Katiaesque

  • Happy Holidays, Whatever It Is You Celebrate!

    Next week, I’ll be talking more about the 31-minute challenge, which I am delighted to report, really seems to resonate. In the meantime, though, tomorrow is the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that celebrates faith, miracles and freedom. Time to rescue that menorah and  buy a humongous bag of potatoes for the latkes. As for…

    Katia Raina

  • A Drifiting Friendship And A Giveaway

    Nothing is constant in the Universe,  except change, great philosophers say. (Change — and love, I would add — sorry Heraclitus!) Have you ever experienced these changes when it comes to friendships? What was the longest friendship you have ever had — and have you managed to keep it going strong through the years? What…

    Katia Raina

  • Nuclear Memories

    Ever since the nuclear crisis in Japan first unfolded, neighbors and friends have been asking me: “Does this bring back memories?” I was an unsuspecting eight-year-old Soviet citizen living in the Ukraine when on April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor ruptured in a series of explosions in the small city of Chernobyl some 155 miles…

    Katia Raina

  • How to celebrate the New Year, Russian-style

    Since Soviet Russia wasn’t allowed to officially celebrate Christmas, we had to have some other major holiday. And it had to be big. Huge. BETTER than Christmas. Thus was born the Soviet New Year, honestly THE BEST holiday EVER. Think Halloween with its costumes and candy. Add to it Christmas with its dressed-up evergreens and…

    Katia Raina

  • “No Country Is Safe From Totalitarianism:” An Interview With Author Gloria Whelan

    The most amazing thing to me about Gloria Whelan is her incredible versatility and productivity. She has written dozens of books set in times and places as varied as Vietnam, Communist Russia, 19th century Michigan and ancient China. Through all that, her writing is never bogged down in research. Her stories are first of all that — stories. And she tells them…

    Katia Raina

  • I am NOT a KGB Spy!

    I have so many great things here in the wings, more awesome contemporary historical fiction titles to share with you, great interviews I have lined up for you, a torrent of thoughts on my writing adventures, my super-duper list of the greatest-ever contemporary historical fiction titles coming along nicely, in fact almost done . .…

    Katia Raina