Shattered Glass serial in Mishpacha

↑ Tova

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 6:44 pm

Hi Riva,

Just wanted to make a small clarification - not everyone on the site is a Jewish mother.

Yael tries to verify that everyone is a Jewish mitzva-observant woman who is currently or has previously been married. But contrary to the website name, it's important to know that not everyone is a mother.

I don't get the Mishpacha (will have to wait for the serial to come out in book form like I did w/ Green Fences) but I enjoyed Breaking Point and Breaking Free.

I did e-mail you through your site after reading Green Fences (I told you my SIL works for Targum and was involved in your book) and YES - you responded almost instantly!

Take care!

↑ chavamom ↓

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 6:59 pm

write on wrote:

Chavamom--Hold your horses. I don't think we can fault Mishpacha for this (and why deprive yourself of a subscription? It's a great mag!). They did the best they could under the circumstances and I don't blame them. Everything has its time, its sha'ah tovah and obviously this was not the right time for full disclosure.

Right. So let's be honest. It's a business. It's not what rabbonim or "daas torah", it's what sells and not offending anyone. While I can understand it form a business point of view, it chaps my hide that this is who is running the show. And sorry, I think I'm perfectly within my right to write a letter expressing such. The voices of righteous indignation that want to bury their heads in the sand are the only ones that should be heard, eh? If you believe that, it makes you complicit.

↑ chavamom ↓

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 7:54 pm

write on wrote:

Ach--now you're darshening me! There are exceptions to every rule.

It's not that I"m "darshaning" it's that here's the problem. If the majority are pleased, why are we hostage to a (very) vocal minority? If rabbonim were consulted, people like the story, well, you can't please all the people all the time. So please the MOST. See how all the rules don't apply? Want to shut someone up in the frum velt? Scream piously. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong, as long as your are loud and self-righteous. When we give in to such bully tactics, it empowers them and makes it less likely for someone to speak up in the future. And that really, really bothers me. What in the world is our society becoming? A society where only PC frumspeak is allowed and anything else is shut-up fast.

Ironically, Rabbi Ya'akov Horowitz had an article this week that touches on some of these ideas entitled "Quit Stomping on Moderation". Of course this will appear in The Jewish Press and not in his Mishpacha column!

↑ fmt4 ↓

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 8:00 pm

Hi Riva! It's so cool to have you here! I loved Green Fences and I think Shattered Glass is still great. I think your writing style is great; I especially loved your Purim spoof! It's so great how you can parody yourself like that.
I don't think you deserve all the slack about changing the course of your story; trying to help people is all well and good, but at the same time this is your parnassah ( I'm assuming you don't just do it for fun, correct me if I'm wrong) and in a realistic world you can't always listen to your creative urges. You gotta pay the bills! I respect you for trying to make everyone happy and changing your story in a seemingly seamless way.
BTW I'm glad Greta accepts my apology for calling her an imbecile, but after reading this week's issue I'm still not sure. I still don't see why she would believe Michal, but I'm hoping there's more to the story...

Oh, I also love your "10 Things" column. Always makes me laugh!

↑ fmt4

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 8:07 pm

chavamom wrote:

write on wrote:

Ach--now you're darshening me! There are exceptions to every rule.

Ironically, Rabbi Ya'akov Horowitz had an article this week that touches on some of these ideas entitled "Quit Stomping on Moderation". Of course this will appear in The Jewish Press and not in his Mishpacha column!

Hmmm...if only this "moderation" policy was followed in his own school.

This part especially is ironic:

"5. Extremism (lack of flexibility in raising children and forcing them into the same mold)"

↑ downsyndrome

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 8:51 pm

Hi Riva - I know that apologies are in order here, from me to you, but I wonder whether professional critics also need to apologize when stating their opinions and reviews. Not that I've been asked to review Shattered Glass, but once you write publicly you are subject to public scrutiny and opinion. Please understand that there is nothing personal within my opinions. I must admit that I was quite perturbed by what I felt was a 'yeridah' in your writing skills. Maybe it was just a bad week for me, with submissions to my own literary project, which were chock-fulla' fluff and very little content. Whilst you explained the need to change direction in the story, I wish there'd still be more of a plot, rather than all this very excitable dialogue (didn't read this week's installment yet; talking about last week's and weeks before).
I do love your 'Take Ten' column and miss it lately. When is it/you coming back?
Re: the public's outrage at Shattered Glass - I have realized something interesting. In yiddish there is a saying, 'Err hut pitter oifen kup', meaning - he feels the heat on himself. I have discussed SG with several people. Those who have menfolk within their close family, and those menfolk are not behaving up to par in terms of erlichkeit, those people are irate over SG. Then again, those people who are surrounded by solid, Torah'diga, erlicha menfolk are perfectly fine with SG. These have been my personal observations.
I have another bone to pick which I'd love to get answers to. Binah magazine had a serial 'Taking Flight' which featured a tension-filled mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. I bit my lip but thought it unfair to lend credence to the old-fashioned, witchey image that undeserving mothers-in-law have earned themselves. There are too many young married women who have this warped misconception that mothers-in-law are the public enemy number one. Okay, that serial finished and along comes Shattered Glass in Mishpacha and once again we have this darling young mother, perfect in every way, struggling with marital difficulty, and a witch of a shvigger to boot!! Why??
Okay Riva, if you wish to retaliate, you can always criticize my writing projects. I publish a magazine.

