Faith. Family. Friends. Fun.
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NO SAMARITAN
My debut collection of poetry, NO SAMARITAN, was published in April 2016 by Tebot Bach, a non-profit poetry press that, among other things, provides therapeutic poetry workshops to the homeless, battered, and war-ravaged. The book can be ordered by clicking here. A selection of poems included in the book can be viewed by clicking the Poems tab above. Thanks for your support. I appreciate it.
THE BEST PRESENT EVER: A SINNER'S GUIDE TO THE HOLY LAND
Forthcoming fall 2020.
I didn't want to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land because I thought it would be hot and dry and boring, and I'd have to drag around on someone else's schedule with a group of serious religious types looking at one ancient shrine after another. No, thanks. This is what I told my wife every time she asked me to go with her and her parents. Then, a week before Christmas, in my usual state of panic over what to get her, I signed up, put the receipt in a box, and gave her the gift of myself.
Two months later, we joined a Dutch couple who owned a Catholic gift shop; a soft-spoken priest devoted to Mary, who had never been to the Holy Land before; some Americans; an opinionated teacher and her photog husband; two young Brazilians learning to be tour guides; and thirty Filipinos oblivious to the shopaholic stereotype, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Decidedly non-preachy, The Best Present Ever: A Sinner's Guide to the Holy Land, lays bare the narrator’s unfiltered thoughts and observations as the days and nights unfold. Readers experience the constant hawkers; an argument at the Shrine of the Nativity involving a Russian tour guide; a night-time lovers tiptoe across the rooftops of old Jerusalem; a disastrous three minutes at the Tomb of Jesus; a pilgrimage-ending confession described by the tour group priest as "a good one”; and an impromptu sojourn through the poverty-stricken Muslim District of Jerusalem that the narrator will never forget. The bus driver is Muslim, the tour guide is seriously Catholic, and the story is universal...how do we all get along?
This is not a story that overtly proselytizes the Catholic faith. It is a story that I hope will engage and entertain believers and non-believers alike; male and female, young and old. The book can be pre-ordered by clicking here.
THE PURPLE PIT
This novel was completed in spring 2020. I will be seeking an agent/publisher soon.
A romantic comedy set in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Lyon in the late-1980s, THE PURPLE PIT is the story of the night a London boy with Irish parents first met a shy, 20-year-old, go-go dancing asthmatic from California at a nightclub in Camden to the day they were married three years later.
Packed with laughter, despair, faith, and letters...the young lovers' correspondence is reproduced verbatim (poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation intact), readers will marvel at the ineptitude of the man and the travails of the girl, and witness the heartache and joy of falling in love with someone 6,000 miles away.
THE BLACK SEA
I wrote this novel many years ago when I was learning how to write. It's hopelessly over-written. One day, I'll fix it.
THE BLACK SEA is about a small town No Cal journalist dealing with mild PTSD after an out of his depth attempt at war reporting in Iraq; a Bulgarian girl with hopes of a career in fashion, vacationing in Los Angeles; and an English ex-professional goalkeeper working as a coach for the L.A. Galaxy, trying to keep his marriage together. The three storylines converge when the girl enters the Irish pub the two men work at part-time. Set in Long Beach, California in 2007, the story reflects the difficulties of recovering from trauma; finding a soul mate; holding on to the soul mate you thought you had; and what happens when a US Marine on leave from active duty, struggling to feed his young son after his wife abandons them and his claim for PTSD benefits is denied, "mugs" the journalist and manipulates him into appearing on a local cable TV news program with startling results.
It's a story about beginnings. The beginning of a romance. The beginning of the end of a romance. The beginning of a recovery. The beginning of a descent. The beginning of a friendship. And the beginning of the end of a friendship. As with everything worth writing about, it's about love, in all its disguises.
SHORT STORIES
The short stories I've written are also about love, in one way or another.
Sláinte.
