Have I Told You About My Novel?

I’m at work on a novel. Those of you who know me even a little bit already know that. It doesn’t take much to get me talking about it. All I need is that one little question and I’m off. So, I’ve decided to assume that you’ve asked me about it, because lately it’s all I want to talk about.

She Came By It Honestly is the story of three generations of first-born daughters and the different ways they coped with a shared legacy of trauma. A work of fiction, the story is, at its origin, based on my grandmother’s early childhood. An immigrant to this country, she lost her mother to typhoid fever when she was just a small child. Her father, left alone with two small girls, was forced to make an impossible choice and placed his eldest daughter in the care of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Harlem. Orphanage admission records show that she was admitted to the asylum twelve days after her mother’s death. She was seven years old.

My grandmother shared very little about her experience in the orphan asylum, or the harsh treatment she received at the hands of her stepmother (her father reclaimed her within days of remarrying the following year). She was an indomitable woman and refused to dwell on life’s challenges. She was a survivor to her core.

But she wasn’t a great mother, having never been properly mothered herself. Her first-born daughter was raised to withstand hardship. Affection and tenderness were luxuries that my grandmother could not afford. Thus, her daughter grew up with a need for love and affirmation that only her own first-born daughter could provide, unintentionally raising that girl to be other-focused, people-pleasing, lost to her own needs and wants.

My grandmother’s loss set off a cascade of emotional legacies—a butterfly effect of abandonment and longing—that is at the center of She Came By It Honestly. Writing this novel has been a journey of discovery, and though the scope of the project is daunting, it feels necessary. By the end of 2025, I hope to complete a first draft of the story that has lived in me for so long. I can’t wait to share it.

Thank you for asking.