Anita Diamant

I saw Anita Diamant last night. UCSB has this endowment to bring Jewish writers (or prominent Jewish speakers in general) to the campus as a free event. Anita Diamant was the speaker last night. She mostly talked about her new book Day After Night. It was kind of amusing being there because I was one of a handful of "young" people there. I think there was maybe 5 of us? I think maybe only a handful of 30's too. 80% of the audience was 40+ easily. 90% of the audience was female. I sat in front of one of the few males in the audience and he kept going on about how he was one of the only males in the group. Then, when I stood in line to get my book signed, the last guy in line was also the only male in line (getting books signed for his daughters). It's hard to judge the size of the crowd because I sat in the middle and was one of the first people to sit down, but there was probably around 100 people there.

Day After Night is a historical fiction novel about 4 young girls (early teens) who are refugees at Atlit, a British-run internment camp in Palestine after WWII. So she introduced her 4 girls (she read their intros from the book) and also the prologue of the book. Diamant's daughter in high school went to Israel as an exchange high school student and the parents got to go onto the "parent week" version of it. They went to Atlit and Diamant had a kind of connection with it to want to write a book, but it took her many years later before she actually sat down to write it and then it took her over 3 years to write the book. I do see an interesting common thread between authors I've seen speak; sitting down to write is the hardest thing they have to do. They all seem to be "finished" with their novels when it's all over too. LoL They just don't want to see the novel again. Anyway, I guess she went to Israel and Atlit a few more times and did a lot of research for her novel too. It was pretty interesting the whole process she went to writing the book, but I especially liked how she said she likes to write books where there's some redeeming quality at the end. The end of the book may be not be a happy ending, but there's at least a redeeming thing there. I liked that. It spoke about who she is as a person, not just an author.

After her talk (about 45 minutes long) they did a few Q&A and two people got up and said they had family who were at Atlit. One older gentleman said his father was in Atlit for a number of years (7?) and a lady (in her 40's?) said she had a family friend who she called "aunt and uncle" who were also in Atlit. Someone also asked what her day-to-day work is as an author too. The answers are pretty much the same for each other, but it's still interesting how they personalize it. For instance, Anita Diamant used to be a journalist and write monthly pieces. So she's really learned to meet deadlines she sets, which is a rarity for authors (she even admits it). I guess she's hardly ever missed a deadline she's set, which is pretty amazing.

Anyway, I did get a book signed by her. I got the Red Tent signed because it was in paperback. Borders was there to sell the books. :P The poor chums...The sad thing? They had issues on knowing how much money to give back to me in cash. The book was $16.31 (full retail priced book! It hurt... :( ) and I gave them $20.01. They used a calculator (that's fine), but then they had to "confer" to make sure that was the right amount. LoL That was just sad for me. I had to agree and then they were happy and they gave me my change. I guess some of the book proceeds go to the Arts & Lectures program at UCSB. So...I didn't feel SO bad for paying that much. :P

The funny thing is I walked all the way to Campbell Hall, which is about a half mile (little more?). I didn't think about biking and there's a bike rack RIGHT next to the building. *rolls eyes* Oh well. The walk is good for me. I did realize the other day that I bike a little more than 1 mile to get to Bren Hall. That's a LONG walk when I walk it. No wonder it takes me so long. Being on the bike you just don't notice it as much. Last weekend I biked about 6 miles (roundtrip) and it didn't feel like it. The Coast Route Bike Path is REALLY a nice bike path here. It follows the slough/river/whatever it is once the path deviates from the ocean so it's really tranquil. It's also well maintained and has a nice running path right next to the bike path. I actually was biking back to UCSB and passed a classmate who was running the other way. :P

Anyway, with that...Must go!