Alice Rene is the award-winning author of Becoming Alice, A Memoir, a story about Ilse, a six-year-old Jewish girl who watches Nazi troops march down her street in Vienna, Austria. Told from the perspective of a very young child, it chronicles the family’s harrowing escape, their struggle to fit into the American culture, and the added problems of growing up within a troubled family.
Q: What influenced you to begin writing?
A: My grandson interviewed me as part of a paper he was writing on the Holocaust. The plan was for my son-in-law to drop him off at my house and then go to Soule Park to hit some golf balls. However, as he listened to the answers to the first few questions, he remained for the entire interview and never did get to the golf course. Since he found it so interesting, I thought I ought to write about it for others as well.
Q: How has the digital age affected your work?
A: The digital age has positively influenced my writing. I maintain a website, write a blog, and belong to a number of websites that are geared to the reading and writing community. It is a way for getting exposure for my book and also for learning about what is going on in the literary world. For example, the advent of ebooks is now becoming very popular. Knowing this I had Becoming Alice formatted for the Kindle. Also, my presence on the internet has made it possible for people I wrote about in my book to reconnect with me.
Q: In your opinion, why does Ojai entice literary talent?
A: It is no surprise that Ojai has such a concentration of literary talent since it is a haven for all art forms painting, ceramics, crafts, woodwork, dance, music, etc. For example, the annual Ojai Artists Tour in October is very successful as is the Ojai Music Festival in June, attended by music lovers from around the world. It is no wonder then that the community of Ojai would appeal to literary talent as well.
Q: As an author, what does Ojai WordFest and celebrating Ojai’s literary talent mean to you?
A: Having participated in book fares and book festivals in California such as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Sonoma County Book Festival, the Ventura County Book Festival, and others, I know from personal experience that authors, writers, publishers, editors, and others involved in the book business benefit greatly from those functions.
Q: Do you have any advice for future writers?
A: I’d advise anyone who thinks they have something to say, to do it by writing it. Someone once gave me a book entitled, If You Can Talk, You Can Write. I believe in that.
The interviewer, Ryan White, is a former college reporter and editor from Seattle, Washington now living in Ojai.
