Most folks consider Friday the 13th as an unlucky day. This Friday the 13th will forever be special to me, as it is launching day for this new blog site. It is an historic day in another way, as the majority of the 450 seventh-grade students at Elizabeth B. Davis Middle School in Chester, Va, will be finishing their studies of Izzy’s Fire, thus becoming the first school to have an entire grade study the book at one time.
Rebecca “Becky” Quesenberry, 7th grade language arts teacher at Davis, decided she wanted to take on a special project in 2011, the year she retires after having taught for 42 years. I owe her, as well as all the other 19 teachers and students who participated in the project, a special “thank you” for honoring my work and for putting so much effort into their studies. It was a privilege to meet and speak with the students and teachers at their school recently. They represented their school very well, asked excellent questions, and made me glad that I hadn’t given up during the seven years I spent writing Izzy. Thanks to one and all. NWB
Congratulations, Nancy, and thank you for now reaching out into cyberspace though a Blog on your important book.
The story about rescue during the Holocaust is most moving on several accounts — the actual rescue of persecuted Jews in war-time Lithuania by righteous Christians; and yet the inability of the majority to recognize and mobilize against the existence of Evil incarnate on earth. But most important, the fact that one dedicated individual writer, who never thought of the challenge in such terms, could resurrect history from the grave so that we all, Jews and Christians alike, could learn an important message for today.
Are we prepared today to commit ourselves to the never-ending struggle against Evil? We did not do so well early on against “Master Race” and its drive for world domination. Will we know better today confronted with “Master Jihad”? Through faith and our actions, are we more capable now to respond to God’s call and trials for humanity’s sake?
Aaron Braunstein
President
Jewish Covenant Alliance, R.A.
Jerusalem
http://www.covenantalliance.org
Nancy! I’m thrilled you are in the blogging world! I love your enthusiasm for life and writing and look forward to following your posts closely. (And Friday the 13th is a special day for me too, as it marks two months of being married!)
Good Luck Nancy! Write on! 😉
Nancy, I cannot congratulate you – and all of us I dare say – enough on this blog. It has been needed, awaited and finally it is here. No doubt it will help to spread the message further. Good luck and let us know how each of us can contribute.
Nancy, congratulation. That’s a great tribute to hard work and damn good writing. I wish you continued success. Love, John Atkinson, author of Timekeeper
Congratulations! Now you can keep in touch with the immediate world! Continued success in all you do and the lives you touch.
How wonderful to keep rediscovering you, Nancy! Those lucky pennies just keep turning up on my path, don’t they? I so enjoy your column each month and am wondering when another book is going to materialize! We’re waiting! No pressure but. . .we’re waiting!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Sammye. I have just completed a young adult historical novel, also set in Lithuania, about a young Jewish boy whose bravery durng the Holocaust was something to behold. I’ll keep you posted.