I was born in Brooklyn, NYC. I received a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University. I had a forty-two-year career in healthcare at Kaiser Permanente and in the Sutter Health Care system. My positions included Director of Business Relation, writer/editor, director of marketing & community relations, and a lobbyist for Kaiser in Sacramento.
For the past forty-five years I’ve lived in Berkeley, California. I was elected to a four-year term on the Berkeley Board of Education. After I retired I wrote my first novel, Sink or Swim, Brooklyn. A Coincidental Life is my second novel.
Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
I awoke one night last year with a vivid memory of a coincidental meeting I had with a long-lost high school friend at a San Francisco bus stop. That meeting had occurred fifty-six years ago. That memory triggered other memories which morphed into a variety of similar events that could have happened but never did. The arc of the story came relatively quietly. But the heart of the novel took more than two years to write.
How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?
Probably due to an eye condition called ‘color confusion’ I have always been partial to vivid colors, especially a radiant dark blue. That’s why van Gogh’s Starry Night has always been especially appealing. When I told the Atmosphere Press cover design team about my preferences, they came up with a series of designs that were outstanding. The one I chose was not only striking but came closest to what I had imagined.
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
I started my healthcare career in Public Relations writing press releases, brochures and writing/ editing newsletters. For many years I had been in a writing group writing short stories and snippets of what turn into a book ‘someday.’ When my lovely wife died in 2019, I suffered a prolonged period of grief and depression. Gradually creative writing became my sanctuary and escape from the real world. It became the focus of my daily routine and eventually the completion of my first book Sink or Swim, Brooklyn.
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
As I previously mentioned, I worked in healthcare administration for forty-two years. Women have told me that I could not possibly understand what it’s like to give birth. Wrong! I have a condition called medullar sponge kidneys. Most kidney linings are smooth. Mine are not. More like little hills and valleys which allows calcium and phosphates to accumulate into stones. Over the past forty-five years I’ve passed hundreds of them. When they pass through my system the pain can be excruciating. When women give birth they have a precious newborn. When my stones pop out all I’m left with are small, ugly, spiky stones.
What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?
Hearing from and getting back in touch with friends and acquaintances I lost touch with years ago. It was a surprising and gratifying side effect of publishing my book. In a matter of weeks I’ve learned about the condensed versions of their lives which triggered good memories we both then shared.
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
“The Sound of Silence” and “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” Paul Simon.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?
The mental and emotional flexibility to contemplate the incomprehensible. That is, do we control some or all of our lives or are we buffeted about by coincidences, synchronicity, and other seemingly ‘accidental’ events that are driven by a force(s) we can’t comprehend?
What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?
At eighty-two, I’m working on staying healthy. I go to a Pilates class two times a week, lift weights, walk a few miles two to three times weekly, and work and weed my garden almost daily. I try, not always successfully, to do 200 pushups daily in sets of 50 or 100.
How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?
This is my second book published by Atmosphere Press. Both times the staff has been helpful, professional, and encouraging. During the four years interim between the release of my first and second book, the scope of their services has greatly expanded. Now there are departments that do proofing, cover design, and promotion. I’d advise you to get their Book Boost package, if you can afford it.
Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.