Here's To Your Health, America

Who will win the 2024 Election? Our election forecast...

2024-11-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

Women, Latinx and people of color, along with disaffected Republicans and an energized Democrat electorate will drive Kamala Harris to a biggr victory than the polls are indicating. North Carolina, and apparently Iowa, are even in play, and Florida and Texas will be closer than in recent years. Trump may get Arizona, and possibly Georgia and Nevada, but I don't believe he will get all three, and Harris will get the rest, plus probably at elast one of these three. Pennsylvania will be sealed as Democrat by the Puerto Rican community. It will be a complete repudiation of Trump, the Pandemic-botching, insurrectionist, who stole Top-Secret documents, was found guilty by juries of sexual assault and financial fraud. Because of much of this, Congress will most likely flip to Democratic control. The Senate is murkier because some of these voter, notably disaffected Republicans, will still vote for the GOP down-ticket, but I believe the Senate will remain in Democrat control. Women will punish the Republicans once again, for everything from their overt misogyny to their stacking the Supreme Court and overturning the law of the land, Roe v. Wade, after half-a-century. The Latinx community will punish the GOP for its overt racism, as will our Black community.

Next in the large and growing series: Why everything bad can be blamed on Republicans. Let’s look at what is going on in Gaza and the MidEast.

2024-01-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

We have Presidential election coming up, so it is important to visit the next in the large and growing series: Why everything bad can be blamed on Republicans. Let’s look at what is going on in Gaza and the MidEast. What Israel is doing to civilian Palestinians is unconscionable. Of course we understand why they are fighting in Gaza, as they suffered a brutal terrorist attack that killed over a thousand Israelis. Nevertheless, they need to show restraint for the civilian population, most of which have been forced on the run because of this fight. This is not a discussion about how they got to this point, or who is right or justified. This is about, how the Biden administration is, rightfully and morally correct, to be demanding Israel curtail the chaos that is leading to many thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths. And about why Israel thinks it’s okay to ignore these calls for restraint. The USA has a credibility problem. Back in 2001, Osama bin Laden, leading Al Qaeda, committed a horrific terrorist act against United States killing over a thousand Americans. These terrorists were based in Afghanistan and so the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. Makes sense. But then the Republican W. Bush administration in charge at the time, invaded Iraq. Iraq is a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. We knew this then and we know it now. That GOP administration manufactured false evidence to make it look like Iraq was a danger to the world. They did this, of course, because there was absolutely no reason for the U.S. to be in Iraq, because they had nothing to do with 9/11. During the U.S. invasion of that country, it is estimated that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. See the problem? We created a precedent where when you are assaulted by a horrific terrorist act, like we were in 9/11 and like Israel was by Hamas, that you can do whatever you want, and kill as many civilians as get in the way of what you want to do. There is one big difference between the two situations. Israel is fighting in the place where the terrorists are. The USA had no reason to be in Iraq. In addition, because it seems, Republican failures know no bounds, the precedent that was created, is just the latest disaster in a long line of problems related to these events. You may remember, Iraq was at war with Iran, and had kept Iran in check for over a decade. By the USA invading, taking out Iraq’s leader and debilitating its military, the U.S. created a resurgent Iran who has been a problem ever since, committing acts of terrorism, supporting Hezbollah and moving towards becoming a terrorist nuclear state. Once again proving, that when something bad is happening, the first place you should look for fault, is the Republican party of the USA. Who as you remember, under Trump, then pulled us out of the agreement that was keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear state. Of course, this is only one of a long series…from the MidEast, to Climate Change, to anti-education policies, racism sexism, antisemitism, an underestimated pandemic, huge deficits, tax policies that favor the wealthy, underperforming economies and children being shot in the schools as often as states have state fairs---there is almost no problem you can’t trace back to Republican policies, incompetence and failures.

How the Media Created Trump 2024.

