Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/4576127693/sizes/m/in/photolist-

Some years ago, I was asked to set up a creative writing workshop in Tel Aviv for two English authors: Alice Thomas Ellis, a critically acclaimed writer on the UK literary scene with a reputation from the writing courses that she ran in her beautiful home in Wales, and Shelly Weiner, her protégée who accompanied her. Shelley had emigrated to London from South Africa and had already published two novels.

We were fortunate to have the use of Beit Bialik for our meetings and in that atmospheric and historic house, once the home of Israel's most famous poet, we did "our thing".

We were a dozen potential creative writers. Some were experienced; Clive Sinclair, who died tragically at sea some time after the workshop, had been published, another writer has since published two books, and yet another writes frequently and reviews books for Esra magazine. One of the participants was well underway with a book about his family background. Alice and Shelley put us through our paces and we did a variety of things over two and a half days culminating in a swanky reception at the British Council with celebrities like Gila Almagor (a fan of Alice's work) and others.

I personally reflect on it often since I have now reached a point in my life when I feel the need to write about my own life and how it connects to the State of Israel. This 60th anniversary of Israel's existence has stirred up hitherto dormant memories of my own experiences which have paralleled those of the State of Israel. In many ways they have contributed to the fulfillment of my dream to live my life with my family in our own homeland, and also to the enhancement of developments in society.

Since I have not yet plucked up the courage to start my memoir, either as a work of fiction or non-fiction, I am reminded of three points that Alice made during our few days together:

1. That a book has to have a beginning, a middle and an end;
2. That the first rule of writing is that the reader should be eager to turn the page,
3.  That it’s unlikely that an aspiring writer could ever earn more than five thousand pounds after at least a year or more of work.

So there is no money in it unless one is extremely talented or lucky. Maybe the personal satisfaction of putting one’s wildest dreams down on paper… oops, on the computer, and instilling some interest from younger family members is enough. Alice's last words to us were: "The hardest thing of all is to put your backside on the chair and get writing."

I am still looking for the chair.