting exposure in cyberspace. This would have run into several thousands of dollars, even if I shopped and came up with the cheapest services available. These services come with a disclaimer, namely there is no guarantee of success.  I couldn’t go that route.

I have been doing almost all of the above on my own at a cost of innumerable hours of my time, which I would much rather have spent putting the thoughts  in my head for my next work down on paper. As to the measure of my success, I have no idea. The pundits tell me that it takes months, sometimes up to a year, to reap any benefit from social networking on the internet. I haven’t reached that milestone yet and have no clue as to whether or not all this effort is working. My publisher is two or three months behind in posting sales so that I can’t figure out what’s working and what’s not. So I soldier on, hoping that one day all this will make sense.

One of the stumbling blocks I have encountered is that I’ve been advised to aim my campaign at my target audience. I have a real problem finding this elusive audiance. My last review, which can be read at http://internetreviewofbooks.com/holiday09/contents.html makes the point of saying Becoming Alice is a good read for anyone, young or old. I’d hoped the reviewer would say for older Jewish women, or wwii history buffs, or teenagers having problems fitting in, or people having problems with identity, anxiety, self-esteem, etc. No help there.

I’ll continue to look for my target audience, although the thoughts I have in my head for my next writing project are about to pop out onto my writing tablet.

My surprise for the day! Check out: http://internetreviewofbooks/holiday09/contents.html

I’m thinking about putting up a Facebook Page. My first thought is, do I really know how to do it? Second, if I puting upteen hours of work trying to figure out how to do it, will it really be worth the time spent? Will any of the people that at connected to me as “friends” or “connections” or simply curious “readers of this blog” who may or, more commonly, may never have posted a blog,” come aboard now as “fans?” To me that implies finding either me or  Becoming Alice brilliant, entertaining, outrageous, or just interesting.

Then the next thing to figure out is what is my “target audience?”  Since most of you that read my tweets, facebook posts, and this blog have remained painfully silent, I don’t really know who you are. Therefore it is really hard for me to talk to all you ghosts out there.

Yet another problem I have is to know which category Becoming Alice appeals to most strongly. I have won awards for my work in both the Teenage/Young Adult categories and the Memoir/Biography catgories. I have received letters and e-mails from people of all these ages, even elderly people. Is there such a thing as a Geriatric Cagtegory? I don’t know what to do. I must find out if I can target at least the two existing categories.

So, if any of you can help me out with this quandry that I’m in, I sure would love to hear from you.

Alice Rene – Skype An Author Network.

I’m so excited about the fact that people are reading my memoir, Becoming Alice. Sometimes I even get a personal e-mail telling me how much they have enjoyed the book. Sometimes I read a review on Amazon.com that pleases me no end. And I also find reviews on a site, www.goodreads.com which posts reviews by members who have purchased and read my book. On that site readers can actually rate my book, as they can on Amazon.

I’ve been lucky to receive mainly five star and five star ratings. This, of course, sends me into a total state of euphoria. However, I have received a two star rating by one particular reader which got me to wondering why she didn’t like my book so much. I checked out her profile and discovered she is a teenager. That didn’t make much sense to me because my book has won a couple of awards in the Young Adult and Teenage Categories in contests that I have entered.

I continued to try to understand the two star rating and so I read the brief review she wrote. She stated that she didn’t understand why Ilse and her Jewish family were in such a panic when Hitler’s troops marched into her hometown of Vienna. She didn’t understand? Didn’t she know anything about the program of extermination of Jews that the Hitler regine instituted shortly thereafter? Didn’t she know anything about the concentration camps that sprung up shortly thereafter? She didn’t know anything about the gas chambers and ovens in those death camps? Doesn’t she go to school? Don’t they teach this stuff in history class? Where has she been?

A lot of people tell me that they are glad I wrote about this little girl Ilse in Europe at this time who was lucky enough not to end up in such a camp and who is still here to write about that story. She was too young to know about those camps, but she was certainly old enough to experience the panic that all Jews felt at that time and to take that fear with her to America where it effected her throughout her entire childhood and adolescence.

Perhaps I should send this young reader an addendum which would explain this history to her.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful! We were invited to a good friend’s house for the festivities and when I asked what I could bring, the hostess’ answer was, “Nothing!” How good is that, I ask you? I trotted off to the store and bought a big box of chocolates for her since I do know that is one of her weakness. The only thing that muted my euphoria somewhat was the fact that I did not spend the day with any of my kids or grandkids. They were all in different parts of the country, each involving the purchase of an airline ticket and going in and out of airports on the busiest weekend of the year. And how would I figure out which house I should go to without offending anyone. Visiting them had to be postponed.