I still think you're great!

↑ bashinda

Thu, Mar 11 2010, 11:41 pm

Riva Pomerantz is on imamother *faint* *wakes up* Rivka Pomerantz is on imamother? *faint* etc.

Okay perhaps my reaction wasn't as melodramatic as all that but it's so exciting.

That said, I'm not a mishpacha subscriber because it was Bina or Mishpacha and Bina won out. So I get to read your writings infrequently when I happen to pick up an issue. I still remember one story of yours from Horizons about the two fueding women in the apartment and how a neighbor slyly gets them to make shalom. I think that's probably my favorite of everything you've written. I don't really have the patience for serial stories so I'm waiting for the book to come out, IY"H.

I've been checking out a lot of frum fiction from the library and even you in your melodramatic mode is way above some of the fiction I've read. I've read fiction which doesn't seem to understand that a first person narrator can't also be an omniscient narrator. I've read historical fiction that was completely revisionist because of a lack of research. I've read badly written or badly translated fiction and your fiction is a lot more well written than all of that.

I am sad that you were forced to change direction in SG. Even if you say that you're happy with your decision I have a big problem with censorship and sticking our heads in the sand. I'd like to think that fiction could be a forum for bringing up issues we have. If we ignore the problems we have in our communities how can they fix them?0 Fiction is so powerful, and potentially a wonderful tool to explore different issues (as long as it's written well that is.)

I wish you hatzlacha raba with you write and am always amazed at how you managed to write for horizons every month and mishpacha every week and come up with great material as well.

Rubber Ducky

Fri, Mar 12 2010, 1:24 pm

Hi, Riva: I'm so sorry you felt compelled to change your plotline rather than address an important and current issue. I was enjoying the story and had discussions about it with my frum, out-of-the-box son. (In fact, he called you and later met you a few months ago, introducing himself to you on the phone as Betzalel Myers.) I found your abandonment of the original plotline disturbing and forced.

I'd love to see a frum magazine that faces contemporary issues more squarely, but Mishpacha has been better than most. I hope you will at least be able to explore the topic fully in a book.

↑ write on ↓

Sat, Mar 13 2010, 3:17 pm

fmt4, I love you already :-). Thank you!

downsyndrome--I totally understand and agree with you. I'm just looking forward to my next serial! Glad you also like Take Ten; I may be resuscitating it soon, be"H. I find your point about the raw nerve especially on-target. And as regards the MIL stuff, I had no idea that Bina ran a piece on this topic. I'm the last person to knock mothers-in-law, being blessed with a wonderful one myself; my switcheroo into this territory was more borne of necessity than vendetta or agenda. So your irritation is justified and all I can say is just bear with me. Now you have me very curious: which magazine do you publish?

Hi bashinda! So glad you liked that story--I LOVED it, too. The cool part about that story is that it was modeled on an actual, real-life situation, which gave me the idea for the plot. And shortly after I wrote it, Hashem effected a huge miracle and the real-life problem disappeared. It was incredible! Thank you for your very generous feedback about my writing. I hope that despite some valid complaints about the modified plotline, that at least the writing is quality--I think there is value just in good writing, even though a juicy plot definitely helps!

Hi Rubber Ducky! Your son is very special and we really enjoyed having him over (he was just here last week!). He has a very cool name! I can understand your disappointment and also your beef about censorship; I do not disagree with you. We will have to see about the book... Meanwhile, much nachas.

MommyZ, nice to meet you--thanks for saying hi!

amother

Natural

Sun, Mar 14 2010, 7:23 pm

Hi Riva,
So nice to 'meet' one of my fave' authors!
I love the fact that ur stories have realistic plots (not the typical - being adopted / dying or being sick ch"v / or becoming frum!).
Your dramatic flair keeps it suspenseful, yet ur plot speaks to the reader.

Can u clue us in to what exactly Betzalel was up to (or was going to be up to in the original plot?) U were quite evasive about it -I imagine due the readership, kids reading it etc. So what was really going on -was it just questions and doubts in Emuna Betzalel was grappling with or were there 'other' things going on??

On a practical note, with the down turn of the economy and all, I've been wondering how are Betzalel & Huvi supporting themselves now that they no longer have his parents support?!

Write on! Can't wait for the next serial!

Last edited by amother on Wed, Mar 13 2019, 4:40 pm; edited 1 time in total