Back in September, I was having dinner with my friends Max and Ilil. Over a second Stoly on the rocks, I bit into my Buffalo Mozzarella and whined about my latest bad date.
This one was a real charmer. A vegetarian, she suggested meeting at a leafy green place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Hey, I have nothing against mushrooms and, besides, her online photo suggested a brown-eyed hottie, for which I’ve always had a particular weakness since my passionate one-sided love affair with Natalie Wood, which ended in abject heartache.
Upon arriving, she was every bit as cute as her photo. For the most part. There is a 10% deterioration/disconnect, at best, between online pictures and reality. However, not only is she snarky and argumentative, along with ordering every expensive tofu-broccoli-what-have-you concoction on the menu, plus dessert and coffee and 32 iced teas, but she drove me to countless glasses of wine when she said she’d had some bad recent dating experiences herself and “couldn’t imagine having sex with a guy until about the 19th or 20th date.”
Since the dinner bill hit $200, I estimated it would cost me close to four grand to reach the Promised Land. And who even knows if that would be milk and honey. I could lease a BMW for cheaper; it probably came with free Sirius radio.
My pals insisted I should write about my experiences. The time a woman from an online site looked like Walter Mondale. Or the girl who commented on my choice of a restaurant as “I think we can do better.” The ones who lied about their age. Their marital status. The fetching brown-eyed girl who said she didn’t know why she was on this date since her daughter made her come. The one who fell asleep and forgot to come at all.
Or the Chinese woman in the Laundromat who misunderstood my “advances” and had her husband and sons take vengeance on my clothes.
I figured if I didn’t write this book, I would view the whole dating process as one long unending conflict. The title of Joe Haldeman’s classic sci-fi novel, The Forever War, comes to mind.
But if I somehow put all this down and looked for insights out of these experiences, if I could find clarity and help other guys find their true love, no matter where they looked – from gyms and supermarkets to bookstores and yes, Laundromats – then I was making all of this worthwhile. It ceased to become narcisstic kvetching.
Suddenly it had a purpose.
In addition to his dating/relationship book How to Find a Woman…or Not, Gary Morgenstein’s books include the novels Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi; Jesse’s Girl, a powerful story about a father’s search for his adopted teenage son, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a political baseball thriller, as well as the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by lots of books and rock and roll CDs.
In addition to How to Find a Woman…Or Not, a comic step-by-step guide to finding true love anywhere on Planet Earth, critically-acclaimed novelist-playwright Gary Morgenstein’s books include Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi; Jesse’s Girl, a powerful story about a father’s search for his adopted teenage son, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a political baseball thriller, all available on Amazon, as well as the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by lots of books and rock and roll CDs.
You can purchase his new book, How to Find a Woman…Or Not at Amazon by clicking here.
Sixteen years ago, following my father’s death, I found myself obsessed with sitting in front of a typewriter, coming to terms with unresolved issues by banging on keys. This silent venting became a sort of “therapy through writing” exercise. However, this exercise slowly evolved, taking on a life of its own. I began creating a related fictional story about a woman’s personal journey, and in the process of exploring my main character’s growth, I found myself learning and growing as well.
Eventually, I came to believe I had a meaningful story to tell, one through which I could possibly touch other people who shared the same complicated family relationships – and maybe even make a difference in their lives. Yet I still struggled with bringing this tale to a close.
It wasn’t until my eldest daughter provided her amazing writing insight that I finally came to realize why I struggled with the ending, for both the book and my father’s passing: the true resolution didn’t rest in holding onto the past; it came from opening my mind to future possibilities and honoring him – not only by setting this story free, but by becoming the professional storyteller that had been hiding in my genes.
Flaherty’s Crossing was completed – a labor of love, but it ran into unforeseen problems. Due to the fact that this story crossed a few genres, it became a difficult book to place with a large publishing house. At first I took the rejections as reflections on my writing skills, then I realized although they didn’t offer a contract, I was receiving a great deal of praise from publishers via personal notes and emails.
