San Diego, CA (special) -- There is a tale about Leo Tolstoy being asked by one of his admirers: "Your book War and Peace is so marvelous, but why is it so long?" The great Russian author reportedly replied: "I never had time to write it short."

One of our columnists, Yaacov Luria, is constantly--but gently--reminding me that many of my feature stories and columns could be quite a bit shorter, thereby saving the time of you the readers, as well as potentially keeping down paper costs. If only I had Yaacov's richness of style and felicity of phrase! 

Furthermore, as I assume Tolstoy meant it, "if only I had the time to polish and rewrite, and rewrite and polish, to make 10 well-chosen words do the work of 50. Recently an Israeli born doctor of modern Hebrew literature who loves to write short stories--Noya Ostrowiak--moved to San Diego with her husband, Terry. They came to live near their daughter, Orit, who has made a career here as a business coach. Luckily for readers who enjoy a short yarn, Ostrowiak has allocated sufficient time to her task. Ostrowiak is the author of an unusual book that combines her short stories with discussions about her life and her writing techniques. Conversations from Sassenheim derives part of its title from a town of 15,000 in the Netherlands where she and

Author Noya Ostrowiak

her South African-born husband lived while she studied and wrote and he consulted to such clients as KLM, KPMG, and the European Space Agency.

The "Conversations" in the title is based on Ostrowiak's belief that there needs to be a new relationship forged between reader and writer. Normally, "when you read a book somebody thinks for you," Ostrowiak told me during a recent interview. "The writer brings the short story or a novel to a peak, to a solution, and in a way the reader is passive. The reader sits back and reads and watches."

Ostrowiak demands in Conversations that readers become her partners. Wrapped around and sometimes through 17 short stories are Ostrowiak's comments to the readers about the divergent plot paths her stories might take, and even about how certain stories are affecting her emotionally while she is writing them.

"The conversation moves like any conversation between two people, it moves all over," Ostrowiak said. "And so wherever I am physically or mentally (at the time she is writing), the conversation moves in the same direction. Which means I don't have any limits. There are no beginnings or endings; an ending can be a beginning."

Some of her stories are light-hearted, others deal with deeper emotions. 

Let me attempt an analogy. Imagine you are reading a detective novel. The sleuth, following a number of clues, bursts through a doorway and encounters a possible suspect. And there, right before his eyes ....

Here, Ostrowiak might break off the narrative to ask the reader, "well, what do you think the detective should encounter here?" She might go on to review for the reader several possible options that she as a writer has considered. After going through this didactic exercise, she then will pick up the narrative, perhaps employing yet another plot twist.

"In this way," she said, "the reader has to think. Some don't like it at first, but once they get into it, they follow it through. It is a book of surprises."

As all fiction writers must, Ostrowiak draws on lessons and observations from her own life. Hers has been more varied than most. A Sabra born Noya Shapira, she was a parachutist in the Israeli Defense Forces, serving as a lieutenant in the Six Day War of 1967. She also was a student of Hebrew literature, a flight attendant for El Al, and a school teacher. 

Later, while visiting relatives in South Africa, she met her future husband. They made their first home near Johannesburg. Ostrowiak taught Hebrew at one of the King David schools, while her husband began his career in business consulting by organizing the Dale Carnegie franchises in South Africa. 

Ostrowiak recalled that she wrote her first story in South Africa in 1978, developing a habit of writing in the afternoon. For many people, this is a "biological down time"--a good time for a nap--but Ostrowiak says for her "it is just the other way around. I found that everything was in place; the house was peaceful, and when I was finished with my other work, I could focus on the writing."

Her short stories are drawn from experiences on four continents. "I am an observer," she says. "I am aware of everything; whether I want to be or not. It is there."

Her stories are filled with action and surprise developments occasionally not only startle her readers; they take her unaware as well.

"When I am starting a story, I have an idea what it is but many times, it changes completely when I am writing and I don't know the ending, and I am so curious to know the ending," she said.

 "I have a story (in the book) about sexual abuse. I don't know anyone who was sexually abused ...but it is all around us; we are confronted with it -- every talk show, every movie," the author continued.

 "I set out to write something completely different. I don't know how I ended up with this story; I have no idea. And it affected me so badly. I became upset from it. It as such that if I didn't finish this story; this story would finish me off. So I had it done in three days. First, because I wanted to know the end. And second, because I wanted it to go (away)."

Conversations from Sassenheim was published in England by New Millennium Books. It has been priced at $12.95 for the U.S. market. The author is now having it placed in local stores. She said the first store to accept a consignment was Dor L'Dor.