Episode 103: Lynda Cohen Loigman, bestselling author of The Matchmaker’s Gift
Lynda Cohen Loigman talks about her latest novel, THE MATCHMAKER’S GIFT, a dual timeline story set between 1910 and the 1960s. She talks about the real-life stories that served as the initial spark of inspiration for the plot, how each of her novels, though under the umbrella of historical fiction, has its own personality, and how her daughter coming home from college in the midst of a pandemic sparked this story. In addition, she shares great advice for writers and we share lots of laughs.
We chat about what her research looked like and four of her favorite books she’s read lately. Lynda also shares the best advice she has for aspiring authors.
Books Mentioned:
The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Ways We Hide by Christina McMorris (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Sweet Spot by Amy Poeppel (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Hotel Laguna by Nicola Harrison (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **
Ashley Hasty 0:00
Well, Linda, thank you so much for joining me. I am so happy to have you on the best of women's fiction podcast.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 0:06
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you and see you. I haven't seen you in person in a long time. So it's like very thrilling to see you. In clear screen. 3d ish.
Ashley Hasty 0:18
It has been a long time probably pre pre pandemic, I think. Yeah, so I guess this is the next best thing until we can find time to fit together. Absolutely. Well, let's kick off by telling our readers what the matchmakers gift is about. So can you put in your own words what the, your latest novel is?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 0:39
Sure. This book is about a sort of early 1900s turn of the century. Matchmaker, a female matchmaker living on the Lower East Side, who discovers at a very young age when she's just a girl that she has this sort of gift for seeing who another person's soulmate might be. So she just the first time it happens, it's with her sister, she sees sort of like a thin line of light connecting her sister to someone else. And she practices this gift for many years. And she has a granddaughter, you know, many, many years later, who seems to have inherited this gift. But it's very problematic because the granddaughter is a divorce attorney and a very cynical about love. So that that's a that's a difficult kind of challenge for her to have. And she and they're just records really of the matches that her grandmother has made. And as she goes through these records, the stories that her grandmother told her when she was younger, sort of keep popping back into her head, sort of very reluctantly and unwillingly at first gets involved in this unfinished business. So that's sort of the story. And nutshell,
Ashley Hasty 1:48
this is your third novel following two family house and the wartime sisters, all historical fiction. So what draws you to write in the historical fiction genre?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 1:58
Honestly, Ashley the firt. My first book, I didn't know that I was doing it. I wrote, When I wrote the two family house, it was really a story that had been in my head and in my heart for like, 15 years. It was inspired by my mother's by the house, my mother grew up in a two family house that my mother grew up in. And it was just a family story. To me, it was a family story. It was a story about sisters in law, it was a story about choices that they made. And yes, it was set in the 50s. But it wasn't I don't know, I didn't if you said to me, What are you writing I would have said this family story about these people living in this two family house i and then it's really only after the book was getting ready to come out and they put it on all of the places where you can find books, Amazon Good Reads, and it was categorized, you know, someone said that historical fiction, and I thought, Oh, I guess I wrote historical fiction. I really, I honestly didn't even know the wartime sisters was definitely sort of a more serious historical fiction because it was a war time story not about the War World War Two but uh, but uh, Homefront story, but that one was that one for sure. I knew I was writing historical fiction, right? This one is New York City lower Eastside, early 1900s. Absolutely historical, lots of historical research, but it has that thread of magical realism in it also. So it's a little bit you know, there's a little bit of something different in this book.
Ashley Hasty 3:24
I love how each book has its own, either, like personality within the historical fiction genre, like one's much great story. One is more of a traditional sort of war time story, even though it's not about the war, and then the magical realism of this one. So the umbrella of historical fiction, but like touches of other genres, and each one.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 3:45
Yeah, it does. Thank you. Yeah, it does have that it's writing about the present, seemed really daunting to me at first, when I first started to write and I feel like my sweet spot in writing is the past always there's something there's a richness to the past, maybe could because we're, you know, we're not living in it. And there's something about it that feels deeper, richer than just writing a story, you know, set in 2022, which I've never done. I've never written a modern day story. Maybe eventually, I will. Yeah, actually, I will. I think I used to get really hung up by the technology. And I thought I had to include, you know, phones and computers and stuff. But really, a story set in the present doesn't have to have all those things. The past definitely feels like the sweet spot for me. So.
