Writer | Director | Podcaster

Welcome! Do you love a good story?

I’ve always loved telling stories. When I was a kid, I was the go-to storyteller in my friend group’s games of Light as a Feather. According to them, I told the “twistiest, turniest” tales. I loved making up all sorts of fantastical reasons for someone to become “light as a feather, stiff as a board, and hard as a rock.” Decades later, I turned the stories in my head into pages in books or scripts. And I’m not going to stop anytime soon.

I am Izolda Trakhtenberg, and I’m the author of nine books and numerous plays and screenplays. I also direct plays and movies. My stories have appeared in anthologies, magazines, and journals. In fiction, I write gritty, heartfelt, sexy mysteries and urban fantasy. I love the twists and turns of both a good story and human connection. My characters are real people even when they’re in super-real situations. They love, lust, yearn, and strive. Most often, they’re also artists of one sort or another.

If you ever made up an excuse for why you broke curfew, you’re a storyteller. If you got away with it scot-free, you’re a likely a great storyteller. We tell stories every day. They inspire, inform, and transform us. They shape our lives, and sometimes, they get us out of trouble. -Izolda Trakhtenberg

Plays

Overheard! is my first full-length play. What do you do when you have to make a life-changing decision? You listen. Learn more.

See my other plays.

A Slice of Democracy premiered at the “A Polling Place” Theatre Festival by the Nomad Players.

A slice of democracy play flyer with four actors and a red background

immigrant story — Sometimes the plays we write affect our audiences in unexpected ways. I’m so grateful the producer shared this with me especially since my real story is similar.

Expiration Date was a semi-finalist in the Off Broad Street Play Festival.

expiration date play woman sitting and man standing with lights and a black curtain as backdrop

Perhaps, Maybe? debuted at the Gi60 International Play Festival in Houston, TX.

Playwriting Resume

Screenwriting

I’ve written numerous plays and films as you can see below. You might not know about my scriptwriting for NASA. Yep, I wrote and edited movies for NASA!

Here’s Breathable: A Story About Air Quality. I wrote the script, composed the music, edited and directed the film for a NASA’s Aura satellite mission.

Fiction

Die By The Sword, is the first book in the Tarot Card Thriller series. Cassie Belmont, a professional tarot card reader, works with the police to solve crimes in Washington DC. When someone starts killing people and leaving them looking like the images in her unique tarot deck, Cassie has to catch the killer before he strikes again.

It’s a twisty who-dunnit with a little magic peppered in.

Die By The Sword ( Order it on Kobo, Nook, or in my shop as a paperback, or eBook)

The Fiddler’s Talisman: Book One of The Fairy Godmother Diaries

New York City is only a hop, skip, and Ley Line jump away from the Fairy Lands. And if anyone can make it there, it’s Fairy Godmother, Evie Songbottom.

Evie isn’t your childhood Fairy Godmother. She prefers whiskey to glitter, movies to wishes, and music to just about anything.

But she’ll need more than a bottle of Jameson and a bad attitude to guide her Charge, violin prodigy, Joanna Brennan. Born of fairy ancestors, Joanna caught her boyfriend cheating with her Juilliard roommate. Now, her magic-tinged sorrow is flooding New York with disaster.

Evie will have to navigate the treacherous landscape of Joanna’s wounded soul, and her own forbidden new love, before Joanna’s grief rips apart the fabric of all the worlds.

eBook | Barnes & Noble | iBookstore (iTunes) | Kobo

The Piano’s Key

The Piano’s Key: Book Two of The Fairy Godmother Diaries

Against all odds, Evie Songbottom and Joanna Brennan defeated the Bane Zeke Dunne and the Ramrocks. As a bonus, Evie earned her Level 4 Fairy Godparent stripes. But now, they face new challenges. While Joanna becomes a guide to her own students, Evie leaves New York and her love, Daniel, to continue her training in the Fairy Lands.

