I had to write an application to the fox writer’s program…on why my writing has  a diverse voice and should be considered:  I thought I would copy most of it here.  I was rushed to write it — and not sure this would be relevant….but here it goes.  it’s my blog so i guess i can post whatever ….(???)

I was born a first generation American of parents who both fled Nazi Germany as survivors.

I am also a survivor.

I want this opportunity to be a part of the Fox program and the mentoring it offers.  I also want to eventually mentor other writers if I am given this gift.

My mother speaks 8 languages and always taught us about the voices of the world.  She survived the war mostly because she was smart, and lucky. She tutored non-Jews in her high school class and one of those non-Jew’s parents hid her. She hid in a barn for two years, saving the lives of her two younger sisters and two other friends–hunger and fear are two things she lived with continuously.  But she fought to live because her dream was to finish her education. After a long journey and several attempts in Europe, she made it to the U.S and graduated college.

 My father  was “lucky” — his mother put my father into the rafters of his home and as a boy he witnessed the Nazis take her and his sister away below him.  At the time he was the “man” of the house. He survived by joining the partisans.  He lived in the forest for two years, and in the last year of the war joined the Polish RAF because he wanted to fly  Spitfires.    Poles turned in or killed Jews–it was unimaginable that any Jew would want to fly Spitfires, so he pursued his dream and did that.  He climbed the Brenner Pass into Italy in the dead of winter in shoes with four other men.  He was the only one that didn’t turn back.

My mother and father always taught me to fight for my dreams.   I became a career prosecutor to fight for what I perceived to be the rights and wrongs in the world.  To exact justice.  I have long since given up on a belief in justice.  I am not sure it exists.  I took a job as a public defender, where I represented indigent criminals and got to see another side–why people are driven to commit crimes.  Walk a mile in someone’s shoes and all that.

The script I have attached as a writing sample is actually my story of a year in the public defender’s office fighting another kind of justice – to make people prove crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. I was a Deputy District Attorney in Philadelphia and here in California where I specialized in the prosecution of gang cases. I hope you will see my years as a criminal lawyer have made me an imminently eligible candidate as I have seen many diverse stories told in real life on both sides of the law and from many cultures and walks of life.  Moreover, as a trial lawyer I had to always engage a jury or judge in ideas and mostly in a story. A winning lawyer is one who can enchant the jury with a story.  A theme is essential as is the element of surprise.  Juries nowadays watch T.V. religiously so they expect magic in these stories.  One must dig deep to humanize a criminal or victim – to bring the story to life – to find the truth behind the superficial and to engage the listener to care.  To sell a concept to a jury is much like pitching to TV executives.

 

what do u think of that???? OKAY SO I HAD A WORD DEADLINE….

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