Ashley Hasty 4:38
So to paraphrase Casa Blanca, of all the stories and all the world, what made you write this one? What was that initial spark of inspiration that led to this novel?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 4:48
Like so many stories coming out? This year? This book was written during the pandemic. I was actually working on a different story in March of 2020. And she got sent home college shut out. And when she came home her roommate came home with turned out to be such a blessing in our household. daughter's name is Ellie, her roommate is a Dell, I was living in this like House of men like it was me with my husband and my son and my dog all male when the girls came home, and I'll call them girls, even though they're young women, so when they came home from college, it was a whole different energy in the house and a whole different conversation around the dinner table. Because first of all, they were in literally in college like so they were taking classes all day long. And they had a lot to say. And they were used to living in in a, they're both really bright, very driven, very academic girls. And so they were used to having dinner at night and talking about their classes. And so that's what they did. So the conversation around the dinner table was really elevated and very different. And we also started talking a lot about women's issues, because here we were with, you know, women around the table. And we talked about the some of the things they were facing within the classroom, things they were concerned about going out and into the working world, I was reminded of certain things that had happened to me in college and things that I had faced. And so there was that layer sort of underneath that I was thinking about a lot. At the same time. We were binge watching all the shows, right, all the Netflix shows. And one of our favorites was something called Indian matchmaking, which was on Netflix. And Adele said, you know, my grandmother used to be an Orthodox Jewish matchmaker. And I said, Really, and then she pulled up this article in The New York Times about her grandmother with a picture of her grandmother. So that article like from the 60s, and there were all these file cabinets by the grandmother, because that's where all these files were that she kept her matches, like I thought about it for a couple of days. And I just asked her like, I really kind of feel like I want to read a matchmaker story about a grandmother and a granddaughter. It's not going to be about you and your you know, but I would How would you feel about that? And she said, you know, like, that'd be great. You should write it. Go ahead. So this idea of the journals, originally, I was thinking they would be filed that you know, it'd be like a file cabinet, but a file cabinet, sort of an unwieldy, I don't know, the journal seemed a little bit more personal than than the file cabinet. But I really do still love that image of the file of this woman standing in these file cabinets. And for a while I was like the spark came from. That's how it started.
Unknown Speaker 7:22
I love that I
Lynda Cohen Loigman 7:24
really would have loved to have met adults grandmother, she found me. Yeah, Adele, and Ellie, my daughter, and they were I just both I saw them both for really pretty weekend. They were both visiting. So that was really fun. Yeah.
Ashley Hasty 7:39
Well, you know, I love history. And my favorite part of the writing process is research. So I always like to inquire about an author's research process, especially since it was written during the pandemic. So what was your research process? Like? Were you able to travel? Did you develop any favorite resources?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 7:58
I couldn't travel because it was really in the in the early stages. But the first part of the question that I had to answer, the first sort of hurdle to get over was what time period was I going to choose? Because, again, if I was going to, you know, is it's a dual timeline story, I knew immediately that it was going to be a dual timeline story. And so the question is, what are the time? What time periods are we talking about? And I thought for a while, you know, should I do the 1960s? And the present? Should it be in that same time period that, you know, Adele told me her grandmother was working in the 60s? Let me research let me kind of figure it out. And what I found in the course of my research was No, it has to be much earlier because there were so many fascinating, it's in pieces in the early 1900s on the Lower East Side. So I knew that that I was going to go much further back, I found some great resources. The Tenement Museum had great online online resources and the Jewish Museum, the museum at Eldridge Street, the New York Public Library, the New York Times, I love to go through just the New York Times, you know, the archives and look for things. So I found a piece I think it was the Tenement Museum. It's called Love on the Lower East Side. And it talked about the matchmakers in that early you know, the 1910s 1920s One of the things that I found very early on was a reference to a wedding that was covered by the New York Times. That was the wedding of this met. He was his bit he had a pickle business like the pickle man like in crossing Delancey. And they called him the pickle millionaire, and his pickle millionaire's daughter got married, and there was this New York Times article. That was the most amazing article. I can send it to you but it the best one was like the smell of orange blossoms and