2023-12-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

How does a traitor, a criminal, a serial-liar who steals national secrets and denies election results that are unfavorable to him, become a presidential contender again? The media helped create the threat of a 2024 Trump resurgence. For one thing, they should have ignored him and allowed the courts to do their job. A traitor, fraudster, criminal would not be in the media cycle for months and months. Sure, it’s big news at each indictment, like it was for Harvey Weinstein, but then the press move on. Not so, with Trump. Despite the fact that everything he says has been shown to be lies, and he still lies about the 2020 election, they constantly bombarded us with him and his lying the band of cohorts, constantly saying that the election was stolen. Say something enough, and some people will believe you. More egregious, and this is how the press has been working for most of the 21st century, is to say things that will get more views, no matter how they skew the facts. Not lies, but you can make the facts look more or less supportive of a point-of-view if you present them in a certain way.. For example: They wrote about inflation constantly, and before it even hurt Biden, they talked about how it would surely hurt Biden. What you didn’t hear, all of this inflation was predicted because the world collapsed during the pandemic. Moreso because it was so poorly handled by Republicans but other nations did a poor job too, just not as bad as us. And as the world opened up, economists knew this was going to happen, because we already had terrible shortages and rising prices for some staples while still in the midst of lockdowns. Republicans don’t seem to remember that toilet paper was unavailable and going for $20 a 4 pack on ebay! That was before things even opened up. More egregious though, then even the media not reporting where the inflation came from, was not reporting that Biden’s economic agenda kept our inflation lower than just about every other developed nation in the world! He kept it lower, and brought it down quicker, than we have seen anywhere else! He did this while fostering an economy that has been growing briskly, employing everyone who wants a job and with rising salaries too. He did this while fulfilling the needs of the country that Republicans lied about or ignored throughout their previous presidencies, including Trump’s. For instance, finally investing in and rebuilding our infrastructure, invigorating the manufacturing sector and creating factory jobs, and improving technological research so that we stopped falling behind China. The United States had not moved ahead in any of these ways in decades, because Republican presidents ignored these pressing issues, allowed our country to fall behind our rivals and adversaries, and when they weren’t in the presidency, they used Congress to obstruct any gains Democratic presidents attempted to make. It was only Democratic presidents with a Democratic Congress, that have made any improvements. Obama managed to finally improve healthcare. Not completely and not as well as we all hoped, but the first meaningful improvements in half a century. Biden took a crumbling infrastructure, a shrinking technological lead and a bleak future dependent on fossil fuels, and improved our country! By the way, even if fossil fuels weren’t polluting and climate changing, they are LIMITED and they are controlled by ADVERSARIAL nations. Some of our electorate is so ignorant, so trained by Republicans to deny climate change, that they have forgotten that all our fossil fuel resources are finite, caused air and water pollution long before we talked about climate change, and the majority of those fuels are not controlled by our country, anyway. To not pursue clean, sustainable energy is a ridiculous, antiquated strategy Republican politicians hold onto because they are all too ignorant and/or too old to care about the future. HOWEVER, why their voters don’t care about the world that their children and grandchildren will inherit, is beyond me. Are they that ignorant, or is it such selfishness that they just don’t care about their future generations?

What the 2021 Election Really Means...

2021-11-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Ignore many of the pundits. This election wasn't about the Democrats agenda being too liberal or about the nation's mood. Two things are going on here. The first, the nation is watching Democrats squabble rather than pass legislation and are wondering if Democrats can get things done. Biden's agenda polls well. He was voted in based on that agenda. Democrats need to pass stuff, not argue about it. Manchin and Sinema have to stop worrying so much about the cost of things and worry about the cost to our nation instead. Republicans passed crap that drove the deficit up $2 trillion during good economic times. If Republicans were willing to blow the budget just to enrich themselves, the Democrats have to worry about their own constituents and this country, more than they have to worry about the cost right now. Besides, we know that Manchin is just worried about his own self-interest in his family owned coal mines. For him at least, this isn't about anything but himself. The other issue, unfortunately, is more insidious. It’s about an electorate that is kept ignorant by fake news sites online and fake news streaming from Fox and similar broadcasters. It is amazing that Republicans can get any votes at all, much less win elections, when all they have done since the year 2000 is lied to the people, involve them in wars and then failed those wars, consistently driven up the deficit by trillions, allowed a virus that was already going to be rough, to become an uncontrolled disaster, and then tried to take over the country in a violent insurrection. That these failures, these self-dealing, treasonous, liars, can get any votes at all, shows how their gerrymandering combined with the lies streaming from fake news, has made being reasonable and patriotic Americans into a dying art form.

As you get ready to go to the polls, remember to stay safe!

