Here’s a preview page from “Hereville.” These preview pages can have spoilers, so don’t look if you’d rather not see!
(Info on buying Hereville is here.)
Here’s a preview page from “Hereville.” These preview pages can have spoilers, so don’t look if you’d rather not see!
(Info on buying Hereville is here.)
A pig?
Well, if you’re an Orthodox Jewish girl who has probably never encountered a pig before, it would probably be pretty scary.
Also, pigs can be quite vicious.
I love her thought process! And the expression on the pig – priceless!
awesome, that is great – “am I hero or not?” :D
I just ordered my copy! Definitely looking forward to reading it!
Thank you so much, Genevieve! I hope you enjoy it.
And thanks to everyone else for their nice comments too, of course. :-)
Actually very well written — but wouldn’t Mirka refer to herself as a “heroine”?
That’s a good question. Mirka thinks to herself in Yiddish — anyone know if the Yiddish word for “hero” is gendered?
Ooo. That’s an interesting language question.
Yiddish is all Greek to me. (No, don’t think about it.) But in English the line “Am I a hero or not?” seems entirely conversational, whereas the line “Am I a heroine or not?” seems entirely — self-conscious. At the least, I’d want to read some context rationalizing that usage. For better or worse, Mirka aspires to enter the category I label “Heros” (or sometimes “Action Heroes.)” We have male Action Heroes and female Action Heroes, but I can’t recall any context in which I have regarded someone as an Action Heroine.
Then again, I never watched Buffy.
The English word “hero” is masculine. (Yes, it’s occasionally used today in a gender-neutral sense, just as some actresses now call themselves “actors” — but that still isn’t common usage.)
I don’t know Yiddish, but according to one online dictionary (ectaco.co.uk), the Yiddish words for “hero” and heroine” are the same as the gendered German words: “Held” and “Heldin.”
Yiddish, like German, has gendered words. Held and heldin are probably right.
But in the course of looking that up, I learned the most wonderful fact in the universe, which is that there is a dialect known as Scots-Yiddish, which flourished in the early 20th century, including usages like:
‘Aye man, ich hob’ getrebbelt mit de five o’clock train,’
and
‘Vot time’s yer barmitzvie, laddie?’
I can die happy now.
Pigs are damn dangerous animals. An agressive one, especially if it’s in the wild and not domesticated, is not something to be taken lightly.
When my mom was growing up on the farm, their pig ate not only a litter of kittens but also its own piglets. Shudder.
More than one Mafia murder victim has been disposed of by throwing the body into a pig pen.