NO SAMARITAN
My debut collection of poetry, NO SAMARITAN, was published in April 2016 by Tebot Bach, a non-profit poetry press that, among other things, provides therapeutic poetry workshops to the homeless, battered, and war-ravaged. The book can be ordered by clicking here. A selection of poems included in the book can be viewed by clicking the Poems tab above. Thanks for your support. I appreciate it.
THE BEST PRESENT EVER: A SINNER'S GUIDE TO THE HOLY LAND
Forthcoming fall 2020.
I didn't want to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land because I thought it would be hot and dry and boring, and I'd have to drag around on someone else's schedule with a group of serious religious types looking at one ancient shrine after another. No, thanks. This is what I told my wife every time she asked me to go with her and her parents. Then, a week before Christmas, in my usual state of panic over what to get her, I signed up, put the receipt in a box, and gave her the gift of myself.
Two months later, we joined a Dutch couple who owned a Catholic gift shop; a soft-spoken priest devoted to Mary, who had never been to the Holy Land before; some Americans; an opinionated teacher and her photog husband; two young Brazilians learning to be tour guides; and thirty Filipinos oblivious to the shopaholic stereotype, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Decidedly non-preachy, The Best Present Ever: A Sinner's Guide to the Holy Land, lays bare the narrator’s unfiltered thoughts and observations as the days and nights unfold. Readers experience the constant hawkers; an argument at the Shrine of the Nativity involving a Russian tour guide; a night-time lovers tiptoe across the rooftops of old Jerusalem; a disastrous three minutes at the Tomb of Jesus; a pilgrimage-ending confession described by the tour group priest as "a good one”; and an impromptu sojourn through the poverty-stricken Muslim District of Jerusalem that the narrator will never forget. The bus driver is Muslim, the tour guide is seriously Catholic, and the story is universal...how do we all get along?
This is not a story that overtly proselytizes the Catholic faith. It is a story that I hope will engage and entertain believers and non-believers alike; male and female, young and old. The book can be pre-ordered by clicking here.
THE PURPLE PIT
This novel was completed in spring 2020. I will be seeking an agent/publisher soon.
A romantic comedy set in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Lyon in the late-1980s, THE PURPLE PIT is the story of the night a London boy with Irish parents first met a shy, 20-year-old, go-go dancing asthmatic from California at a nightclub in Camden to the day they were married three years later.
Packed with laughter, despair, faith, and letters...the young lovers' correspondence is reproduced verbatim (poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation intact), readers will marvel at the ineptitude of the man and the travails of the girl, and witness the heartache and joy of falling in love with someone 6,000 miles away.
THE BLACK SEA
I wrote this novel many years ago when I was learning how to write. It's hopelessly over-written. One day, I'll fix it.
THE BLACK SEA is about a small town No Cal journalist dealing with mild PTSD after an out of his depth attempt at war reporting in Iraq; a Bulgarian girl with hopes of a career in fashion, vacationing in Los Angeles; and an English ex-professional goalkeeper working as a coach for the L.A. Galaxy, trying to keep his marriage together. The three storylines converge when the girl enters the Irish pub the two men work at part-time. Set in Long Beach, California in 2007, the story reflects the difficulties of recovering from trauma; finding a soul mate; holding on to the soul mate you thought you had; and what happens when a US Marine on leave from active duty, struggling to feed his young son after his wife abandons them and his claim for PTSD benefits is denied, "mugs" the journalist and manipulates him into appearing on a local cable TV news program with startling results.
It's a story about beginnings. The beginning of a romance. The beginning of the end of a romance. The beginning of a recovery. The beginning of a descent. The beginning of a friendship. And the beginning of the end of a friendship. As with everything worth writing about, it's about love, in all its disguises.
SHORT STORIES
The short stories I've written are also about love, in one way or another.
Sláinte.
Me looking in the mirror My car in London in the 80s The Sea of Galilee, 7 AM