2020-11-02T21:08:00.004-08:00

Also remember: Joe Biden was part of the administration that: · Ended the Great Recession · Killed Osama bin Laden · Ended pre-existing condition clauses and brought affordable healthcare to more than 20 million Americans. · Created more jobs in the last 3 years of their administration than Trump did in the first 3 years of his. Trump’s administration: · Ignored Coronavirus and allowed unprecedented numbers of Americans to die from Covid-19 · Brought us the Even Greater Recession · Legitimized North Korea and got nothing in return and then Empowered Iran’s Nuclear Arms Buildup · Is in court trying to end protections for preexisting conditions and to take away affordable healthcare from 20 million Americans. · Lost more jobs in the last year of his administration than were created the first 3 years.

Trump’s FAKE economy.

2020-11-02T13:44:00.003-08:00

As you get ready to vote, it’s reasonable to look at the facts about Trump’s legacy. And foremost, Republicans want you to believe he had, until Coronavirus, an economic record to brag about. That may not be so true. And given his horrendous response to Covid-19, it’s fair to include that disaster in his record as well. But first, let’s consider his results for the Pre-Coronavirus years. Even pre-pandemic, the only thing extraordinary about what Trump accomplished is the misleading rhetoric from Trump and Republicans to convince you he accomplished anything special. Let’s look and see why that’s true. Trump inherited a growing economy in recovery. But, his supporters argue, he took a tepid recovery and gave it gas. Maybe, but how much gas? Not much, it turns out. In the last 3 years of the Obama administration more jobs were created than in the first 3 years under Trump. If you factor in the pandemic, which is fair since Obama dealt with Flu pandemics and Ebola---he just handled them better---there would not even be a comparison to make! BUT, we will leave out 2020---for now. Economic growth? Obama averaged 2.3 %, Trump 2.5 %. Obama promised nothing but to turn the country around---and he did. Trump promised 4% growth and missed BIGLY! Now, before Covid, Trump had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. Amazing you say! Well, when he took over form Obama the unemployment rate was 4.7%. Down another 1.2---not so amazing, after all, at least not compared to Obama/Biden. Obama/Biden took over a rate that was still going up because of the Great Recession and would hit 10% soon after Obama came into office. He brought it down to 4.7%---now that’s amazing! Stock and income growth, similar under both presidents. I say similar because they actually are better under Obama, but he did what Republicans never do---got us out of recession, not into one! But that tends to give your numbers a boost because they are coming from a downturn. We are seeing that now because Trump was crowing about 2020’s 3rd quarter growth, but it was only so high because of the great Trump Virus Contraction and Recession of the second and third quarters. Which he is now extending thanks to his complete inability to deal with the ongoing crisis. But here is why Trump’s economy is really FAKE NEWS. Because to get what little he got---he piled on the debt, another $2 trillion! And what did we get for that $2 trillion? Did Trump fix our roads and bridges as he promised? NO. A new, better, cheaper health care plan, that Trump promised? NO. A wall funded by Mexico? NO. Funded by us? YES, but only a little piece because we weren’t supposed to pay for it and don’t have the money for it---in fact he stole what we’ve paid so far form our military budget. We got nothing that Trump promised. But what we did get for the $2 trillion---is our rich got richer, our corporations paid little taxes and blew through all the excess gains by raising their stock prices, lining their pockets and when the pandemic hit---they were broke, unprepared, with nothing saved for a tough time and then they---begged for government socialist handouts! And drove up the deficit even more! That’s why Trump’s economy is all FAKE NEWS. He didn’t do any better than anyone else. He started with a head start form Obama/Biden that most administrations never have the luxury of starting from. Certainly, Obama/Biden didn’t---they started with the previous Republican administration’s Great Recession. Trump didn’t deliver any of the desperately needed infrastructure improvements, he didn’t deliver a better, cheaper health plan, or ANY health plan and yet he took Obamacare to court and is trying to end its coverage and its protections! THINK ABOUT THAT. He didn’t even deliver on his global promises. While the results of his trade deals are still on hold because of the pandemic, it is worth noting that neither Trump nor his supporters seem to understand how tariffs work? China doesn’t pay the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on imported products. They get paid by U.S companies that import the items when they enter the U.S.. often, these companies then pass the costs of tariffs on to customers----us---by way of higher prices. Or they don’t—and they eat the costs and have lower profits. But CHINA MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT PAYING THE TARIFFS! However you look at it, the Trump economy pre-Covid was a very, very expensive, very, very mediocre economy. Now, we can factor in 2020. The United States has the worst response to the pandemic of any leading nation---or just about any nation—period. Worse death rate, worse spread, longest downturn, hardest hit economy. That’s on the Trump administration and it’s ineffective first response (downplay the virus and ignore it) followed by its awful continued response (continue to let people spread the disease, and tell everyone how great we are doing while our infection rate and death rate is a modern health catastrophe). Think about all of this---the facts---the truth---as you get ready to safely #Vote2020. We can turn this around. We can fix this. There is a reason Joe Biden and Democrat Senate candidates are all leading by huge numbers in the polls. Because the American voters know that our lives and our country’s future, depends on this election. #Vote2020

