North Salem author writes through time in new novel

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

North Salem’s Mara Schiffren has applied that Emersonian philosophy to her recently published work of historical fiction, “The Mistake.”

The fledgling novelist passionately believes that it’s not an author’s job to merely ferry readers from point A to point B in the plot, it’s also to provide enough detailed context so that they feel they are seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling the same things as the characters.

To effectively accomplish that, writers need to tap into their own so-called “sense memory.”

The ability to recall physical sensations attached to emotional events is a conscious process that involves reliving experiences, rather than just remembering them.

Fortunately for Schiffren, she’s packed away lots of actual life experiences in Turkey and Isreal, parts of the world when the novel’s action takes place.

The story’s main protagonist, Marcus, was born into privilege in the ancient Lydian capital of Sardis, a keystone of western Asia Minor and a wealthy mercantile hub. 

But things weren’t exactly rosy for the young lad.

His unwed parents – Julius, a brilliant Roman centurion, and Miriam, who hailed from a prosperous Jewish family – incessantly vied for their son’s affections and loyalty.

When Julius is reassigned to Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, which is located on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, he and Miriam marry.

Marcus, forced to grow up amidst rising tensions between Romans and Jews, becomes the linchpin holding his family together.

It’s at this point that Schiffren introduces Miriam’s brother, Yehonatan, a scholar and merchant who proceeds to whisk his 12-year-old nephew off on a trade expedition.

The pair travel to places such as Ashkelon, a coastal city in Israel that was then ruled by the Romans, where his uncle has an encounter with a governmental official with whom he has a not-so-great history.

Another stop was Yavneh, which nurtured early rabbinic Judaism and was a center of great learning.

Marcus was a very talented fighter, but also really loved studying, said the author.

Once exposed to a society of familial warmth and mysticism, he was finally able to get out of military mode.

Dear old dad simply wasn’t having it.

As pater familias -- the Latin term for a head of a Roman family who had absolute authority over the household and its members -- Julius starts tightening his grip on his errant offspring.

That strategy backfires – spectacularly.

Now a young man, Marcus digs in his heels, putting family unity at stake.

Schiffren said she didn’t want to make Julius -- an army brat himself -- out to be a totally unredeemable bad guy.

As someone who didn’t know his mother, was raised by an aunt, and had a father who died in battle, he had never experienced -- or was able to sustain -- a stable, happy family life.

Julius tries, but keeps on “screwing up,” the author explained, adding that Julius has “got a lot of flaws, but also a lot of depth.”

How was Schiffren able to come up with such vivid descriptions of the places and spaces her characters inhabit?

She was there.

As an undergrad, Schiffren studied Greek philosophy, “more classic than modern, which I didn’t like at all,” she admits.

Besides her forays to Israel, she and fellow grad students had traveled around Greece and Turkey checking out the archaeological hot spots they were studying.

“We compared our theories to the realities of the sites,” Schiffren recalls.

She’s been to Sardis --- where her novel begins – a few times. What she experienced in the fascinating and historical place has never left her.

Stories need “anchors” and “layers,” Schiffren said, explaining: “If you put in what they’re (the characters) are seeing, smelling, etc. they feel like they’re really there.”

The author grew up fencing and playing soccer. (She used to ride horses; but not so much now, though she does appreciate being in North Salem, iconic horsey country.)

Fencing’s a long, long shot from the theatrical – and life-threatening -- one-on-one combat that took place in Roman colosseums, but it does require the ability to make good judgments and quick decisions.

Schiffren was able to use her experience to inform the fighting scenes, of which there’s “a lot” in the first book, she said.

(Wherever she fell short on personal knowledge, Schiffren simply asked combat-savvy folks how they would do things.)

“When you’re writing, a lot of it comes from sense memory,” she emphasized.

Stay Tuned 

Folks anxious to know what happens next in this coming-of-age saga – set against the backdrop of a society on the cusp of change -- will have to put a bookmark in it for a while.

Published by Woodhull Press, Book 1 of “The Marcus Chronicles” dropped in November.

Among the places it can be found online – on Kindle and in paperback -- are amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. 

The plot pauses at just the right point, so while there’s no “big reveal,” it leaves a way to carve a satisfying path forward for the hero, promises Schiffren, who’s currently in the process of editing Book 2.

Mara’s Journey 

The author’s hunger for history – especially of Jewish people like herself – came in a roundabout way.

When she was 10, her family decamped from Teaneck, N.J., to California, where her father was pursuing different career options.

Schiffren didn’t thrive in her new environment. Back on the East Coaste, she had played with everyone on the block. Now she didn’t have many, if any, friends her age.

Once a self-proclaimed “tomboy extrovert,” she turned to reading for emotional solace.

The summer her parents were splitting up, Schiffren’s mom gave her a copy of “Exodus,” a historical novel written by American Leon Uris about the founding of the State of Israel. Telling of the voyages of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus and the people aboard, it became an international publishing phenomenon and the biggest bestseller in the United States since “Gone with the Wind.”

The intent was to help her deal with anti-Semitism, she said, adding that her mother also took the family on a trip to Israel.

That sparked a desire in Schiffren to learn more about the history of Judaism, a topic that many American Jews don’t seem to know much about, she said.

There was so much out there in terms of British historical fiction.

“It’s such a great genre. I didn’t really feel that Judaism had that in terms of history,” Schriffen said, adding that, as an adult, it made her want to write her own version.

She wanted to “contribute” by taking what she liked so much about reading European/British literature and somehow creating a similar genre for “the Jewish world.”

According to Schiffren, historical fiction “makes history a lot more relatable for people. It’s like a half-way house between not knowing anything and actually cracking open a history book.”

After her mother, sister, and she moved back to New York – sans dad, who had gifted her J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 children’s book, “The Hobbit” – Schiffren again felt like a fish out of water.

She recalls becoming “obsessed” with the epic fantasy.

It was very easy to move from that to Arthurian legend, a collection of stories about the adventures of the mythical British ruler, King Arthur, his dashing knights, sorcerers, and magical foes.

Just another little step forward and Schiffren was hooked on British history.

A city was no place for someone who enjoyed nature and being outdoors.

As soon as she could she escaped, a fact that Schiffren finds ironic since she did return to the Big Apple for a while as an adult.

Fast forward to St. John’s College in Maryland and Santa Fe, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

Schiffren also went to Harvard Divinity School, where she earned a master’s of theological studies/religion and Middle East studies, and then to the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where she got her Ph.D. in philosophy and comparative religion/Judaism.

The novel took a long time because Schiffren was dealing with a chronic ailment.

“It ended up working out for the best, which is a strange thing to say. I actually ended up with many gifts from it (the experience),” she said.

Driven by the desire to help others, Schiffren became certified as an integrative psychiatric educator. She is also a functional medicine health coach as well as a trained yoga instructor.

When people are ill, they can get “really constricted and stuck,” Schiffren said.

While in that state, they get used to “settling” and not pushing their boundaries, so it’s a very important part of healing to reverse “that process mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.”

Returning to writing the book helped Schiffren clear out the mental “cobwebs” and get back to her true self.

Over the years, she’s penned articles for multiple academic and news outlets, including Halston Media as a writer of editorials and columns.

Referring to herself appropriately as a “solopreneur,” Schiffren appreciates the flexibility and autonomy that comes with being her own boss.

Her motto -- “Healing beyond boundaries, writing through time” -- unabashedly reflects her duel life passions.