lilies from the bouquet mingled with the scent of pickles and pickled herring. Like it was so just visual and sensual. Just all the senses sensual. Like you could see it you could you felt like you were at this wedding, and there were 2000 people in the street. It's on Rivington Street. And the police have to come to help guide the carriages and the crowds like for the pickle millionaires daughter's wedding. So of course I had to include in my book, I have the pickle King. I have a man who is the pickle king and his daughter is one of the matches. But I had, you know, that was fascinating. And then I read about a lot of food I read about the condition war, which was like the kennish War of 1916, where there were these rival commish stores, one on one side of the street, one on the other, and they kept undercutting each other with prices. And then one one brought in like a polka band or something like some big white Grassman. And they kept doing all these things to try to steal customers from the other one. And to me, immediately when I read that I just might bring when like Romeo and Juliet. It's like the Capulets and the Montagues. This commish family and that punish family and like that, like what if their children fall in love, like what's gonna happen there? So they were all of these really wonderful, very whimsical, quirky, they felt sort of magical in their own way, anecdotes that I found that just immediately began to shape my story. And I don't know, it just sort of those were my first, those were the two matches that initially, I knew I would fit in there somehow. So then it was just a question of shaping kind of around those
Ashley Hasty 11:18
was there a piece of research, some factors story, anecdote, maybe that you wanted to include in the novel, but it didn't fit the story or had to be cut? For some reason,
Lynda Cohen Loigman 11:27
I can't think of a specific anecdote or story. But there's always there are always so many things that get cut, because you can never, you can never include everything. And you can't, you know, can't read like a history lesson. And it can't read like an encyclopedia entry. That's the beauty and the hardship of writing historical fiction, you have to have enough to make it real to bring everything to life. But you have to weave it all in. So there's always, there's always so much on the cutting room floor. You know, there's so many things that you can include that you want to I feel I'm pretty sure that every single writer of historical fiction would love to, like include an extra document in the book for readers edification, right? Because there's so much and it hurts you to not put it in. But you can't, you know, you can't. Because it's just it won't read like a story, then it'll read like something out. Right? It's a very that's, that's our burden that we bear.
Ashley Hasty 12:29
You've been a published author since 2016. Is that correct? Yes. Family House came or debuted. So you're one of the authors that I turned to when I mean advice. So I would love to take this opportunity for you to share with our wider our audience, what advice do you have for authors, or perhaps those like me who don't yet have an agent or a publishing contract?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 12:52
I think you really can't give up, you know, you have to keep writing, you have to find the story that speaks to you. I know that you're working on your story. It's your passion. And so I think you can't give up, you know, you have to people just have to keep querying, keep trying to make their work better keep trying to get it to the point where you know, someone is going to not be able to say no, because, because it's just that good. But But I do you think writing sitting down and writing is the first step. And a lot of people there's so many people who will come up to, to not just me, but so many people who I know so many writers and ask, say that they have an idea for a book, you know, because so of course we so many of us have ideas about books, but you're never going to sell a book unless you write it, you know, people have to write it, you have to sit down and you have to write it, you have to put it on paper. And then it's sort of that's when the work really begins. Once it's down on paper, then it's editing and getting it better and better and better. And then sending it out to people inquiring those agents and getting that but but a lot of people never make it to the writing it down part. Because there's a big, there's a big disconnect from the brain to the page. And I struggle with that all the time. I mean, I always say to my husband, I wish I could just tell people this story. Like I wish I could just writing a book. Can I just like, I'll just I don't It's not that I want to dictate a book. I don't I just want to just tell you the story. I'll just tell you the story, like sit around the campfire, make some s'mores, just telling the story. Like, why can't I just do that? Why do I have to write it all down?
Ashley Hasty 14:25
That I have that feeling all the time? I love telling people about the book, and they're like, Oh, can I read it? And like, oh, no, I'm not there yet. Let me just tell you about it.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 14:34
Right. Yeah, actually my first book, that's how it started for like 15 years. I told people that story. I didn't write it down for 15 years. So that I mean, if I could carry that around for 15 years and then eventually write it like I feel like anybody can it's just a question of forcing yourself to do it.
