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. Thank you for your support - I really appreciate it.
IS THIS MAN MY BROTHER? A Holy Land Story
I'm hoping to have a publishing deal in place by summer 2019.
An Irish Catholic born and raised in London, and living in Los Angeles since 1989, repeatedly tells his Mexican-American wife that dragging around the Holy Land with a bunch of serious religious types is not his idea of a vacation. But two days before Christmas in his usual state of anxiety over what to give her, he secretly signs up, puts the receipt in a box, and gives her the gift of himself; knowing if she is not deeply moved he will have failed again.
Set in Israel and Palestine over 11 days in late-February 2011, IS THIS MAN MY BROTHER? is the timeless story of a laughter-filled inter-cultural marriage between a bad gift giver with good hair and a hard to please girl with a big heart; the narrator’s search for a way to let go of the anger he still harbors towards the Muslim extremists responsible for 9/11; and a description of some of the most holy shrines in all of Christianity through the eyes of an ordinary practicing Catholic with a dry sense of humor and a poet’s sensibility, waging an internal war to be less judgmental and more like Jesus.
Readers experience the abundant beauty of Israel; the ubiquitous hawkers and noise; a “mini-miracle” involving a lost and found camera; a night-time lovers tiptoe across the rooftops of Old Jerusalem; an argument at the Shrine of the Nativity involving a pushy female Russian tour guide; a humiliating three minutes at the Tomb of Jesus inside the Holy Edicule in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the narrator’s confession heard by the baby-faced tour group priest, who, when it was over, remarked “That was a good one”; and a sojourn through the poverty-stricken Muslim District of Jerusalem, where the narrator encounters the large-toothed smile of a charismatic young auto mechanic that places him in such a state of unexplained euphoria that he later comes to believe he was visited by the spirit of his long-deceased brother.
This is not intended to be a story that proselytizes the Catholic faith. Rather, I have taken great care to engage and entertain believers and non-believers alike, male and female.
THE PURPLE PIT
This novel/screenplay is a work-in progress.
A romantic comedy set in London, Los Angeles, and Paris in the late-1980s, THE PURPLE PIT is the story of the night I first met a shy, 20-year-old, go-go dancing asthmatic from California at a nightclub in Camden to the day we were married three years later.
Packed with laughter, despair, faith, and letters - the young lovers correspondence is reproduced verbatim with poor spelling/grammar/formatting intact - readers will marvel at the ineptitude of the man, sigh at 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 completed this novel many years ago when I was learning how to write. It's hopelessly over-written and needs judicious editing. It's got good bones, though. I'll fix it one of these days.
THE BLACK SEA is about a small town No Cal journalist dealing with minor PST after an ill-fated, out-of-his-depth attempt at war reporting in Iraq; a Bulgarian girl with a penchant for drawing and hopes of a career in fashion vacationing in L.A. as a reward for doing well at college in Bulgaria; 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 recovery 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 the Corp declines his claim for PST benefits - "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, at the heart of it all is love. In all its disguises.
SHORT STORIES
My short stories are about love, too; 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. Thank you for your support - I really appreciate it.
IS THIS MAN MY BROTHER? A Holy Land Story
I'm hoping to have a publishing deal in place by summer 2019.
An Irish Catholic born and raised in London, and living in Los Angeles since 1989, repeatedly tells his Mexican-American wife that dragging around the Holy Land with a bunch of serious religious types is not his idea of a vacation. But two days before Christmas in his usual state of anxiety over what to give her, he secretly signs up, puts the receipt in a box, and gives her the gift of himself; knowing if she is not deeply moved he will have failed again.
Set in Israel and Palestine over 11 days in late-February 2011, IS THIS MAN MY BROTHER? is the timeless story of a laughter-filled inter-cultural marriage between a bad gift giver with good hair and a hard to please girl with a big heart; the narrator’s search for a way to let go of the anger he still harbors towards the Muslim extremists responsible for 9/11; and a description of some of the most holy shrines in all of Christianity through the eyes of an ordinary practicing Catholic with a dry sense of humor and a poet’s sensibility, waging an internal war to be less judgmental and more like Jesus.
Readers experience the abundant beauty of Israel; the ubiquitous hawkers and noise; a “mini-miracle” involving a lost and found camera; a night-time lovers tiptoe across the rooftops of Old Jerusalem; an argument at the Shrine of the Nativity involving a pushy female Russian tour guide; a humiliating three minutes at the Tomb of Jesus inside the Holy Edicule in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the narrator’s confession heard by the baby-faced tour group priest, who, when it was over, remarked “That was a good one”; and a sojourn through the poverty-stricken Muslim District of Jerusalem, where the narrator encounters the large-toothed smile of a charismatic young auto mechanic that places him in such a state of unexplained euphoria that he later comes to believe he was visited by the spirit of his long-deceased brother.
This is not intended to be a story that proselytizes the Catholic faith. Rather, I have taken great care to engage and entertain believers and non-believers alike, male and female.
THE PURPLE PIT
This novel/screenplay is a work-in progress.
A romantic comedy set in London, Los Angeles, and Paris in the late-1980s, THE PURPLE PIT is the story of the night I first met a shy, 20-year-old, go-go dancing asthmatic from California at a nightclub in Camden to the day we were married three years later.
Packed with laughter, despair, faith, and letters - the young lovers correspondence is reproduced verbatim with poor spelling/grammar/formatting intact - readers will marvel at the ineptitude of the man, sigh at 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 completed this novel many years ago when I was learning how to write. It's hopelessly over-written and needs judicious editing. It's got good bones, though. I'll fix it one of these days.
THE BLACK SEA is about a small town No Cal journalist dealing with minor PST after an ill-fated, out-of-his-depth attempt at war reporting in Iraq; a Bulgarian girl with a penchant for drawing and hopes of a career in fashion vacationing in L.A. as a reward for doing well at college in Bulgaria; 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 recovery 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 the Corp declines his claim for PST benefits - "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, at the heart of it all is love. In all its disguises.
SHORT STORIES
My short stories are about love, too; in one way or another.
Sláinte.
Me My car in London Sea of Galilee, 7 AM
