Blog
March 29, 2020
It’s a strange (no pun intended) new world we live in…I peer out from the blinds acknowledging we have ceded our patio to the creatures which inhabit the hill–a family of California quail, a pair of squirrels, the dark eyed juncos and towhee birds that forage in the leaves which, left unattended, have turned to mulch. Through all this, the […]
October 17, 2020
The Mali assignment finished, I headed off to the Bamako airport with Pierre, the good-natured driver who, upon learning I had spent the morning with the Salesians of Don Bosco, whispered that he, too, was a Catholic. Pierre had been my driver for three evenings quietly sharing his collection of African hip hop music. One song in particular, Time is Now, a duet by […]
October 5, 2020
The third time had been a charm. I found myself precariously balancing atop Mexico’s fourth largest mountain–Nevado de Toluca—reaching out gingerly for a congratulatory shake of our guide’s hand. I could not help but betray my feelings to Salvador and the other climbers as their happiness for my achievement seemed to eclipse their own. Drained from the effort to summit, diminished by the […]
September 6, 2020
In writing “Madrid Nights” a few weeks ago, I never thought the past would catch up with me. It did so, recently, as a pleasant surprise. You might recall the story described an American abroad (me) running with a pack of Spaniards (including the Tejeiro brothers, José Manuel and Ramón) back in the days when Spain had “Serenos”–a centuries old […]
August 15, 2020
Pity the poor person who wakes in the pre-dawn hours and decides to follow so many loose and disjointed thoughts into the rabbit warren of the past. Which is where I found myself amidst the shadows and the aurora. Perhaps it was triggered by the loss of Janet, our faithful friend and neighbor from church who, my wife reminded me, […]
July 18, 2020
Just when we were to emerge from the specter of the “invisible enemy,” it seems to be lingering, toying with us. We’ve been asked by the politicians once again to hold off from the gym, from church and, most importantly, the hair salon for another three weeks. On the plus side, it’s given me some time to tinker on things I […]
June 27, 2020
Last week, I procrastinated in writing about “Bad Reviews” on Amazon. I had recently received my first bad review and was stung by its tenor and content. The review came across as scolding–like “why did you waste my time with this book–so full of shallow characters, too many footnotes, etc. A real writer would have explored each of these characters […]
June 18, 2020
It has been difficult this week to select a subject worthy of attention. Initially, I wanted to share the pain and trauma that comes with receiving a less than stellar review on Amazon, especially when the most positive comment was “this book was so-so,” the rest of the review precipitously headed downhill. However, because there is a political and cultural […]
June 4, 2020
When we arrived in the COVID haunted airport, my sister and her husband were already waiting for us curbside in the car. “Hurry,” exhorted my sister, “he’s going quickly.” Five months earlier, we were hugging my father outside a Courtyard Marriott hotel in Long Island. At 90 years of age , he was still the image of a man in […]
May 12, 2020
These are strange times (no pun intended)! This Sinatra tune keeps rattling around in my head—“riding high in April, shot down in May.[1]” One day I’m looking at a week replete with author events—a book signing at Barnes & Noble, presentations to the Sisters in Crime writing group up the coast, to the students at a local university and Senior citizens […]