After Daniel is attacked and left for dead, Evie returns to New York to find that he has no memory of her or of their lives together. She vows to protect him while he embarks on a new life without her.

Foes, old and new, surround Evie as she tries to help Daniel and guide her new charge to his destiny. When a terrifying new danger threatens the world, bonds are destroyed, alliances are forged, and good and evil clash in an explosive battle that will decide the fate of both worlds.

Find it at your favorite retailers. Click below.

eBook | Barnes & Noble | iBookstore (iTunes) | Kobo

Works in Progress

mysteries in history book cover. Ancient mandala design with microphones

The Gemma Blackthorne True Crime Podcaster Mysteries series. Meet Gemma Blackthorne, a true crime podcaster who solves ancient mysteries (like Jamestown, the Beale Ciphers, or the Dancing Plague of 1518), and she’s funded by a shadowy group called the Need to Know Collective. But her greatest case? That’s the one she’s determined to solve or die trying. The first part of the first novel is available here.

Potential cover for The Secrets of Fiddler’s Green

possible book cover fiddler playing on a city street

The first page:

I died on a Tuesday. But I didn’t stay dead, and that’s when the trouble started. You know that white light you’re supposed to see? There wasn’t one. No tunnel. No angels singing. Nothing like that. What happened to me?

“Wake up! Wake the hell up! Open your eyes, you idiot!”

So, I did.

“Stop yelling,” I moaned to the face that swam into focus. Great eyes, good hair, broad shoulders, and gorgeous hands that were waving me off like he was the third base coach for the Mets.

“No, don’t open your eyes here, not on this side,” he slashed his fingers through his dark blond hair. “Open them on the other side.”

“What other side?” I mumbled, sat up, and fell over. I slammed my eyes shut and covered my ears with my hands.

“Ow, ow, ow,” I moaned.

“Stop yelling at her, you moron! You’ll just keep her here longer.” The acerbic voice sliced through my fog. But it couldn’t be her!

(More soon!)

Non-Fiction

Speak From Within

Engage, Inspire, and Motivate The People In Your Life

Become a great communicator!

Based on my Speak to Succeed workshop, the book helps you build the confidence to engage and inspire any audience. Then, you explore how to communicate authentically in meetings, interviews, and presentations.

Here are the supplemental materials to the book by chapter.

Find the Book at eBook (a variety of sources), Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.com.

Confident Communication

If you want to speak so you engage, inspire, and motivate people in meetings, interviews, presentations, get this book!

With it, you will become a confident and effective communicator. You will learn physical, emotional, and mental techniques to engage and persuade.

And you will learn methods to beat stress and fear so you can authentically connect with any audience.

Anthologies

Midlife On Fire

This anthology I’m in reached #1 in two Amazon categories!

New York State of Crime

Anthology from Sisters In Crime (Tri-State, New York Chapter)

The sixth anthology from the New York/New Jersey, Connecticut chapter of Sisters in Crime was a Derringer Award finalist and is available for purchase on Amazon.

In a New York Minute

The first anthology of micro-fiction from the Vegan Writers of NYC, the book was released on February 21, 2023.

How do you write a story that’s exciting, meaningful, and profound in just ten minutes? Can you write one with great characters and exciting plots that will leave readers wanting more? The Vegan Writers of NYC decided to put these questions to the test.

With word prompts providing inspiration, they wrote stories that speak of the human experience. Step inside and perhaps some of those prompts will inspire you to write your own tale.

Learn more about my books.

The Your Creative Mind Podcast

Your Weekly Dose of Inspiration

Looking for a way to stay inspired and keep your creative energy flowing? Tune into the Your Creative Mind Podcast for weekly insights, strategies, and real-world tactics to help you achieve your goals without burnout. Each episode dives deep into practical tools for problem-solving, mindfulness, and intuitive thinking—so you can bring more joy, creativity, and peace into your daily life. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, artist, or simply someone looking for a fresh perspective, this podcast will help you thrive.