Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Time Flies and Other Pithy Comments


When I was in high school in the 1950s and considered that the millennium would change in some fifty years, I honestly wondered if I’d be around to see it. I think the average age expectancy at that time was mid-sixties for men, around seventy for women, so that isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound these days, with more and more of us living into our eighties and nineties.

I’m glad I’m still around, though I’m also surprised I’m still here and about to turn eighty-two. The second decade of the 2000s was pretty eventful for me. In 2013, after a full lifetime as a musician, I wrote and published my first book. Six years later I’m at work on book number eleven.

Thanks to Katy Burton for the beautiful poster

 My voice studio, which I opened in 1979, is flourishing, and I’m thrilled that after forty years I can continue to help young men and women unlock their voices. Some of my students have made music their life’s profession. One former student has been with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus for twenty years, and another has been singing with the Deutsche Oper Berlin for five years and is now appearing as a guest in other major opera houses in Europe. One had a stint on Broadway. Others have established themselves as teachers, either in schools or with private studios; performed in regional theaters and on national tours. Hopefully, all of them continue to sing, maybe in community musicals, a church choir, or blowing people away at karaoke!

For over thirty years, beginning in 1984, I was stage director for eighty musical theater productions for both community groups—most notably, Pocono Lively Arts—and two different high schools (at different times). I retired from directing in 2015. I wrote a book about that in 2016: “More Fog, Please”: Thirty Years Directing Community and High School Musicals. For a few weeks, it was listed as a “hot new item” and was an Amazon best-seller in its genre. (I held a book launch party at the local Panera Bread.)

Musical theater friends Michael Drolet, Kelly Foley, Dale Foley

In 2017 I released two novels set in the Vietnam War era, “The Cameron Saga”—books that followed the lives of two brothers who served in the war and struggled to deal with its effect on their lives and the lives of those who loved them. The first book, Memories of Jake, was submitted to the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and it received a Red Ribbon Honorable Mention, much to my delight. The best part of writing those books, though, was connecting with Vietnam veterans and helping establish an annual observation of National Vietnam Veterans Day at a local, independent movie theater. I’ve made some remarkable new friends.


Exterior and Interior of the wonderful
Pocono Cinema and Cultural Center
where we hold our Vietnam Veterans Day Event
  In 2018, I released the first novel in a mystery series entitled The Case of the Slain Soprano. I’m currently at work on book #5 in “The Augusta McKee Mystery Series” and having a great time writing it. The Case of the Slain Soprano won a Finalist Award with the Wishing Shelf Awards and a Semi-Finalist for the Kindle Book Awards.

I was honored and thrilled by these awards. I found them validating and encouraging. My books aren’t for everybody: they all contain music, even the mystery series. Many of my characters are musicians, and music is a vital part of their lives. I like writing about music, and I’ve had many nice reviews which comment on the way I write about it: the emotions experienced by my characters as performers and listeners.



A couple of pretty exciting experiences for this indie author in 2019: I had an article published by The Guardian, and I was featured on the Third Hour of the “Today Show” over the summer. Both of these as a recognition that at the age of seventy-five I had begun to write and I’m still at it! I will say, though, that every time I start a new book I wonder if I’ll finish it. At my age, how could I not wonder that? But I’ll keep writing as long as my eyes, my fingers (I use the computer for everything) and my mind hold up.

How about that? Front page, above the fold.

We’re about to enter the third decade of the millennium that I at one time doubted I’d ever see. I guess I should try to say something pithy and meaningful at this point. How about this, a quote from the great Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Wishing you all the best for the coming year. Peace, hope, and love.


Please check out my author page on Amazon:
or visit my website, which has links to purchase all the books. The novels are also available as e-books.

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