I truly enjoyed the Thanksgiving party not only for the lavish dinner but also for meeting a group of very interesting people. It seems that each one of them had a unique story to tell about their work or their background. The most interesting conversation was with a gentleman who told my husband that his family, although ethnically white Russian, spent much time in Harbin. “Harbin?” my husband said, “My wife has been in Harbin.”

Questions about what each of us was doing in this undistinguished city in China followed, undistinguished except for the fact that the Trans-Siberian Railway ends in Harbin. And if any of you have read my memoir, Becoming Alice, you would know that I have been on that train, and must necessarily gone through Harbin in my odyssay to America.

In time my Russian friend asked why I left Vienna, one of the great cities of the world. I gave him a one word answer, “Hitler,” and realized that he had no idea that I am Jewish. This has happened to me so often that I sometimes wish that my identity could be read on my physical appearance like it can on the face of an African-American or Asian person.  I have been told often, “But you don’t look Jewish.” I wonder what characteristic I must have to look Jewish. And I have heard people say, “But you don’t act Jewish.” I ask you, how do Jews act that makes them different from anyone else?

That brings me to the question for which I still don’t have an answer. Do you have to look like and act like the person you are with to be accepted? Isn’t that what we call bigotry? And what can you possibly do with the person who doesn’t fit into any kind of slot?  We live in a world now where that is becoming more and more the norm. I am grateful that I don’t have that problem. I find people interesting as they are, especially when they are different than I am. I understand myself. I can only learn from those who are not like me.

Just in: “Becoming Alice” is available at 50% discount at the iUniverse Holiday Book Sale until Nov 29th. Use Code: FAMILY 1109 at check-out

Everybody is talking about Thanksgiving this week. My friends want to know if I’m cooking and having the big meal at my house. As it happens, my family lives in all the far corners of the United States and although we’ve travelled to each of their homes over the last few years, we opted to stay home this year. The reason is that we will all be together five weeks later for my daughter’s wedding. And the reports about the expected traffic jams and airline delays have sent shivers up our spines. We are lucky enough to have close friends who have invited us for the festivities, so we don’t feel too bad about not being with family.

In the discussions about the upcoming holiday I learned that all my friends, from whatever ethnic background the may come from, look forward to Thanksgiving. I was amused by my Mexican girlfriend who told me how she was fixing her turkey and all its accompaniments. Along with the stuffing and cranberries, she included tamales and enchiladas. She said she loved Thanksgiving, a holiday in which she could combine both her American and her Mexican culture.

I have many Jewish friends and they without exception call this, namely Thanksgivng, their favorite holiday. You may ask why. Do they serve chopped liver appetizers or matzo ball soup as an entre? Nope. I’ve never seen that done. I think Jews consider themselves Americans and are part of this culture. If they are American born, they have no other culture and if this country has given them sanctuary, they are proud to fit into it with enthusiasm.

What sets Jews apart in America is their religion and Thanksgiving makes no religious destinctions whatsoever. When Christmas and Easter come around, Jews do not celebrate. They do have holidays and festivals of their own which are theirs alone, as do other religious groups.

But is is Thanksgiving which is common to everybody here, a holiday from which no one need to be excuded. No wonder it is a favorite with so many of us ethnically and religiously different Americans.

When I started writing Becoming Alice, a member of my writing workshop told me I’d do well because memoirs were in style. What she meant was that there was a large demand for memoirs at that time and I’d do well with sales. Her comment made me feel like I was selling hamburgers or tacos because drive-ins were becoming popular, or homes and condominiums because the real estate market was hot. In fact I was only interested in telling my story and having as many people as possible read it to learn about the historical era in which I had lived, or to be entertained by the family dynamics in which I grew up, being both pathetic and humorous.

Fast forward just a few years and I am still intrigued by the waxing and waning of the poplularity of different genres in published books. It seems to me that there continues to be a strong interest in books about World War ll, the Holocaust, persecution of Jews, their harrowing  escapes, and the post traumatic stress suffered by them afterwards. The latest  successful books, such as The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak and Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum give testimony to this fact. I may even add my book Becoming Alice, A Memoir to that list in that it has done so remarkably better than I’d ever have dreamed it would.

Now there is another trend that fascinates me. It is the popularity of vampire books that I see being published and being made into movies. On the news last night I learned that the vampire craze is not limited to teenagers; their mothers are becoming equally enthused about this genre. Personally, I don’t get it. It seems to me that one paranormal book is like every other paranormal book and one vampire story is like any other. Obviously I don’t understand the attraction. My only salvation is that I’ve noticed a few readers on the internet posting their impatience with the dirth of books available to young adults who do not want to read vampire stories.

Perhaps there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel yet, and good old Becoming Alice will continue to appeal to many of the silent majority that haven’t gone screaming for their copy of Twilight to their Barnes and Noble stores.