new memoir

What I Really Miss About Israel, My Heart and Home

January 4th, 2021|Accidental Soldier, dreams, expatriate, new memoir, Sand and Steel, Uncategorized|

Bear with me... I want to tell you about what it feels to be far, so far away from Israel, my heart and home... Each year from the 3rd week in December to the 2nd week in January, I ask myself the same 3 questions: Why is it so cold in Pittsburgh? Why is it [...]

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5 Things I Wish People Understood about Reverse Culture Shock

November 9th, 2020|Accidental Soldier, Israel, memoir writing, mindset, new memoir, travel, Uncategorized, writing|

Six years ago, I self-diagnosed myself with Reverse Culture Shock, or RCS, an emotional displacement syndrome.  I know this because, after 7 years of doing reverse immigration to the States in 2007, I stumbled upon the symptoms of Reverse Culture Shock on an archived U.S. State Department's home page. Suddenly, I felt recognized and validated [...]

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5 Things I Know about What It Means to Celebrate my Jewish 50th Birthday

October 30th, 2020|Accidental Soldier, birth story, memoir writing, new memoir, Sand and Steel, Uncategorized|

Today is my Jewish 50th birthday. Turning 50. Like...wow. What a milestone. 50 years ago on the Jewish calendar, G-d gifted me with life and my mother of blessed memory gave birth to me in New York City Hospital. Just the number itself feels round, full of hope, potential, and promise like the challahs I [...]

The One Thing I Learned about Rejection from 60 Days of Crowdfunding My Memoir

June 26th, 2017|courage, crowdfunding, defining moments, dreams, memoir writing, new books, new memoir, pain stories, Uncategorized|

Today I want to talk a bit about rejection and how it affected me personally as an author specifically with crowdfunding. When I finalized the decision to go the crowdfunding route for my second memoir Sand and Steel: the Spiritual Journey Home, I was a bit hesitant. I had already published an award-winning book called [...]

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The Courage to Take Accidental Soldier on a Book Tour in Israel!

August 20th, 2016|courage, memoir writing, new memoir, promotion, speaking, success, target audience, the heroine's journey, transformation, transformational author experience, travel, vulnerability, writing as inspiration|

Now that I'm back on US soil, I feel compelled to share a report of the She Writes Press Israel edition tour I did for Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces.  General thoughts and impressions: To be at my home country where I did my voluntary service in [...]

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New Book of Courage in the Accidental Soldier Series: Book Blurb Revealed!

July 21st, 2016|courage, defining moments, dreams, faith, mindset, new memoir, the heroine's journey, transformation, transformational author experience|

I'm way beyond excited to share the official news! I'm working on the second book in the Accidental Soldier series. If all goes well, it will be published sometime in 2017. (that doesn't seem a long time away in the grand publishing world of things!) The second book focuses on my displacement as an immigrant [...]

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How The Courage to Send My Son to Sleepaway Camp Changed My Life

June 16th, 2016|courage, defining moments, faith, joy, mindset, new memoir, pain stories, reflective thinking, storytelling, success, the heroine's journey, transformation, vulnerability, writing|

They say that you develop courage when you're thrown into new situations and for the parents among us, our resilience is constantly tested. Especially when we're sending our kids off to summer camp. I've always been a worrier. And a catastrophizer. If you've gotten to know me from my memoir Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of [...]

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Do I Have the Courage to Get Close to these Israeli Soldiers?

April 17th, 2016|courage, memoir writing, new books, new memoir|

Yep. That's the question that concerns me too. But as a college freshman fresh from New York City.  As an author of Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces, I'm revisiting this story again by sharing with you short video "sneak peaks" of each chapter. So here [...]

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The ONE Lesson of Courage I Learned Serving in the Israel Defense Forces

September 15th, 2015|new memoir, pain stories, the heroine's journey, transformation, vulnerability|

Each day as I build my business, I'm constantly making decisions that take me out of my comfort zone. You learn things as you go in less-than-perfect conditions. You feel inadequate, afraid, insecure. There's no guarantee you'll succeed and that can feel scary. Courage is a mindset that when nurtured earlier in life, allows you [...]

Lessons Learned from Serving with the “Enemy” in the Israel Defense Forces

September 9th, 2015|courage, new memoir, Uncategorized|

By the time I was inducted in the Israel Defense Forces on February 12, 1991, I was already making space for "something new," -- learning to coexist with an Israel culture as an American, and yet, I was running on "something borrowed" which turned out to be stale girlhood energy from years past. I'm a [...]

The First 3 Courage Scenes that Didn’t Make It Into Accidental Soldier

August 4th, 2015|memoir writing, new memoir, Pubslush, storytelling, the heroine's journey, Uncategorized, vulnerability|

This coming of age story of transformation and personal growth is uniquely told from a female immigrant serving in the Israel Defense Forces. This post focuses on all the juicy bits - the scenes of courage that aren't in the memoir, from the scary to the unexpected. 1. Learning about mines on the Israeli-Syrian border. [...]

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7 Ways to Have More Courage in Your Life

July 27th, 2015|courage, new memoir, Uncategorized|

A new direction with my site has been brewing for the past few weeks. A new me. Part of me wanted to align the content from my memoir and yet, I'm also wearing all these other hats: radio show host, book marketer for writers and entrepreneurs. So I had a strategy call with my writing [...]

My Memoir on Serving in the Israel Defense Forces: Trying to Fit in with the Sabra Culture

June 29th, 2015|new books, new memoir|

I've often wondered why these sections got the cut, (my memoir had to be pared down to below 100,000 words) and what prompted me to include them in the first place in my memoir Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces. (SheWritesPress, 2016) As I retyped them from the [...]

Lessons from My Memoir on Serving in the Israel Defense Forces: How Cool Are You?

May 21st, 2015|new memoir, Uncategorized|

Just the other day I went to a networking event on a rooftop lounge known as Sky Bar in Pittsburgh. I felt antsy though prepared. It seemed as if everyone knew each other. Each person had a colored coded name tag for his/her industry and it seemed as if everyone was deep in chat. Who [...]

Finding Love in Gaza – Snapshot from My Memoir on My Service in the Israel Defense Forces

January 29th, 2015|memoir writing, new memoir|

I'm an innocent nineteen year old American who decided to leave my hometown of New York City to serve in the Israel Defense Forces mainly to get away from Mom's irrational fear and worries. Everything I've in fact, learned about the Arab speaking world in Israel has been heavily influenced by the media in relation [...]