Join me at this year’s Chalk Fest where you’ll find tents of creative vendors!

The “WE Chalk Festival” is a chalk art festival located in the West End of St. Louis Park, MN. Festival Dates are July 20-21, 2024.
I will also exhibit as a vendor at the Lake Elmo Farmers’ Market on August 17th. Hope to see you there where you can learn about fiction books I write and editing services I provide. Pick up a copy of The Moments Between Dreams novel, and Minnesota Stories, an anthology of short fiction by 20 local authors, including my story, “The Final Game.” I also am taking pre-orders for the next anthology, “Winter” which includes snowy stories penned by friends of the Iowa Writers. My contribution is called, “Iced Out.”

Read how this editor started a career in writing and editing, overcame obstacles, and finally started her own publication, editing and freelance business. See a profile and other change makers in Voyage Minnesota Magazine.

Join me at the book launch / Author Talk to celebrate the publication of The Moments Between Dreams. I’ll sign books and read from the novel, and you can hear more about the themes of the book that takes readers back to the 1940s and 1950s when feminists had fewer options to leave a bad marriage. It also covers the wonders of medicine in treating polio cases, and how a mother empowers her children to follow their dreams and break the cycle of domestic abuse. It’s a courageous story in the heartland, and one that is relevant today. Register here! for the zoom session when Judith Brenner will be in conversation in front of a live audience about her novel, The Moments Between Dreams. This hybrid event takes place Tuesday, May 24, 6:15 pm. Want to attend in person? Visit JudithfBrenner.com Author Website to link to the in-person registration on EventBrite.

I’ve been honored to edit books by three authors this winter that are closer to their path to publishing. From a man’s memoir about his escapades with bears and wolves, to a woman whose memoir covers childhood trauma and a bipolar condition, to a spiritual devotional, I love the variety of work.

While I self-edit my work for several drafts, even after beta readers reviewed a manuscript, I hired an editor through my publisher. The editor reviewed my novel and discovered overused words or unclear passages. Sometimes we know what we want to communicate, but are too close to the subject and read what we think we know it says. It went through a proofreading pass as well. I’m proud to know the product is now worthy of readers who purchase the book, The Moments Between Dreams. It will be at bookstores and on Amazon as well as in some libraries this summer, with a kick-off May 17 when books ship from warehouses across the nation to satisfy preorders. A book launch celebration / Author Talk will be held May 24. Want to hear if this book is a good pick for your summer reading stack? Sign up for the May 24 Book Launch event to get the inside scoop, with Polish pride flare. The book is set in Chicago’s Polish-American community in the 1940s. Today as I post this, I say, “Na zdrowie!” This Polish cheers toast means you send good wishes when you clink a beer or Polish vodka martini with a pal! I will be saying this today while looking up to heaven wishing my late mother happy birthday as I post this. She was a polio survivor who encouraged me to write the novel which reveals tidbits of the struggles she faced as a child.

Why read The Moments Between Dreams: 

    The timely themes of the novel blend a backdrop of war, a virus, and an increase of domestic violence during the 1940s-50s that parallel issues relevant today. The novel follows Carol and her disabled daughter as they rally to walk together, drive a car, work, and gain liberties that women are held back from during the times. A hot-tempered husband/father causes chaos, making an escape paramount.

Visit my author website, Judithfbrenner.com and see the Events page for details.

Novel Title Announcement and Book Cover Reveal!

Watch for Pre-order opportunities at year-end. Endorsements accepted through December 2021. Release date in Spring 2022. Published by Greenleaf Book Group. Join my mail list for updates.

Naming a person in the flesh came easily to me thanks to the baby name books on my shelf purchased while I was pregnant. I named my infant daughter before I met her. I had chosen a backup name in case I gave birth to a boy. I easily named the second baby, having reserved the boy’s name, and only had to dream up a girl’s name, which came in handy. It was a joy to have God surprise me.

Inventing characters in my novel came naturally to me and naming them was easy as their identities came floating down to the page within the setting and era in which they lived. I consulted my old Baby Name books anyway, to see about special meanings. Saying the names aloud, and then tapping them out on the keyboard felt natural: Carol, Joe, Tommy, Ellie. I imagined the characters each looked like their author given names. They lovingly said them in dialog to each other.

Taking my husband’s last name when I married was less natural, since for the first 28 years of my life, I was always a Paprock. Even that name was changed, accidentally, from Paprocki. The latter is a popular Polish name of descendants from Poland living in Chicago. When my great grandfather had his truck painted, his customers noticed before he did that the “i” was left off the end, and his caged chickens rode around the south side of Chicago in the Paprock truck. His sons took on the name when they were registered for school, and any children born since went by Paprock.

Changing my last name from Paprock to Brenner came slowly and deliberately. I kept a separate checking account under my maiden name as a newlywed. I didn’t feel compelled to write Brenner down officially until I needed to renew a government-issued ID. Then when I switched jobs, I was comfortable introducing myself as a Brenner, and noticed that moving up in the alphabet in the office directory had its advantages. I was no longer in the middle of the pack and there were fewer requests about my last name’s spelling.

I named my first fiction novel, “Wheels to Liberty,” back in 2011 when Chapter One was first penned. The original title is a play on words of wheels in wheelchairs offering a sense of independence to get around, like that liberating feeling of having one’s first drivers’ license. The word, liberty, was patriotic during WWII. In the novel, two characters are restricted from driving, and one must use a wheelchair. Today, there are women in the Middle East and living in Afghanistan who are prohibited from driving, or worse. The theme of empowering women to take the wheel stood out to me.

Like my great grandfather’s chicken truck, I’m painting over the title page, but not by accident. It’s time for the novel to grow up and take on a proper name that will resonate with more readers of Women’s fiction. Giving up the original name Wheels to Liberty feels much like the transformation when taking on a new identity. It’s a rite of passage, a milestone, yet it is renaming the same holistic being, if you consider a book to bring a story alive. This debut novel deserves a title that conveys courage and hope in dark times. The chosen keywords will invoke a feeling of promise and intrigue. The title chosen will be one that a reader will want to get to know, and look what’s inside, and by the end, find out what makes this new title tick!

I’ll be unveiling a new title next month and subsequently celebrating the rebirth of this novel after an editing process is complete. I’m in suspense, too! This naming process is more difficult than any process I’ve experienced, and the weight of its importance feels like all others I’ve gone through. At the end of the day, it’s what is inside that counts.