Rather than hold back to see what might happen way down the road or completely reinvent the novel based on suggestions I didn’t feel were true to the core of my story, my eldest daughter, who is also an author, encouraged me to take hold of the reins. I pursued smaller houses, where they are more open to books that are out-of-the-box. Fortunately, Flaherty’s Crossing and I have found a wonderful home at Champagne Books and it will be officially released on February 1st.
I never expected this exercise in writing to go to press, touch lives, or win literary awards. But as a result of my good fortune, I’ve arranged for all the proceeds from the sale of Flaherty’s Crossing to go directly to the cancer research center at Providence Medical Center in my father’s name. I’m now convinced and proudly share the belief that good things can grow out of the worst times in our lives if you just take the time to open your heart.
Linda Yoshida, aka Kaylin McFarren, is a rare bird indeed. Not a migratory sort, she prefers to hug the West Coast and keep family within visiting range. Although she has virtually been around the world, she was born in California, relocated with her family to Washington, and nested with her husband in Oregon. In addition to playing an active role in his business endeavors, she has been involved in all aspects of their three daughters’ lives – taxi duties, cheerleading coaching, script rehearsals, and relationship counseling, to name but a few. Now she enjoys spending undisciplined time with her two young grandsons and hopes to have many more.
Although Kaylin wasn’t born with a pen in hand like so many of her talented fellow authors, she has been actively involved in both business and personal writing projects for many years. As the director of a fine art gallery, she assisted in furthering the careers of numerous visual artists who under her guidance gained recognition through promotional opportunities and in national publications. Eager to spread her own creative wings, she has since steered her energy toward writing novels. As a result, she has earned more than a dozen literary awards and was a 2008 finalist in the prestigious RWA® Golden Heart contest.
Kaylin is a member of RWA, Rose City Romance Writers, and Willamette Writers. She received her AA in Literature at Highline Community College, which originally sparked her passion for writing. In her free time, she also enjoys giving back to the community through participation and support of various charitable and educational organizations in the Pacific Northwest.
The Second-Half Adventure by Kay Marshall Strom (click on cover to purchase)
“What I’d like to see from you is a book on retirement,” the head editor from Moody Press said to me.
Okay, I immediately had conflicting thoughts about that suggestion:
On the one side, I had worked with the editor before, and I really like her. And I loved the idea of getting an inside track on an idea about which she was already excited. But on the other hand, I knew nothing about retirement. I wasn’t even retired. And, as a full-time writer and speaker, I didn’t expect to be for a long, long time.
I didn’t tell the editor “no,” but I didn’t exactly tell her “yes,” either. What I did was stall while I considered possible angles.
Then I heard about a group called the Finishers Project (Finishers.org ). They billed themselves as a tech-savvy organization dedicated to providing the baby boomer generation with everything needed to find new careers of eternal significance. Sort of an eHarmony.com for retirees who wanted to help change the world.
Wow! Now there was something I could go with!
Why did I write The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire—Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World? Not because I really liked the editor—though I really did. Not because I loved the idea of getting an inside track on an idea she was already excited about—though that was pretty great, too. I wrote the book because I now had something of value to say.
“If we boomers decide to use our retirement to change the world, rather than our golf game, our dodder-dom will have consequences for society every bit as profound as our youth did,” New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote.
I could not agree more.
An assigned book on retirement by an unretired writer would undoubtedly have had some good ideas and a well-turned phrase or two. But a book written in conjunction with a group who is blazing fresh trails in redesigning retirement, pulling in the first-hand stories of over thirty people already walking the path—now that’s a book worth reading!
Kay Marshall Strom is the author of thirty-six published books, including her most recent, The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World. Her writing credits also include magazine articles, short stories, prize-winning screenplays, booklets for writers, and anything else that will help make the house payments. Kay is an in-demand speaker at events throughout the country. She and her husband Dan Kline love to travel, so Kay encourages writing and speaking assignments in far- flung corners of the globe. To find out more about Kay, or for contact information, check her website at www.kaystrom.com.
In 1993 I was at my father’s house, recovering from a 5-day hospital stay and a complete hysterectomy. Since I was napping several times a day, every time I closed my eyes poetry verses kept pouring right out of my head. It was as if a portal to my creative imagination had been opened up, once again. I’d close my eyes and yet another line would come to me, and another, and another. I had to keep writing them down, and I wasn’t getting much sleep.
