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A brief history of Abbi's world Enjoy a glimpse into a few of the events that have shaped a young writer's life. So, how does a nice Jewish girl from back East find herself lugging an Uzi everywhere for 18 months and talking about herself in the third person? It goes a little something like this.... Abbi grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania -- that's Reading, like the railroad on the Monopoly board -- world-famous for outlet shopping and pretzels. Seriously. Neither the discount jeans nor the pretzels were enough to keep Abbi there, though, and at the ripe old age of 16, she headed off to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. During winter break of her sophomore year, Abbi went to Israel with a program called Volunteers for Israel. She spent three weeks on an army base near Eilat and decided that she wanted to move to the Holy Land, but not for any great spiritual reasons. No, it was the army uniforms -- Israel Defense Forces green looks really good on Abbi. One small thing stood in Abbi's way: she didn't speak Hebrew. Typically, the IDF frowns on recruits who don't understand basic things like "Fire!" and "Look out!" and "Hey, be careful with that Uzi!" Undeterred, Abbi spent five months in an *ulpan* -- an intensive Hebrew-in-Hebrew language course -- on a kibbutz 25 minutes from Tel Aviv. She studied hard, learned the language, and enlisted in the IDF. Abbi had a great time in the army, but probably the most significant thing she did during her tour of duty was to meet a dashing young Israel Air Force Captain named Guy. It was love at first sight (it's a great story -- ask Abbi and she'll be happy to tell you), and they were married a year later. The newlyweds lived in Modi'in, Israel's first planned city, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Abbi signed on as Senior Editor at Israel's premiere export marcom firm, and Guy got really into computers and worked as a software developer. The happy couple had a daughter, Lior, in 1999. Coincidentally, it was right around that time that Abbi started writing pregnancy and parenting articles. Funny how that works. The realities of living the Middle East "Peace Process" on a daily basis got to be overwhelming, as did the reality of paying over $4 for a gallon of gas, and Abbi and Guy and Lior made their way to southern California. Again, by strange coincidence, it was around this time that Abbi wrote several articles about Green Cards, immigration, and life abroad. In 2001, Abbi gave birth to her second daughter, Liat, in a planned homebirth. Her e-books on pregnancy and homebirth (can you believe the coincidences in this girl's life?), published by Myria Media, are available for download. You can even read an excerpt. And Abbi still handles marketing collateral for corporate clients, ghostwrites books, writes features for magazines, teaches online courses for writers, and feeds her family a home-cooked dinner every night. Check out Abbi's resume for a closer look at her professional work. Want to hear more? Abbi answers her own phone (and speaks in the first person), so give her a call. 818.508.9505. Or email her at mail@DearAbbi.com for the sheer joy of starting your note with "Dear Abbi, I've been reading your column for years." Abbi's *never* heard that one before. [About Abbi] [Writing Services] [Consulting Services] |
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