Write What You Know

I talked yesterday about why I wrote KILLER OF KILLERS. One of the wise sayings about writing is to write what you know. Well, I know martial arts, since I trained in it, but, admittedly, that was years ago. I was about to reach the level of brown belt when I quit to pursue other interests. Still, I have a great resource in that my oldest son trains in Ju Jitsu and is a black belt. I have a great access to his dojo, and the senseis (teachers) and the shihan (master teacher) have been very cooperative in advising me throughout the writing process of the book.

When I finished, I was very proud of the book, but I hesitated to delve directly into a sequel, as the writing advisors also say to not write a sequel until the first book is published. But I wanted to get busy, so I decided to write what I know. That would be Ceramics...as in clay. I am a ceramic artist and a ceramics teacher. I had this idea for a story about ceramic vases for a long time, and I decided it was time to put it on paper. Thus, THE VASE was born. It's my second novel, and it's about a Ceramicist in Israel. It's more specifically about a particular vase, thus the title of the book. The complete manuscript is on submission right now. (Fingers crossed.) I won't mind if it gets published before KILLER OF KILLERS. I won't mind at all. (Fingers crossed on other hand, too.)