As a young child I had been a prolific poetry writer but that portal had been closed at age 17, twenty-one years earlier, when I wrote a poem in memory of my best friend who had been tragically killed in a terrible accident. It wasn’t really a conscious decision to stop writing; it just happened. I no longer found the urge to write about anything.
But that all changed with my hysterectomy. As anyone who has had a hysterectomy knows, needing that kind of surgery is as though “something” has died within you. Maybe it’s the finality of the ending of one’s reproductive years, or possibly it’s a less than positive milestone in the aging process. Either way, it’s a situation which also requires a period of mourning… and a period of adjusting to altered hormone levels!
So one death closed the portal and thankfully another “death” opened it again. For the next few weeks, I added to the first several verses and wrote new ones, and I also sketched a few of the preliminary illustrations. Since I was never able to bear my own biological children, writing a children’s bedtime story became a sort of healing process for me.
For the next 9 years, the whole project sat on the “back burner” while I pursued my jewelry business, while we raised our two adopted kids, moved internationally three more times and while I was distracted by other facets of life. Then in 2004 we moved from Australia to Thailand, where I could no longer work as a jeweler. As a foreigner, I was not allowed to “take a job away from a Thai national”, and I couldn’t compete with their inexpensive prices anyway. My “little voice in my head” (or my women’s intuition, or my guardian angel… or whatever you want to call it) said “Work on your book now! You have PLENTY of time.” So that is what I did. I tweaked the verses, wrote new ones, began painting some of the finished illustrations, and began looking for a publisher.
That brings us up to the present time. It’s been a LONG process and a continuing labor of love, and coincidently, that also describes life in general, doesn’t it? My creative “portal” has continued in the open setting, and I’m looking forward to bringing to light my next project. I hope it also receives the same warm reception and excellent reviews that Moonbeam Dreams has received.
Gina C. Browning is a creative, independent thinking, married mother of 2 adopted children and has been living her dreams for as long as she can remember. She is from Texas, but due to her husband’s job, moved to Australia with her husband and 17 month old son, Ryan, in 1989. Since then, they have moved internationally (because of her husband’s work) 4 more times, with a few domestic moves thrown in for good measure. In 1997 she and her husband adopted their daughter, Raechel, from China.
Having graduated from North Texas State University in 1979, with a BFA in “Metal craft and Jewellery”, Gina has been a professional jewellery designer/maker for the better part of 30+ years, and has written poetry, on the side, since she was a child. She is currently living in Australia (for the 3rd time), with her husband and daughter, where her dreams continue to inspire creativity. Her son, now 21 years old, no longer lives at home.
I’ve always been a bookworm. My grandfather was a writer and books have always been very important in the life of my family. I learned to read and write when I was four years old and I’ve been in love with literature ever since. I’ve been writing since childhood and already when I was a kid I loved creating new worlds and characters that could go where I couldn’t, that lived what I couldn’t live.
I have always wanted to write a book about women and for women. I think we women are absolutely amazing and our world is full of power, strength, empathy, love. I knew I would eventually write a women’s book but I couldn’t find the right moment and inspiration. I had been writing articles for magazines for years but it was nothing like writing a book. My muse was still sleeping and it was actually my mum who woke her up. She said: “Your dating life is just insane! All these stories would make a great book. Why don’t you put them down on paper?” I was reluctant at first but then I decided to give it a try.
Tales for Delicious Girls by Barbora Knobova (click on cover to purchase)
In a way, I wrote Tales for Delicious Girls twice. My first book was published in Europe in 2007, it is called Stories for Big Girls. It was a bestseller, it was nominated for two literary awards and appeared on the list of 25 Best Books of the Year. In many ways, Stories for Big Girlswas the starting point for Tales for Delicious Girls, although Tales for Delicious Girls goes much deeper.
There was lots of thorough research involved before I even started to write Tales for Delicious Girls. I studied my and my friends’ love life and it involved long evenings spent over Earl Grey and cookies, talking about men, relationships and love. I even met some of my ex-boyfriends, which was so much fun. Thanks to my book research many of them even became my friends and all negative feelings from the past were forgotten.