The Politicization of the Supreme Court is a Mistake and History Will Not Be Kind.

2020-10-27T08:11:00.004-07:00

Up until relatively recently The Supreme Court has been handled in a reasonable way. The court worked and remained in balance. That changed when Republicans decided to break our constitution and throw it in the trash. I am of course speaking too their nonsense rationale for not holding hearings and seeding Obama's appointee, Maryland, in the last year of his presidency. There is nothing in the constitution to back up they are refusing to hold hearings. The constitution explicitly states that the president appoints and the Senate hold hearings and seat. Mitch McConnell and his Republican gang, hewing closely To the methods of Vladimir Putin the thug who helped elect Donald Trump, The GOP abandoned patriotism and the constitution Of course that wasn't McConnell’s only shredding of the constitution. As Donald Trump pointed out during the first debate with Joe Biden, There were a lot of open judge seats in the federal courts that he got to fill. Trump actually blamed Obama for leaving the seats empty. But of course, everyone knows that McConnell's Senate refused almost every appointee Obama put up for the court. Less particularly unpatriotic Republican controlled Senate has been shocking its responsibilities and spitting on the constitution for the last 10 years. This is particularly calling when the administration they serve is once again voted in by the minority of photos an the population of the states these senators represent represents a minority of Americans. Now, in a bid to control the highest court for decades to come they seat an appointee, on a completely partisan basis with the lowest Senate vote count in the last 100 years, from an unpopular president with only a week to go before the election. It should come as no surprise that the most unqualified judges sitting on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas and now Barrett were appointed by Republicans. Republicans are not interested and good jurisprudence. They are interested in appointing young ideologues who will tow the party line. experience on the bench tends to moderate extremist views and so we have a couple of judges who spent almost no time on the bench. And so it will come to pass, thanks to Trump's Virus (In all fairness to the Coronavirus, It's only Trump's virus in the United States where he allowed it to run rampant), and Trump's Great Recession, that just like after George W Bush’s Great Recession before it , the country will inevitably vote in Democrats to fix the mess that was made by a Republican administration voted in by the minority of voters.

You May Have Heard---An Election is Coming.

