Hello again. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve had a story accepted for use on an online blog called Glass Cases, which is operated by an administrator living right here in New York. The story, entitled “The Red Convertible,” appeared previously in my collection The Lean Years. The website for Glass Cases is www.bigglasscases.blogspot.com, and I’m told my story should be featured there in the next three to four weeks. When it does, I’ll mention it here on ... Read Full Story

I knew it was going to be difficult to take a book as short as “Where the Wild Things Are” and stretch it into a feature length film, but to my pleasant surprise, Spike Jonze was up to the challenge. There’s any number of places he could have taken this material, and he took it to a place that is, if I may say so, very childlike. The opening sequence, where we are introduced to Max, and the troubles that he faces (an older sibling who has increasingly less time for him, a d... Read Full Story

Since moving to Boro Park, I’ve been reading at an accelerated rate, as I need something to do on the trains to and from work, and also something to read on the job while I’m in Long Island City on the weekends. I got a library card for the local library here in Brooklyn, but I found that I was quickly exhausting the possibilities in terms of what I was interested in there. It’s a small branch, and while I guess I could have tried to order some of the specific titles I̵... Read Full Story

I don’t think I could have written up a more perfect script for the postseason, as a Yankee fan. First, they took  three straight from the Twins in the Divisional Playoffs. No surprise there. Minnesota didn’t even deserve to be in the tournament. They only squeaked in because the Tigers folded down the stretch. I was there in person for Game 2, a fantastic extra inning affair ended by a long ball from Mark Texeira, my first game at the new Stadium, and my first postseason basebal... Read Full Story

I never had an opportunity to know my fraternal grandfather, as he died twenty-five years ago, when I was three. I’m told that I thought he was sleeping, and I tried to get in the coffin with him, to wake him up. He’s spoken of only occasionally in my family, and when he is, there is always a certain mysticism about him, as he is described, depending on who is speaking, as being either larger than life, or, alternatively, quiet, good-natured, and easy going. I’ll never be a... Read Full Story

I remember before moving back here having a conversation with my sister Ann, who lived here earlier in the decade. She was telling me about how living in this city can eventually become draining. This was something that I already knew about, to a certain extent. I’d been here for six months, and the major drain I’d felt at that time had been financial. I hadn’t been able to find work; I’d had to leave. It had been stressful, definitely. Well, now I’m back, and I... Read Full Story

This past Friday I attended my first baseball playoff game, Yankees vs Twins at the new Yankee Stadium, game 2 of the NLDS. Nick Blackburn started for the Twins, A.J. Burnett, one of their big off-season acquisitions, went for the Yanks. It was a pitcher’s duel till the ninth, when a two run blast by Alex Rodriguez scored he and Mark Texeira, tying the score at three. The game went into extra innings, and was eventually won by Texeira, on a walk off bullet to the left field corner. I a... Read Full Story

If zombie movies are a sub genre of horror, then zombie comedies, or zom-com, are yet another sub genre of that. The first and best of these that I’ve seen was Shawn of the Dead, a movie that gleefully blended horror and comedy in equal measure. It had some really sickening gore, frantic pacing, and a hard edge that meshed perfectly with fine performances, slapstick comedy, and British accents. ZombieLand follows a similar formula, though not quite as successfully or cleverly. How exact... Read Full Story

Bear with me a moment, please, as I go off on a tangent. Hey, sometimes on this site you’re going to get publication news, and sometimes you’re going to get my stream-of-conscious ramblings. Sorry, that’s just how it goes. Sometimes I think about the many “selves” that I’ve been in my life, my own evolution as a person and the many personas that I’ve adapted. Which of them have actually been me? You could make the argument that they’ve all been... Read Full Story

Hello all. The publishers of the U.K. magazine Scarlet have informed me that the November issue, which contains my new erotic story in the Cliterature section, will hit news stands the first week of October. I know it’s widely available across the pond; I don’t know how many stores over here carry it, but if you’re in New York you probably stand the best chance of finding it at a Barns and Noble or something similar. You can also order issues at www.scarletmagazine.co.uk. T... Read Full Story