Once I started writing, I realized that there was much more to my stories. That they outlined my own personal path to self-love, self-respect and relationship maturity, that there was lots of personal growth in them. At the time I started working as a love coach and I knew many women who were fighting the same battles I had fought a long time ago. Therefore I wanted my book to be much more than a simple short-story book. I wanted it to be hilarious so that women could laugh and have a good time when reading it, but at the same time I wanted to make them think about their own life, about their relationships and about their choices. To offer them solutions to relationship dilemmas and to show them that it’s never too late to turn things around. And I managed to do that, as it seems, because a friend of mine, a psychologist who works with women and couples, uses my book as a therapy book, which is absolutely wonderful.
Illustrations are a very important part of my book. I’ve known Nela, my illustrator, for many years and she can really feel me and my work. I don’t have to tell her what to do, she has understood me and the spirit of my books perfectly from the very beginning. Her illustrations are edgy, unconventional, funny and very feminine, just like Tales for Delicious Girls. Very few adult books, if any, are fully illustrated, and without them, Tales for Delicious Girls wouldn’t be the same.
I have written this book for women. For women who are smart, independent, fun-loving and fearless. And also for women that are struggling and trying to find themselves and the right life path. For women who are young and still have many things to experience. And for women who have already had their share of life experience. It is simply a book for all women out there. And therefore I hope it makes women happy, I hope it brings something special into their life. I hope it amuses them and I also hope it helps them with their issues and insecurities, should they have any. The message of the book is very strong and if women identify with the stories I tell, the message will be delivered, which is the most important thing for me and the reason I wrote Tales for Delicious Girls.
Barbora Knobova is a writer, love coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from her new book Tales for Delicious Girls. You can visit her website at http://www.barboraknobova.com.
The Story Behind the Book would like to extend to you a very happy holiday. May peace and happiness find your way this joyous holiday season and we wish you a prosperous new year!
The Story Behind the Book will return on January 1, 2010 with more author backstories.
In the fall of 2007, I sat down with a long-time family friend and newspaper man in my hometown of Seaford, Delaware, and we began discussing the idea of profiling many of our local war heroes. We did just that – over the course of the next 50 weeks, we dug into stories about Iwo Jima, about Pearl Harbor, about D-Day and about the Battle of the Bulge.
But we also profiled veterans who remained stateside during the war and even featured a couple of women who did their part to support the war effort. Through it all, Bryant Richardson and I made a concerted effort to tell these stories with emotion, with accuracy and with the pride and dignity they deserved.
Over time, I became emotionally attached to these stories and to the men and women who told them. These are first-hand accounts of a troubling time in American history, a time when the country’s very existence was at stake.
Have you ever stopped to consider what the world would be like today had the Japanese and the Germans been on the winning side during the war? These men and women did their part to make sure that didn’t happen – thanks in part to them, it didn’t.
When conducting these interviews, I got to really know these wonderful souls. Many times during the interviews, emotions took over and breaks were needed. A number of veterans even turned me down; I remember one, in particular, telling me he’d love to share his story with me but that “there were some things in life you just can’t un-see” and he didn’t think he could.
I was disappointed many times over, but I understood. I told the stories I could and I told them to the best of my ability; these first-hand accounts will soon be lost forever and I wanted to document as many as I possibly could.
This book is filled with stories of men and women who served the United States of America with pride during one of the country’s most tumultuous times – they were indeed members of the “Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw so eloquently stated in 1998.
World War II was a troubling time for the United States, and for the world. But thousands of young men from coast to coast answered the call and went overseas to fight for Uncle Sam, to protect the liberties and freedoms we all enjoy today.
Read these stories, soak them in and try to realize the immense sacrifices these men and women made, sacrifices made so that you and I can live today in the greatest country in the world. Without their efforts, life would not be as it is today.
We owe them all a great debt of gratitude. I thank each and every one of them for sharing their stories with me; I only hope I have done them justice in these pages.