2020-10-27T08:10:00.001-07:00

Sure, there are many reasons to fear this election because of the results in 2016. But let's actually consider that. Trump won with a minority of votes because of the quirkiness of the Electoral College. He could do it again, but let's understand that there is no silent majority voting for Trump. He's not more popular and he never had a majority. So, next to consider, does he have the support he had in the past? Well, while a lot of people who voted for him have made it clear that they’re going to vote for him again, there are a lot of people who say they voted for him and that they're not going to vote for him this time. A lot of Republicans are being very vocal and in-your-face about that! The real question about the election for Trump, is did he convert anyone over to his side since the election? What policies would have brought people to him? Would his impotent handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to die, be a particularly popular selling point to move over to the Trump camp? How about his embrace of dictators while insulting our allies? Do we think that would bring a lot of people over to the Trump camp? Does his support of those malevolent leaders even when they put bounties on our own soldiers lives, really help him? Or when those thugs continue to ignore international law and build up their nuclear capabilities while expressing their love for Trump---do we think that really sways undecideds? There is Trump's attempt to get rid of Obamacare and the guarantees for pre-existing conditions that come with it, without crafting any sort of workable health care plan to replace it. This also carries with it the promise of putting millions of working Americans back on the list of the uninsured. Do we think that's a good selling point? How about the way he took Obama's recovery and while extending it, also added $2 trillion to the national debt? And what did we actually get for that $2 trillion of additional debt? Such a weak economy that it collapsed as soon as the pandemic hit. And as the rest of the world weathered the storm, we didn't even mount a response as coherent much less comprehensive, as all the other developed countries…. And yet they were able to bounce back from their closures, while our economy is still damaged and losing jobs and our country is STILL dealing with a raging pandemic. (New record number of cases just this past Friday). So, what exactly would bring people to Trump who haven't already been there? And if he kept most of the people who voted for him without keeping all of them, that doesn't leave things looking too good for him in 2020. And if the disaster that was the Trump Administration brings out more voters then we saw last election, it would seem likely that most of that motivation will be for people to get rid of him. This is not 2016. The polling back then was actually all within the margin of error and in fact most of the things that said Hillary would win were simply based too much on the nation and not enough on the Electoral College. Now pollsters are taking that seriously into account. Everyone is watching the states though the mood of the nation is also relevant. There are a lot of reasons why Trump won but they had to do with a lot of factors that are not in play this time around. It looks like this time, rather than being swayed by Russian bots that told them that Hillary did bad things and then being complacent because the polls said she would win anyway, this time the public will come out and vote to repudiate failure and hatred. And if all goes as it should polls look as if the voters will take Trumps enablers in the Senate down with him. We are not in the clear in 2020. The Russians are still cheating for Trump. Republicans have kept the pandemic raging to help them suppress the vote they knew they weren't going to get because they handled the pandemic so poorly in the first place. But there are signs that the electorate will correct the disastrous mistakes of 2016 and elect a government that can begin to fix he mess Republicans have, once again, made of the country.

First Election Post: Sitting through this election season has been Hell.

2016-11-07T21:52:00.002-08:00

So, Satan is kind of pissed that I’ve been contending with computer troubles, a very busy work schedule and lots of other obligations---including an amazing and historic rally tonight in Philadelphia with Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Bill and Chelsea Clinton, President Obama and the First Lady and of course, Hillary Clinton. Because of all this I have been unable to blog our series of conversations regarding the election that begins later today. In the past, those conversations, “Voters are from Earth. Politicians are from Uranus” have garnered many thousands of readers and a multitude of positive comments and were quite popular when I was published on Yahoo. Now, in general, you don't want to upset the devil, so I had to promise Satan that I’d get it all posted, albeit after-the-fact, in the next week or so, but because of time constraints, tonight I would need to start at the end in this short post for tonight. He reluctantly agreed, by which I mean he didn't try to stop me with any gross or nasty devil stuff (though someone did leave a flaming bag of something on my porch). Anyway, so after ruminating over the upcoming election for many evenings at our favorite NYC hangout, here are my predictions. Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States, with the popular vote and at least 286 electoral college votes. The Democrats will get the senate, though possibly with just a tie plus the tie-breaking Vice President’s vote. And while Congress won’t likely change hands, it will lose enough GOP seats that with the other bruising losses, will require a rethinking of the current GOP. In the coming days we will examine why rethinking the current GOP was inevitable, and why Trump---win or lose, was destined for failure. VOTE---it’s a right and a responsibility! And enjoy this election---as Satan says; "it's gonna be a helluva ride!

Happy Halloween! I'm Back and the EBOOK is FREE for 2 days only!

2016-10-30T13:05:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone! I hope we can talk about the election right up until the election. And to kick it off---here's a Happy Halloween present---for 2 days only, the ebook of NOT FROM AROUND HERE is free! All the horror of "Join the Club" and "A Present for Mikey," The suspense of "Best Friend" The sci-fi surprise of "Carpet Shock" and the haunting fantasy of "Old Ways!" The book enjoys a 4.34 rating on Goodreads and a 4.6 rating on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Not-Around-Here-Larry-Hochwald-ebook/dp/B00G3HHV2E

Sale Continues....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2014-04-08T04:32:00.001-07:00

The College of Staten Island radio interview will be played in parts on their news broadcasts. Amazon will be keeping the ebook on sale for only $0.99 for the next week while the shows are aired! The paperback is also on sale on Amazon, as well as signed copies on sale on larryhochwald.com. Visit Amazon and look for Larry Hochwald or Not From Around Here to get your ebook at the lowest price it's ever going to be!

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2014-04-07T08:00:00.001-07:00

Just found out the interview is being recorded. Won't be broadcast at 1pm. Will update when I know when it will be broadcast! Sorry for the confusion!

