#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Mark Levenson
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I’d like to welcome author, Mark Levenson, to the blog for #ThisorThatThusday!
A few of your favorite things: My family, my books (that I own, not that I’ve written), my dog, family mementos including my grandfather’s racoon coat (circa 1925).
Things you need to throw out: Nothing. That gives me and my wife something to discuss passionately.
Things you need for your writing sessions: An endless supply of coffee, music
Things that hamper your writing: Anything that’s not coffee or music.
Things you love about writing: When I’m in the moment, it’s a great rush. When readers get what you’re trying to say.
Things you hate about writing: When they don’t, when something that’s important to me doesn’t engage the reader.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Motivation to keep going when the writing isn’t going well, or when life intrudes.
Easiest thing about being a writer: The freedom to write about absolutely anything.
Favorite foods: cholent (go ahead, ask), pecan pie, Brussels sprouts
Things that make you want to gag: starbucks frapo-crapo drinks
Favorite music or song: klezmer, ragtime (especially a tune called Solace), American songbook, classic rock
Music that drives you crazy: that stuff the kids are listening to
Something you’re really good at: puppet theatre, magic
Something you’re really bad at: drawing, team sports
Something you like to do: taking the dog for a long walk on Long Island Sound
Something you wish you’d never done: Wasted all that time not writing
Things to say to an author: What insight you have into the human condition!
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: That last one wasn’t quite your best, was it?
Favorite places you’ve been: Positano, Italy
Places you never want to go to again: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Favorite books (or genre): Mystery (esp Trent’s Last Case), scifi/fantasy (esp Neil Gaiman), Yiddish (Sholem Aleichem)
Books you wouldn’t buy: self-help
Favorite things to do: Walking with the dog (per above), reading a great mystery story
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: helping my wife with home improvement projects
Things that make you happy: my wife and kids, friends, theatre, the morning paper (a real paper, not a website),
Things that drive you crazy: stupidity
About Mark:
His Jewish-themed fantasy writing has won honors from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the American Jewish University, as well as a Union Internationale de la Marionnette-USA Citation of Excellence, an award founded by Jim Henson.
Levenson’s novel, The Hidden Saint (Level Best Books, February 2022), is the culmination of his more than 20 years of engagement with Jewish folklore. Levenson wrote The Return of the Golem and The Wise Men of Chelm for the stage, and adapted S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk for actors and puppets. His Jewish-themed short fiction credits include Mystery Weekly Magazine, Kindle Kzine, and Ami Magazine. He also blogs about Jewish fantasy for The Times of Israel.
Levenson began his career as a reporter for The Miami Herald and Dun’s Review. He has written for New York Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, The Jewish Week, the Associated Press, Puppetry International, Stevens Magic, The American Kennel Club Gazette, The Oregonian, and others. He heads the marketing and PR firm The Levenson Company, whose clients have included Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Cigna. Levenson served as director of press relations for The Wharton School at Penn, and director of public relations for the Oregon Art Institute. He also served on the boards of the Jim Henson Foundation and the American Jewish Committee.
Perhaps Levenson’s interests in fantasy and folklore are in his blood; his paternal grandmother was a magician, “Lightfingers Ida,” whose tutelage sparked his lifelong interest in magic. His great-great-uncle (on his mother’s side) was a strongman in a Russian circus who could hold back galloping horses and survive sledgehammer blows by peasants who smashed rocks on his chest, except for the last time.
Although Levenson’s physique gives no hint of this lineage, it was a circus sideshow that sparked another lifelong interest, that of puppetry. Levenson writes for and about puppet theatre, was guest curator and catalog author for the exhibition “Winners’ Circle” at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, and a contributor to the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry. He was the featured Punch & Judy performer at the Philadelphia festival marking the 250th anniversary of the first performance of that classic puppet play in America.
Levenson was graduated from Cornell University. He and his family (including their adorable pup Roee) live in Westchester County, New York.
Let’s Be Social:
www.facebook.com/marklevensonbooks