James Diehl is an award-winning journalist who has covered Sussex County, Delaware for various media outlets since 1998. Since 2007, he has owned and operated a freelance writing company based in Seaford, Delaware and is also a partner in a Lewes, Delaware-based public relations and marketing firm. He is the author of one other work of non-fiction – “Remembering Sussex County, from Zwaanendael to King Chicken,” published in 2009 by The History Press.
He lives in Seaford, Delaware, with his wife and two daughters.
The Magic Warble by Victoria Simcox (click on cover to purchase)
I can remember sitting with my three children in the movie theater watching the very first Harry Potter movie when a particular vision came to my mind. It was of a twelve year old girl with long blond hair, bundled up in winter clothes, running excitedly down a snowy sidewalk lined with turn of the century houses. Clutched tightly to her chest, she held a burgundy hat box and snow the size of cotton balls was gracefully falling all around her. For some reason, I knew that this was the beginning of a story I wanted to write, and even though I highly enjoyed the flick that night, I was at the same time replaying this vision I had experienced over and over in my mind. After the movie, I went home inspired to write a story of my own, but there was one slight problem, I had no idea what it was going to be about. I sat down at my computer and began to write whatever popped into my mind. Soon I began to feel like my characters took on a life of their own and that I was just tagging along with them and telling their story. I think looking at it this way has made my journey as a writer very enjoyable and I wake up each morning wondering where my characters will lead me todayWhen I finished my manuscript, I began to do some research on how to submit it to agents and publishers. I bought a copy of the Children’s Writer and Illustrator Market Guild and thoroughly studied it. I learned how to write a query letter and a synopsis. Then I began sending my manuscript out to the agents and publishers listed as accepting submissions in the guild as well as the internet. After a fair amount of rejections, Two Harbors Press accepted my manuscript and within eight months my story was published. It was a very special day when the mailman came to my door with my very first copy of The Magic Warble.
Victoria, known as Vicki, was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Austrian immigrant mother, and a Dutch immigrant father. She has one older sister. When she was 7, Vicki moved with her family to British Columbia. Then in her early twenties to Western Washington, where she now resides in Marysville WA. She has been married for almost 20 years, and has 3 children. For the past 10 years, she has home schooled her children, and she also teaches elementary school art. Her other family members are, a Chihuahua, named Pipsy, 2 cats, named Frodo and Fritz, and 1 parakeet, named Pauly. She did have a pet rat named Raymond; when she started writing The Magic Warble, but sad to say, he has since passed away of old age. Vicki enjoys writing, reading, painting watercolors, good movies and just hanging out with friends and family. Her favorite author is C.S. Lewis, and one of her fondest memories is when she was 12. She would sit at the kitchen table, and read the Chronicles of Narnia to her mother while she cooked dinner. These magical stories were very dear to Vicki, and she remembers wishing, If only I could go to Narnia like Lucy and Susan. Vicki hopes that maybe she can touch someone with her story in a similar way.
Corrigans' Pool by Dot Ryan (click on cover to purchase)
I was inspired to write Corrigans’ Pool by my great love of American history, especially the Civil war era in which many of my ancestors fought on both sides. I grew up listening to my paternal and maternal grandmothers’ stories, passed down from generation to generation, about life in those days. I knew early on that someday I would write historical novels about all eras of American history. I wrote bits and pieces of the novel in the 60s’ and 70s’ in between raising three children, and later holding down a 40 hour a week job in the county courthouse— all the while studying to become an author. By the time I felt that I could truly call myself a writer, I had a son and daughter in high school and a third daughter just starting junior high. I finished my novel in 1982 … and lost every page of it in a fire a few months later, along with most of my research notes. This was in the days when everything was done on typewriters.
Somewhere between 1982 and the year 2000, I had swallowed my grief and had re-written Corrigans’ Pool from scratch—a whopping 1012 pages!On the book’s Acknowledgment page, I thank the professional editors whom I enlisted to advise me during several rounds of editing, mainly the daunting task of cutting the manuscript down to a reasonable size. During the second round of research, I discovered a great history book by Derek Smith entitled Civil War Savannah and which inspired many of the historic scenes I later wrote my characters into. I acknowledged Derek Smith, as well, and with all gratitude for his excellent work. Now to find a publisher!
