live right: of course, that goes without saying. I was just making the point that “show don’t tell” is not a hard and fast rule and that “write in whatever way shows off your talent and interest the reader, no matter how many rules it breaks” is probably a better one.
CV: never having read Sun Inside Rain I can’t recommend a book similar, but I happen to be an extreme skeptic on the topic of Jewish books. If you want an ArtScroll book then The Gordian Knot is probably the most original and readable as long as you completely skip the last section. (And I mean completely. The first two sections actually have a very interesting and compelling plot. If he’d stopped there… but no, he has to continue on to part three, where he jams in the mysterious will, the neo-Nazi, the OTD guy who becomes a baal teshuva, the terrorist cell, and the bacteriological bomb at risk of destroying every Jew in Israel- ALL IN THE LAST 150 PAGES.)
Otherwise I recommend Haim Sabato. I’m not sure if they sell his books in Jewish bookstores but they definitely do on Amazon and they’re great IMO. I’d start with The Dawning of the Day.