It’s fire season again. Thanks to my local crew that hones in on any fallen hardwood tree in Delmar, and our joint ownership of a beastly wood splitter, I’m stocked up on seasoned firewood. Nothing like an evening fire in the kitchen and in the living room—the joy of a two-sided fireplace. Pumpkin approves. My battery died on my laptop and replacing it required prying off the entire back of the...
My father, Robert Klein, was a veteran of World War II. At the too-young age of 17 he enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific. When I asked him why the Navy and not the Army, he said he’d rather sail on a ship than march through the mud. He came back from the war in one piece and lived a long and I believe mostly satisfying life. He didn’t talk much about his experiences, but when...
I’m so anxious. My team that wears blue, they have a big game today against their archnemesis. My team in blue is a good team, a strong team, but like any team they have flaws. Sometimes they make dumb play calls, and sometimes they stumble on execution. They’ve lost some games they should have won, but they’re my team and I am loyal to them. It’s going to be a really tough game and I wish...
I’m beginning a new volunteer position as a reader of short story submissions to the prestigious literary journal Ploughshares. Every serious writer would love to be published in Ploughshares. For the record, I have not been published there, but I did land a story once in the equally respected Storyquarterly. To become a submissions screener, I had to pitch my experience as a writer, my views on...
Did you know that fictional characters can be an important part of your social network? Most people know that social interactions are important to your well being. And according to Dr. Laurie Santos, the Yale professor whose course “The Science of Well-being” I took, “. . . when we can’t get the real thing, we’re pretty good at finding creative ways to fill those gaps.” There is a social...
Back then, my literary agent, who I had just signed a contract with to represent my novel, “Stash,” asked me if I’d ever heard of Robert McKee and his book, “Story.” I hadn’t. She suggested I get the book, read the book, and then work on my novel some more. I had mistakenly believed the novel was finished. After all, she’d agreed to represent me, so she must have thought “Stash” could sell. But...
Somewhere in the backwoods of Western Pennsylvania stands a house called Fallingwater designed by the iconic twentieth-century architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I’ve always wanted to visit Fallingwater—considered one of Wright’s masterpieces—and I finally did. The famous view of Fallingwater. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, where I never tired of walking past the two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in my...
Thirty-three years ago today I was living in Santa Cruz, California, and endured the devastation of the Loma Prieta earthquake and—ironically or symbolically—the end of a long term relationship on that same day. It sucked. People died and hearts hurt and I was lost and struggling as a still unpublished writer. The ruins from the earthquake in Santa Cruz 33 years ago today. Today I experienced the...
For once our daytime schedules aligned and my tennis partner, also named David, and I had an opportunity to play midweek, midmorning. Usually, we play at 7:15 AM, before the working day starts, but now that hour has become too cold, too dark, and too damp. So we’re both appreciative of this perfect autumn day, 10 AM. We warm up and are set to do battle, but today’s contest doesn’t take place...
Some anniversaries I remember. Others slip by unnoticed. I missed the anniversary of this blog in August. When I did remember, I had to think how many years it’s been. Two? No, three years. Positive note: I must have more important things on my mind than blog anniversaries. I’m closing in on five hundred posts written, which will give future biographers plenty of material to construct this period...
With conflicting emotions I read the obituary of Timothy Mulhern that a friend sent me. Tim Mulhern was a nemesis of mine from my childhood and teen years. I haven’t thought of him in a long time, but neither am I likely to ever forget him. We went to the same elementary school, St. Mark’s, in Buffalo, NY, where his funeral was held. He came from a large family—ten kids! One of those enormous...
I was meeting a friend, mentor, and professional associate (all one person!) in Schenectady at a restaurant for lunch and arrived early because I ran a few errands on the way and ended up with extra time. How to spend that time? I’ve been thinking I should spend more time making money, since the book royalties gravy train chugs slowly and the financial portfolio is nosediving. So why not pop in...
I’m not someone who feels especially embedded in my community, even though mental health experts say a sense of community is important to well-being. So I’d been meaning to find ways to get more involved locally, because I always listen to what the experts say. I volunteered for the crew to help artist Fernando Orellana paint a new mural on the rail trail that runs near my house. The mural was a...
I am stressed about our sugar maple under duress. Was it sixteen or eighteen years ago we planted it—I’m not so good at record keeping. We’ve watched the tree grow and every autumn its leaves have kept their promise. Sugar maples are experts at that. Every year I’m thinking I’ve never seen a more beautiful tree. I’ll take just one more photo. Growing. Growing. Bowing before its glory. The thick...
What does one do on a sunny, mild September Saturday? In my case, I spend it indoors at the Book Festival presented by the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. I’ve heard people call this area of upstate New York the hole in the doughnut. They say there’s nothing really here, but we’re within easy driving distance to the world-class cities of New York, Boston, and...
