Photo by Amy Goldstein Photography
Books:
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BIOGRAPHY:Edith G. Tolchin, proud mother of Dori and Max, is married to Ken Robinson. They currently live in New Jersey. She has written non-fiction material for many years, including a business-lifestyle column for an upstate New York newspaper, Orange Magazine, Hudson Valley Life, WebMD, Bottom Line Personal, and Entrepreneur, and she’s been a columnist for Inventors Digest since 2000. She’s the author and editor of Secrets of Successful Inventing: From Concept to Commerce, as well as co-author (with Don Debelak and Eric Debelak) of Sourcing Smarts: Keeping it Simple and SAFE with China Sourcing and Manufacturing. Edith's latest book, Fanny on Fire, is a finalist in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Fiction Humor category.
As the owner of EGT Global Trading since 1997, she works with inventors to bring their dreams to life. Edie’s thirty-year kitchen obsession has helped her perfect such delights as Grammy Jane’s Jewish Penicillin, Latkes to Die For, and Brisket with Secret Sauce. She craves the chaos of crashing dishes, the clean-up calisthenics from pots boiled over, and the challenging of senses with strange odors and tastes, all of which evoke unique Yiddish profanities. Stay tuned for the further hilarious adventures of Fanny Goldman, her hubby, spicy Solly Rabinowitz, and the colorful outliers who enrich their lives and, hopefully, yours! L’chaim! |
Eleven Questions:
Describe Your Desk:
I actually have two desks. My writing desk is on my dining room table, with my laptop catty-corner to my hubby’s. My hubby, Ken Robinson (AKA Solly Rabinowitz in Fanny on Fire), is a web developer who’s been in IT for over forty years, so laptops on the dining room table are a given. Fanny on Fire was written at that dining room laptop over a period of three years. There are loose paper reminders and Post-it notes all over my area which we do clean up when we have guests for dinner.
My second desk is in my office which I share with my cat, Missy-Pups (she thinks she’s a dog). It’s upstairs, but I only use it for my home-based business, EGT Global Trading. This business has been playing second-fiddle to my writing for at least the past three years. There are loose papers and Post-it notes all over this desk as well. Fanny will tell you that, at a certain age, these reminders are an essential part of life. No electronic reminders for Fanny!
My second desk is in my office which I share with my cat, Missy-Pups (she thinks she’s a dog). It’s upstairs, but I only use it for my home-based business, EGT Global Trading. This business has been playing second-fiddle to my writing for at least the past three years. There are loose papers and Post-it notes all over this desk as well. Fanny will tell you that, at a certain age, these reminders are an essential part of life. No electronic reminders for Fanny!
What's the Story behind your latest book?
Fanny on Fire began in 2014 as a memoir. As I wrote, I researched the various book types and found—at least nowadays—that one needed a large platform (and tons of controversy!) in order to be published with a memoir. While I’ve had three non-fiction books published in the past, I still did not have a large platform, at least where social media was concerned. Also, as Fanny evolved, I found myself changing events and creating strange, funny, and absurd scenes to add to actual events that happened throughout my life. So, while a good percentage of things that happened to Fanny Goldman really did happen to Edie Tolchin, I changed names to protect the guilty and added bizarre events that could only happen in fiction. It’ll be a guessing game for readers to try to figure out what’s fact and what’s fiction. Either way, I hope they enjoy the ride!
What is the greatest Joy of Writing for you?
Although I have written for the past twenty-plus years, it’s always been non-fiction. My first three books were non-fiction. When Fanny was born, I discovered the love of pretending and letting my mind wander into comedic and unexpected situations. Therefore, I would say comic relief is the greatest therapy to everyday happenings that might not always be fun. Always expand the borders of the outrageous and follow no rules!
What are you working on next?
I’m currently loving scouting out further wacky adventures of Fanny and Solly for a sequel. I hope this one doesn’t take another three years because I fear I’ll run out of creative juices! In my spare time, I still interview inventors for a monthly column for Inventors Digest and help inventors’ dreams become a reality via EGT Global Trading, which I’ve owned since 1997.
What is your writing process?
I am an outlier. I don’t have a writing process! I write whenever the spirit moves me. If I fear I’ll forget a particularly funny scene I’ve just envisioned, I run to my dining room laptop and start writing. And this can be any time of day—whether at four a.m. or eleven p.m. Fanny suffers from insomnia, after all!
Who are your favorite Authors?
Herman Wouk, E.L. Doctorow, Philip Roth, and Erica Jong. All special New York authors in a class of their own.
What do you read for pleasure?
I love memoirs of the glitzy, glam Hollywood variety, as well as those of country music stars and rock stars of the seventies when I grew up. Music is always playing—loudly—in my house. When you read Fanny on Fire, you’ll learn why!
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in the Bronx, New York. While this didn’t influence the first twenty years of my (non-fiction) writing, growing up in New York City has been a huge part of the story of Fanny on Fire. You can feel the big-city grit and balls in almost every page and in all of the dialogue.
When did you first start writing?
In school, I despised writing. I graduated as valedictorian of my high school class as a reluctant writer. In college, I wrote in Spanish. This was over forty years ago. I began to write professionally about twenty years ago.
Do you remember the first story you ever read and the impact it had on you?
While I don’t remember the first story I read as a child, Fear of Flying by Erica Jong in the early seventies probably made the biggest impression when I was already a young adult. I learned it was okay for women to speak their minds and act like men did every day. Those were the early days of “women’s lib.” Fanny on Fire reflects much of this attitude, belief and way of life throughout.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
First, to see my family happy and healthy. Second, to rush to my laptop with a comical, zany scene on my mind before it leaves me and gets flushed down the toilet of lost brainstorms.
