Category Archives: Serbia

The Need for Obsession

I am a writer.  I am also a tennis player.  (In fact, I have torn the ligaments in my right elbow playing tennis, and in lieu of having Tommy John surgery, I wear a wrist-to-shoulder metal  Bledsoe brace on my … Continue reading

Posted in Annie Darwin, Charles Darwin, death, Einstein, Einstein's children, Einstein's Daughter, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Mileva Maric, obsession, point of view, reading, Serbia, writing, Zurich | 1 Comment

Grappling with Gaps in the Record

In keeping with my resolve not to change the historical record where it exists, I still wrestle with how to handle the gaps.   The writing of fictional biography gives me some license, of course, but I mostly interpret that to … Continue reading

Posted in Auguste Forel, Bulgholzli Psychiatric Hospital, Eduard Einstein, Einstein's Daughter, Fictional biography, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Marija Maric, Michele Zackheim, Mileva Maric, Milos Maric, point of view, reading, schizophrenia, Serbia, writing, Zorka Maric, Zurich | 2 Comments

How much of this is true?

For the second time since I began writing fictional biography, someone said, “But how am I to know what’s true?”  My answer is that the scenes are made up, the dialogue, the emotional movement, but the settings are as real … Continue reading

Posted in Auguste Forel, Darwin, Einstein, Fictional biography, fictional truth, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Milos Maric, reading, Serbia, Stein am Rhein, writing | 2 Comments

An Exercise in Point-of-View

I’m working on a scene where it’s hard to understand Einstein’s behavior.  It’s mid-July, 1901, and Mileva is about to re-sit her exams at the Polytech, having failed them the summer before.  It’s her last chance to pass, and, oh-my-god, … Continue reading

Posted in Einstein, family members, Fictional biography, historical fiction, Mettmenstetten, Mileva Maric, Pauline Einstein, point of view, Serbia, Switzerland, writing | 3 Comments

German Jewish Family Values

Additional research–my thanks to Marion Kaplan for her book The Making of the Jewish Middle Class–reveals that as laws in Germany allowed Jews freedom to join the professions and become upwardly mobile, the German ideals of cleanliness entered the Jewish … Continue reading

Posted in Marion Kaplan, Mileva Maric, Pauline Einstein, reading, Research methods, Serbia, writing | Leave a comment

Serbianism

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Posted in reading, Research methods, Serbia | 1 Comment

Serbia! (It Isn’t England)

One of my challenges with this book, in addition to getting a sense of all the physics, is that I have not yet visited the countries important to the principal persons in the text.  Generating scene tends to be very … Continue reading

Posted in Asne Seierstad, Mileva Maric, reading, Serbia | 2 Comments

Serbia! (It Isn’t England)

One of my challenges with this book, in addition to getting a sense of all the physics, is that I have not yet visited the countries important to the principal persons in the text.  Generating scene tends to be very … Continue reading

Posted in Asne Seierstad, Mileva Maric, reading, Serbia | Leave a comment