Newsletter of 336 West End Avenue
2024 summer issue Editor: Gretchen Adkins
Loretta Goldberg is new to writing. After graduating
from University of Melbourne in Australia, she won a
Fulbright scholarship to study music in the U.S. She
was a professional pianist for years and then sold
insurance for another lifetime. And all the while she was
in love with words, but did not trust herself to write. Ten
years ago that changed. Her debut novel, The
Reversible Mask: an Elizabethan Spy Novel, was
published in 2014.
Based on a long fascination with Queen Elizabeth I,
whom Loretta describes as achieving things “by not
doing things,” the novel tells the story of Sir Edward
Latham, a staunch Catholic, who became a double
agent for his Protestant Queen. Tudor history unfolds inthe atmosphere of intrigue and deception.
For her second novel, Beyond the Bukubuk Tree: A World War II Novel of Love andLoss, Loretta modeled her protagonist on her maternal Uncle Bertie, a doctor whoserved in the volunteer battalion assigned to defend Australia’s Mandated Territory ofNew Guinea. The plot depicts loyalty and betrayal, error and redemption, acceptanceand rejection, under the pressure of war in Papua New Guinea.
Writing is a solitary activity. As a counter balance, Loretta is in two writing groups to get feedback and support. Members take turns reading what they have written and thensharing comments. She said it wasn’t easy to find groups that actually help and ispleased to have found two. Participants in one of the groups live across the U.S., sothey meet on Zoom.
Loretta loves history and is meticulous in describing battles and events. She shared with me the dilemma of the basic conflict of writing about history and the format of anovel. The former is driven by facts and the latter is driven by character. It was a challenge for her to learn how to merge the two approaches. Obviously she has conquered both the merging of styles and of her fear of words. Loretta is now fully launched on the latest of her many careers
