I'd like to begin with a shout-out to my followers (yes, you!)---I don't check my site stats all that often, but I've been putting together agent queries and I was thrilled to discover that my blog has received over 10,000 visits! To all of you who continue to frequent the site, thank you. It means more to me than you…
Can it be--August already? What a summer it's been. Mine (in a nutshell) has entailed exploring Nova Scotia's seaboard with family, cavorting with friends in Charleston, beach-hopping with Wyatt in Rowayton, tackling boatloads of travel writing assignments, and, of course, pushing to complete a second round of edits to my manuscript. Dvora said her mother…
Well folks, I'm mid-way through a second round of book edits, and if I squint hard enough, I think I can see the finish line! A pre-war ad for my grandparents' fabric store in Radom. Translated: "Silk goods, woolens and cotton, ladies' and men's, and a great range of curtains and caps,…
Last spring, I contacted the Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in DC, in hopes of tracking down some family records through the International Tracing Service (ITS), a German archive containing ~3o million WWII/Nazi-era documents. I submitted five separate inquiries, one for each of the Kurc siblings. I never heard back, and after a month, I marked ITS on my list…
Greetings, friends! I'm sure many of you are as reluctant as I am to bid summertime adieu---although I must admit, I'm looking forward to some downtime this fall. Robert, Wyatt and I have been moving nonstop, it seems, hopping between family reunions, horse shows, adventure races and ultrasound appointments. Turns out the reason I've been so…
Greetings and happy 2013! I hope you're as excited as I am for what the new year has to bring. #1 on my list of resolutions this year is to complete a draft of The Lucky Ones by summertime. Wish me luck! I left you last with a snapshot of life for the Kurc siblings in December of…
Last April, I received a letter from the Memorial Center in Moscow---an organization I contacted in hopes of tracking down additional information about my great-uncle Genek, who was deported from Poland in 1941, along with his wife Herta, to one of Stalin's Siberian gulags. The letter I received from the Memorial Center in…
Neck deep in research on Stalin's Siberian gulags, I was consumed with the burning question of how and why Genek and Herta were sent off to Siberia in the first place. By recommendation of the Kresy-Siberia Foundation, I contacted Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Amazingly, I heard back right away---not only did Hoover have a record of Genek's name, they had…
After six weeks of squatting with friends and another six weeks of tackling travel writing assignments and endless piles of boxes, we're (nearly!) settled in our new home...which means, at long last, I can return to my book. Inspired by a recent visit from my cousin-once-removed, Michel (visiting New York from Brazil), I thought I'd…
"I wasn't the only one in the family with multiple identities," Ricardo said when he'd finished explaining the story behind his two birth certificates. "During the war, my parents went by the name BRZOZA." Ricardo's father, it turns out, was part of the Jewish Underground. He made false papers. "How?" I asked. "He replicated the stamps…
Dear family, friends, and followers of The Lucky Ones, Exciting news on the home front--Robert and I have welcomed a new branch to our family tree! Thomas Wyatt Farinholt ("Wyatt") arrived on November 23rd, just over three weeks early (in true Kurc fashion, he's already on his own schedule--determined to take fate into his own…