Next Stop on the National College Radio Tour---A Sale---And a Special Review!

2014-04-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

As I prepare for tomorrow's (Monday, April 7th) radio interview with Samantha at the College of Staten Island radio station, 88.9 FM at 1PM, also live streaming at WWW.WSIA.FM, Amazon has put the book, Not From Around Here, on sale! I also wanted to share a very special review Not From Around Here recently got on Goodreads: Apr 04, 2014 Becca rated it 5 of 5 stars "Hello M.Night Shyamalan, great stories are waiting for you in Larry Hochwald's book, Not From Around Here. I truly expect to see at least one of Larry's stories on the big screen. Each of his short stories grabs the reader in a very personal way. Some of the stories, I felt I was there with the characters. All, I didn't want to end. I enjoyed this book of short stories and highly recommend it to all my friends." Thank you Becca! And I hope some of you will get to listen in on what is sure to be a fun and interesting interview, tomorrow! Besides my writing, I have a lot of connection with Staten Island. My entire mental health career, over 15 years, has all been centered around Staten Island services. I've been the Co-Chair of the Staten Island Mental Health Council for the last 6 years. We'll be focusing on the book, but I'm sure we'll touch on many interesting topics! ---L

Thanks to Stu Held and Sylvia Fishel for a great interview this morning on 88.1 FM Long Island WCWP.org Radio

2014-03-25T21:10:00.002-07:00

Today on their "Senior Moments" show, with listeners online throughout the world, we covered a lot of ground, discussing Brooklyn, Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn College, mental health care advocacy, services for challenged individuals and my new book Not From Around Here! The Kingsman Newspaper called the book "as exciting as it is scary"! And the Seattle Post Intelligencer website review said: "Each story is unique, and in cases just a bit creepy. In some there is a thread of humor that keeps you chuckling as you move to the next. Some contain morals that make you think while others are just on the verge of the impossible, but with just a question mark of 'what if?' Hochwald does a great job of building his protagonists with believable characteristics, as well as making them memorable. Each story has a unique and solid character in which you find the interactions to be stimulating and at times amusing. Then he takes his setting and either makes them dreamlike, or creepy, or just out of this world. Yet his descriptions draw a vivid picture that is often difficult with short stories." Because of the interview, Pallingsboro Press has put the book on sale on Amazon, both ebook and paperback, for the next few days. http://www.amazon.com/Not-Around-Here-Larry-Hochwald-ebook/dp/B00G3HHV2E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395806987&sr=8-1&keywords=not+from+around+here+larry+hochwald

2013, a Self-Publishing Odyssey! Part 1-The Why You Should, and How You Can, Self Publish an E-book and Paperback

