Just published
Two years of my columns, edited by Fulbright scholar Mike Dorsher, are now available on Amazon and Kindle. His gift to me; hopefully your gift to yourself or another. My life’s work is done, almost.
Okay, it’s a 600-page book. What else did you expect after 88 years on this planet -a pamphlet? Though presented chronologically, more than 200 entries range across genres from meditative op-eds, biographical cut outs, poetry, haikus, cultural and political commentary, and philosophical wanderings. This is definitely a bathroom book that offers a convenient chapter per sitting - and time to mull if you’re having problems.
Now available in Paperback on Amazon and as an ebook on Kindle, with an intro by award-winning poet/essayist Ned Balbo and a note from editor Mike Dorsher, lovingly written and too frank. The book has some tell-all aspects that might make a few people squirm. If you’ve lived your entire life in the United States, never read Howard Zinn, but have read the Bible and the New York Times - then you may squirm too.
My favorite chapter is “Knuckleball Days” because it represents a life full of missed opportunities that became turning points to something totally different. That I found my last true love at age 74, wound up in Moscow (not Idaho) at age 85, first book published at age 88 tells you all you need to know about the arc of my life that began in Brooklyn.
I started to write my “Homestretch” column because I felt that time was too limited to organize and write a memoir. Well, here it is, in a form I never expected. Let’s hope there will be mores surprises in my life that I can share with you.
A few more acknowledgments:
»Had my son David not stepped in to run my company, ieiMedia, I would never have had the time to devote to my writing.
»And my marriage to Olga Timofeeva has opened my eyes to aspects of life, religion and history that would have eluded me in Baltimore restaurants.
»My daily conversations on FaceTime with my brother Tom kept the nostalgia flowing.
»The untimely loss of my soulmate Arthur Jurgrau, who would have made this moment that much sweeter.
»Steadfast friends like David Crough and John Caputo who have kept me linked to a cherished past.
»Other folk like Melody McCloud, Adrian Blissfield and Fred Epstein who made me feel important at the right times.
»And all those friends and family who humbled me by never reading my writing, reducing my presence to a dot on this page.