Category Archives: Uncategorized

I have a confession of sorts to make. I spoke to the agent who is working with me on Faust in Love, and he is going to have me sign the contract with a traditional publisher in September… In the meantime I need to set up a website of sorts for my book… but IContinue reading “The Writing Business VII”

I I Mourn for Robin Williams, Whose life was suffused in all his acting parts. By contrast, as a writer, I am the missing part in all my books,Save two: my collection of Days of Awe And Jeanie and the Gentle-Folk. In those books I am searching for— Something. II I am no Robin Williams,Continue reading “A Belated Lament for Robin Williams”

I got to page 200+ of The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister.  I will finish the book tomorrow.  The book is under 300 pages and I can usually read 100 pages a day… on Tuesday I hope to get back to The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History. However, back to Nonna:Continue reading “Nonna’s Diary and the Holocaust”

I am ashamed to say I slept late on this January 1, 2023. I got up at 11:00 AM, realizing to my horror that my lunch was going to have to be a supper: I had planned to fix a “Melt-in-your-mouth Chuck roast” beginning at 7:00 AM. However, the damage was not irreparable. I fixedContinue reading “New Years’ Day”

This year I did little for Chanukkah and nothing for Christmas–even my Christmas cards have not been sent, though finally I wrote the notes in them and stamped and addressed them and they are ready to go. Part of this was because for a while I had COVID-19. Anyway, I found a way to compensate:Continue reading “Cranberry Pumpkin Bread”

Well, I signed the contract. It was with Simon & Schuster, and the terms were good. I should get a lump sum of money (there will be 3 plus a percentage of the royalties) soon. I find myself imagining the things I will do with this “windfall”. Some of them are obvious: medical bills, studentContinue reading “The Writing Business VI”

Well… good news! One of my two agents has gotten me a contract with Simon & Schuster (for Faust in Love). It includes a plan of paying in installments, the first one being–I believe–when I am supposed to have signed on January 2, 2023. I sent the contract to a friend of mine with aContinue reading “The Writing Business V”

It has been a long time since I read Buber’s I and Thou, and yet I find myself thinking about him. In this book, Buber suggests that there are varieties of relationship between man and man; and man and God. There is the relationship in which the person relates to another man (or even God)Continue reading “I and Thou: On Martin Buber”

At my computer on this Christmas Eve I am listening to Chris Botti’s “Impressions.” It is melancholy, and I feel its aura of sadness… I think the root cause of my sorrow is merely seeing a book I didn’t like the looks of by an author I thought I did… rather shallow on my part,Continue reading “A Jew on Christmas Eve”

Having had COVID-19 myself–however mild a variant– I think about a subject that I think should concern all of us. Covid-19, though we have a vaccine, still is a major killer in America and abroad. We should encourage those who know us to get their first doses or any boosters which they haven’t gotten… butContinue reading “Our Continuing Pandemic”