Ashley Hasty 14:51
Authors always have the best book recommendations. So I'm curious, what books do you think we should not miss right now?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 14:57
So Christina Morris has a new book out I think it might come out today, it definitely comes out and then either was today or next week, it's called the ways behind, which is she's such a great writer of historical fiction if that's people's genre, it's about like a young illusionist, who ends up like becoming, you know, helping with, with the war with the more effort as like, you know, a intelligence person, which is such a great combination of things. So I think that's a great story. Yeah. There is a book that's my, like one of my favorite books of the year, called when women were dragons by Kelly Barnhart, which is it's speculative fiction. So it's also historical. So it's like the 1950s and everything is like the 1950s Except that when some women get really really really really angry, they turn into drugs but it's it's very there's all this feminist threads in it and like, you know, the McCarthy hearings like the the sort of hearings in front of like the committee about like UnAmerican Activities and stuff, there's all that but it's about the women turning into dragons, and the government tries to cover it up. And it's just such it's fascinating, just on so many levels, but it also it's written like to break your heart. I mean, it's so beautifully written. Ashley, even the author's note, I read her author's note at the end of her acknowledgments I wept reading this woman's acknowledges because it she said something so beautiful about storytelling, to be a storyteller is to just make yourself vulnerable all the time. I can't even I it's just this beautiful, beautiful thing that she says in her in her acknowledgments. So, Kelly Barnhill if you ever listened just know that like I left at your that's a beautiful, beautiful story. Yeah, it's just
Ashley Hasty 16:46
on my radar.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 16:48
Yeah, yeah. And Amy, but I just read an article Amy people's new book called The sweet spot, which is going to come out on Valentine's Day. So that's gonna be everyone's preorder that for their own like Valentine's Day gift. Nicola Harrison's hotel Laguna, which I just read an article also just amazing. Yeah, that one's just Nicola writes. She writes these books, you can't put them down. I don't know how she does it. There's so propulsive there's so it's like she writes in his rhythm or something. And you just like, there's not an extra word. There's not an extra scene. She just has it down. And you just are flipping, flipping, flipping the pages until you're done. So that's a great that's going to be a great story for people.
Ashley Hasty 17:28
Oh, those are excellent recommendations to authors that I already know and love and two that I haven't read before and whose books weren't on my radar so I cannot wait to read. I of course want to share how people can find you. So can you share with them your website and where you hang out on social media? Sure.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 17:45
My website is just my full name.com So it's lipid Cohen luqman.com. And I do a lot of Facebook, just Linda Cohen Lindman author, and then I am getting much better at Instagram I'm really putting in. I'm really figuring it out a lot better. That's Elroy admin on Instagram and Twitter Livesey Lloyd min, so I I really think Twitter is a lot of fun. I mean, I'm really not. I'm not so clever but I love to read what people do on Twitter's people just have the funniest threads sometimes. Rebecca Mackay who wrote the great believers you know, I mean, such a such an acclaimed author. She has the funniest, most amazing Twitter like she just has some great things. So there are a lot of people who just do great, great things on Twitter that keep me amused
Ashley Hasty 18:31
and loving your social media series where your matchmaking books.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 18:35
I tried to do matchmaking Monday's except I keep forgetting that it's Monday, like yesterday was the holiday weekend. So I didn't do my matchmaking Monday, I might have to just do like a matchmaking Wednesday this week. I'll come on, come on come up with something else. I don't know some other word. But yeah, it's fun. It that's a really fun thing to do. It's fun to sort of think about a book and what if you liked this book, you would also like this other book. That's a really, it's kind because it's sort of how so many of us think anyway, you know, like, you've just finished something. If you finish something by an author, and that author doesn't have anything else coming down the pike, you're sort of chasing the same high. Right. So it's that sort of feeling.
Ashley Hasty 19:16
I love that. Before we wrap up. Is there anything else you want to talk about that we haven't covered yet?
Lynda Cohen Loigman 19:22
No, I don't think so. I just really hope that people will come away with this book with you know, a real sense of joy. That's, I think everybody needs a little of that right now. And so I just I hope people feel good about it when they read it and and that they, it brings them some happiness and some light. So that's, that's it. Yeah. Always a
Ashley Hasty 19:41
pleasure to chat with you. Like I said in the beginning, it's been far too long since we've met up in person. We hope our paths crossed. All right.
Lynda Cohen Loigman 19:49
Good luck