Libi Astaire's Blog

If you haven't yet read The Vanisher Variations, the fourth volume in my Jewish Regency Mystery series, here's a chance to win a free ecopy. Just head over to Suzanne Adair's Relevant History blog, where my post about diversity in Regency England is being feature this week, and leave a comment. Your name will then be entered in the drawing. See you there and good luck!

Add some laughs to your Chanukah lights with this Chanukah-themed, Agatha Christie-inspired ebook: The Latke in the Library & Other Mystery Stories for Chanukah. Included are these four short mystery stories: The Latke in the Library, Evil Under the Wick, And Then There Were Gornisht, and The Olive Cracked. And the ebook is just 99 cents through the end of December.
Happy Chanukah!

What is a Jewish Regency Mystery, and how did the Earl of Gravel Lane get his name? Join Elise Abram and me for this fun interview over at her blog, BritBear's Book Reviews.

So, what do Chanukah candles mean to you?

When The Jewish Press asked me to provide an answer, I was honored to be asked - and delighted to have an opportunity/excuse to take a few minutes from the usual hectic running around and stop and think. What does Chanukah mean to me?

To see my answer, as well as responses from Mayim Bialik, Alan Dershowitz and others, here's a link to the article.

I'd love to know what your Chanukah candles mean to you. Chanukah Sameach!

Every once in a while I’m contacted by an aspiring author of historical fiction who wants to know how she (or he) can make the historical research faster and easier. Fortunately, the contact is usually made by email or phone; that way they can’t see me silently shake my head in dismay. Yes, we’d all like to be more efficient. But if I were to try to save time, I’d cut back on the time I spend on Facebook and Twitter. The time I spend doing historical research—even when it seems like I’m getting nowhere—usually turns out to be pure gold.

An example: A few weeks before Chanukah, I decided to research how Jews living in Regency England celebrated the holiday. Did they have any special customs or foods? Although my primary goal was to come up with a nice blog post, I figured I could also use the information in my Ezra Melamed Mystery Series, which is about—you guessed it—Jews living in Regency England.

Several fruitless hours later, my research seemed to suggest that either Regency Jews didn’t celebrate Chanukah or that they fasted for the entire eight days. In other words, I couldn’t find a single thing. Even my usual trustworthy source, Lady Judith Montefiore, author of the first kosher cookbook published in English, "The Jewish Manual," let me down. While she lists recipes for other Jewish holidays—such as Passover and Purim—there’s not a word about Chanukah, let alone a recipe for potato latkes (pancakes).

It was already late at night when I finally discovered my first clue that Jews living in Regency England—or, to be more precise, Georgian England—did indeed celebrate Chanukah.

To read more, head over to D.B. Schaefer's blog.

Two hundred years ago, London's Jewish community was all aflutter - and for good reason: the Royal Dukes were going to pay a visit to the community's Great Synagogue. To learn more about that special visit, head over to author Suzanne Adaire's Relevant History blog, where I'm this week's guest author.

Leave a comment by Friday July 18, 2014, and you'll be entered into the giveaway for my latest historical mystery, The Doppelganger's Dance.

Last night I was cleaning my office, in preparation for Passover. For those who don’t know, during Passover we Jews are forbidden to have in our possession even a crumb of leavened bread. Therefore, during the weeks before the holiday begins we give our homes a thorough cleaning. Since I don’t eat at my desk, I wasn’t looking for stray cookie crumbs or bits of pretzel lurking in my desk drawers. I also didn’t expect to have to do more than a dusting and a quick swipe of the computer keyboard. Yet by the end of the evening—so much for a light dusting!—I was once again amazed by how much can be learned from cleaning for Passover. So, here are four insights into how that cleaning is a lot like writing:

1. There’s Always Something to Edit--I’m not a Passover-cleaning newbie. I’ve been through these desk drawers before. I know that everything in every single drawer is essential. If it won’t be used today, then it will be used tomorrow or sometime during the year. So how did I end up with two very full king-sized garbage bags that had to be dumped at the end of my cleaning session? Drawers, I discovered, are like paragraphs. Just as I don’t need three maps of Tel Aviv scattered about my office, I don’t need three sentences that say the same thing scattered about a page. Lesson: Don’t be smug; every chapter or article can be pruned and improved.

Read the rest over at my blog.

I recently did an author's interview over at BookGoodies, and one of the intriguing questions was this: Do you talk to your characters?

You can read my answer here.

But how about the rest of you fiction writers? Do you talk to your characters?

I admit that when most people think of Regency-era mysteries or novels, they don't think of technology. Gorgeous fashions, great houses filled with eligible dukes and fawning servants, the obligatory trip to Bath, an occasional visit to the seamy parts of London town - these are the usual elements of a Regency story. So perhaps I was taking a risk when the fourth volume in my Ezra Melamed Mystery Series begins with a trip to Leeds to see the new locomotive designed by Murray and Blenkinsop.

But then I saw that the Jane Austen Centre's Newsletter #104 has an article titled Georgian Era Iron Horses: The Advent of the Steam Locomotive, and it was great to know that I'm not the only one interested in such things. The article gives a nice overview of the steam locomotive's history, so do give it a look if you're interested in the history of technology too.

But it's not very likely that Jane Austen would have traveled on one of these early locomotives. The only "passengers" carried by the one that I mention in The Doppelganger's Dance is coal!

This year the first day of Chanukah and Thanksgiving coincide. With so much going on, who will have time to read a collection of Jewish stories?

Allow me to suggest 8 reasons why you may need 36 Candles: Chassidic Tales for Chanukah this year.