TAKE A LOOK AT MY ESSAYS.

Jenny Milchman's "Made it Moment"  

How I got Joyce Carol Oates to read the first chapter of my unpublished novel and then some: 

Back in the summer of 2004, after reading that Joyce Carol Oates was giving an author talk at a local library, I decided to print out the first chapter of my novel, Lily Steps Out (Penumbra Publishing 2012), enclose it in a  SASE and bring it to the reading. 

EAST HAMPTON STAR: 

Going Imogi 

I thought I was up on things  when I learned to text. And though my aging thumbs refused to fly across the keypad of my cellphone --treck was more like it--once I got the hang of using the tiny microphone to record, it took only minutes to send a message. Easy as pie. And quick! 

BOOMER CAFE: 

Kaddish in the Time of Covid 19

 When my son died this past November after enduring ALS for nine years, I  said Kaddish for him. That’s the daily Jewish memorial prayer in honor  of a loved one. Kaddish is recited in the presence of a minyan, which  means ten or more adult Jews assembled in one place. I also made it my  business to get up every morning, dress, and drive to my synagogue for  services, sometimes as early as 6:30am. 

FIRE ISLAND NEWS:  

The Gargoyle Hunters

by John Freeman Gill

Fiction

Vintage Books $16.95 

Fact, fiction, funny and sad, “The Gargoyle Hunters” is a story of a city kid growing up in a brownstone in 1974. This isn’t any city kid. This is born and bred New Yorker John Freeman Gill, award-winning and anthologized real estate and architectural writer who turns his impressive knowledge into a novel. Griffin Watts, his fictionalized 13 year-old self, is the narrator.  

Saving Fire Island from Robert Moses:

The Fight for a National Seashore”

by Christopher Verga

History Press $21.99

It may take a village to raise a child, but it took 17 Fire Island villages to take down Robert Moses. It was no small task to tackle the power broker who ruled the roadways with a finger snap in the 60s, but Moses had his hands full when he set his mind on a four-lane highway through the barrier beaches of the South Shore. When you consider his penchant for roads and causeways, you might say Moses was a driven man. I mean that literally—having never bothered getting a driver’s license, he was chauffeured around by state-provided handler

Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem:

Independence Day on Fire Island 

Photography by Susan Kravitz

KMW Studios $34.95 

When Editor Shosanna McCollum asked me to review a book on the invasion of the Pines in Fire Island, I thought deer, ticks and Lyme disease. Not a very upbeat topic to wind down this season’s reviews. What a surprise I was in for!