I queried about a dozen New York agents and received a reply from a very nice lady wanting to read the manuscript. Three months later she e-mailed me, suggesting that I rev up the romance in the book, put the male love interest in every chapter “like Rhett Butler” and then get back to her. I thought long and hard about it, and decided against turning my story into something I had not intended. Although there is romance in the book, it is not the single aspect of Corrigans’ Pool that makes the story appealing throughout. With faith that I had written an exceptional novel—and fully aware of the stigma against self-published books—I decided then and there to self-publish. I wanted to spend the rest of my years writing, not pursuing agents and publishers who, perhaps because of the economy, are not as open to new talent as they once were, no matter how promising. Judging from reader’s reviews of Corrigans’ Pool, I made the right decision. Getting the book noticed may take a bit longer, but I believe it will be worth it in that I cam market it indefinitely, if I so choose.
Dot Ryan was raised in the small South Texas towns of Beeville and Skidmore, Texas by her cheerful, but no-nonsense mother and an army of maternal and paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles and, periodically during her formidable years between six and sixteen, Catholic school clergy. In childhood, Dot was a pigtail haired tomboy with a passion for horses, swimming in the AransasRiver, hanging by her heels from loft oak tree branches, and running barefooted through the burning, Texas sands. Dot attributes her lifelong interest in history to the diverse cultures and personalities of her Irish and German kin, most significantly, her two grandmothers. Because of these two incredibly strong women, Dot’s ardor for writing and researching began early in her childhood, although neither love was validated until she had raised a family of her owner and completed her first novel, Corrigans’ Pool.
Dot and her husband, Sam, make their home in “The SparklingCity by the Sea,” Corpus Christi, Texas near their sons and daughters and grandchildren. She is busy writing her second and third works of historical fiction. You can visit her website at www.dotryanbooks.com or pick up a copy of Corrigans’ Pool at Amazon.
Hakim and Terrance Shadow Mystery is a children’s book about a boy named Hakim, his faithful dog, Shadow, and his best friend, Terrance. Shadow disappears one day and with the help of Terrance, Hakim’s family and people from the neighborhood, Hakim and Shadow are reunited. The book depicts friendship, hope and devotion to a dog.
Both my son and my nephew love dogs, so they were my inspiration for this story. I based my characters on real children. If children can identify with characters, it helps them interpret the events around them and help them solve their own problems like Hakim and Terrance learned as they searched for Shadow.
I want children to know that it is important to do the right thing, even though that isn’t always easy. The book is easy to read and understand. It will also help children survive a most difficult time in their life while learning to deal with life on their own.
Bernadine Feagins is a new author who is looking forward to many years of writing children’s books. She has always had a love of children and worked many years in early childhood education. During these times she witnessed the joy children felt as she would demonstratively read books. In addition she is a very active mom who loves to nurture not only her children, but those of family and community. She often had story time with those she loved and cared for. She developed her story telling skills through the numerous books she read to children, this gave her an inspiration to tell her own story. Hakim and Terrance Shadow Mystery is the result. When Bernadine isn’t reading to children or involved in some other child nurturing activity, she can be found as a business woman that works for the IRS. Bernadine is available for interviews, book signings or public reading in schools and libraries.
Back in September, I was having dinner with my friends Max and Ilil. Over a second Stoly on the rocks, I bit into my Buffalo Mozzarella and whined about my latest bad date.
In addition to How to Find a Woman…Or Not, a comic step-by-step guide to finding true love anywhere on Planet Earth, critically-acclaimed novelist-playwright Gary Morgenstein’s books include Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi; Jesse’s Girl, a powerful story about a father’s search for his adopted teenage son, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a political baseball thriller, all available on Amazon, as well as the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by lots of books and rock and roll CDs.
I’ve always been a bookworm. My grandfather was a writer and books have always been very important in the life of my family. I learned to read and write when I was four years old and I’ve been in love with literature ever since. I’ve been writing since childhood and already when I was a kid I loved creating new worlds and characters that could go where I couldn’t, that lived what I couldn’t live.
