Friday 7 October 2011

When Writing Routines Get Disrupted

With the best will in the world and all of your normal self-discipline you can’t always stick to a carefully defined writing routine. I received an email last night from a publisher requesting what turned out to be another 2000 words on a proposal I’d sent off some months ago. It’s looking promising though a publishing contract is not guaranteed. If it’s ultimately rejected at least some of this work will be useful for the next publisher. When I did settle down to some Potatoes in Spring, I immediately encountered some details that need further research. I know that Clara Lehrs had to leave Stuttgart in 1942 to go and live in a state ghetto. The Stolpersteine web site says that she was able to live in for a while. I can find no trace of a ghetto in Rexingen, though for many years there was a strong Jewish community living there. My mother-in-law often said that her best friend’s mother visited her grandmother in the ghetto regularly. Clara Lehrs was transported to Theriesenstadt in 1942 and this camp is often referred to as a ghetto. However, I can’t imagine visits from the general public being permitted. So, today I’ve had to spend some time looking into that. I now feel a need to visit Rexingen. I’m also going to contact the organisation to see if they can shed some more light on this – and to confirm that Clara Lehrs was indeed transported to Treblinka form Theriesenstadt. However, I have written the first paragraph of the next chapter in the Hani thread. I wrote it remarkably quickly and smoothly. Perhaps a pause has been good. I guess I’ll do a bit more at the weekend. Beats doing the ironing.

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