2014-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

OCD and the Art of Self-Publishing

Having very recently published my first book, in e-book and print, I have learned a great deal about the self-publishing process. In the following two-part series of articles I am going to detail how you too, can self-publish, discussing everything I went through so you can learn everything necessary, from choosing to publish all the way through promoting your book and getting it reviewed. If you read my book, in either ebook or paperback, you’ll see that in the dedication and acknowledgements, I thank Yahoo Voices and the Yahoo Contributor Network. If you're reading this, it’s because you and I share the most powerful medium for becoming a writer in today's environment that I could have ever imagined: The Yahoo Contributor Network and Yahoo Voices! I can honestly say that in large part it is because of Yahoo and all of my fans and readers that I had the courage, the motivation and, even the recognition, to embark on this journey. I cannot over-emphasize how the support of this community drove me through some difficult times to persevere and keep writing. I believe that many of my fellow writers here could, and should, consider self-publishing. Even if you don’t write here at Yahoo, if you write at all, self-publishing might be for you. In this 2-part article we will explore how to make that decision, and how to fulfill your goal to publish. One of the reasons I haven't been publishing here lately is because of the preparations necessary to self publish. But, as you can see, I’m back! “Ahem” “Oh yes, someone else who’s back---is Satan. Those who've read my stuff know that I usually work with Satan on political and social commentary pieces. I would not have expected to collaborate with him on these self-publishing articles. However, Satan's been feeling a little left out, because as I mentioned, I had to take some time off of the kind of writing to which he’s usually associated. Because of this I had promised him that he would be part of the next thing that I wrote. “And it's a good thing, for your readers anyway, because so far, this article is pretty dry!” “It's a how-to article. It's not the kind of thing where you can just throw in comments and jokes.” “Watch me!” Satan responded. Before I could complain, he continued, “Look, I was there for the entire process. I can help.” I must’ve looked doubtful because he continued, “I promise I won’t tell anyone what you’ve been doing to get good reviews.” “Hey! What are you talking about?!” I demanded. “Look, I’m just impressed you’ve been able to get any good reviews--- for doing that, believe me!” “He’s kidding.” “Sure I am.” “I will be drawing upon my experience publishing my new book, Not From Around Here, as a reference. In Part 1, we will review how to decide what book to write, how to decide if self-publishing is right for you, the process to get a book out in e-book form, why you would do that, and preliminary steps to take for the promotion and marketing of your book. In part 2, we will review publishing a print version of your book, as well as going into detail and actual experience in promoting a book and getting it reviewed. Along the way I'll be pointing out any issues or successes that came up. In my case, the book has been out in e-book for several weeks and in paperback for many days, so you’re truly getting first-hand experience on a very timely basis! I should note that despite how entertaining Satan is, he will actually be contributing mostly to the second part of the article, because his special skills-set turned out to be most appropriate for promotion and marketing. So, how do you choose your first book and why choose to self-publish? In my example, one lead to the other. Since I had published several stories on Yahoo and had a decent amount of very supportive readers, racking up thousands of reads, scores of fans and some very favorable comments here on Yahoo Voices, as well as on social media, I decided to use what I had become known for, as my first effort. I considered whether this should have been fiction or political commentary, and simply because I felt most like writing fiction at the time, fiction won out. Many of the writers here have specific types of articles they do regularly, from self-help, informative, fiction, and poetry, for a few examples, which would all lend themselves to a self-published book. Of course, even if you don’t write here at Yahoo, all these suggestions apply to you as well. If you are going to use any content you've published on Yahoo or anywhere else, you need to make sure you've retained the appropriate rights, or are able to acquire them, if you want to re-publish any previously published content. I enjoyed publishing short stories here at Yahoo Voices and had some success with them, so I decided a short story collection made sense. However, I knew from a talk I had with an interested agent, that a short story collection was a hard sell for a new author. She told me that, in her informed opinion, no major publisher wanted a short story collection from an unknown author. I had heard that before, and even with Alice Munro winning the Nobel Prize in literature for a short story collection, I have been told that this still hasn't changed much. The agent indicated to me that if I persevered, spent money on copies of my book to send around to various small publishers, I might eventually find a traditional publisher in the second or third tier that was willing to publish my book. It could take as long as two years or more, cost me several hundred dollars and in the end the publisher might have no more marketing clout or financial resources than I would, to do the promotion. So, once I decided to go with a short story collection as my first book, I knew self-publishing would be the way to go. You should be aware that even if you wrote something that could be of interest to a publisher, it does not mean traditional publishing should definitely be the route you take. Why should you consider self-publishing? I have read many arguments that in the new frontiers of publishing, self-publishing can actually be preferential for some people. Probably for some of the reasons I mentioned above. Unless you work with a large publisher who also has a belief that your book can be a bestseller, you are likely going to find that there is not much promotional resources being offered for your project. To some degree you'll be going-it alone, even with a publisher. There are differences, of course. With a big publisher you have access to information and contacts that you will not have on your own. Also, when we discuss getting reviews to help with your promotion, you'll find that getting reviews from major outlets is more difficult, and from some of them it’s near impossible, for the self published. On the other hand, with self-publishing you have full control and you get maximum royalties. Of course, part of the reason you get maximum royalties is nobody gave you an advance, which is a nice thing to get from a publisher. Nevertheless, if you can make your book a success, and often it will rest with you, then you're likely to make more money self-published. The control is an important point. If a publisher is not large enough or doesn't believe in your work enough to support it with great financial resources, then you may watch your book struggle and by the time this occurs, you may feel powerless to fix it. When you self publish, from day one, you know the responsibilities, and possibilities, rest on you. Depending on whether you’re up to the challenge, this could be construed as a blessing or a curse. I am proceeding as if my readers are making the choice to self-publish, either because of its merits, or because they don’t feel there is a viable alternative for their work. I wouldn't tell you not to try to go through traditional publishing with a big publisher. But you may expend a great deal of time and resources before you make your goal, and the odds are you won't make that goal. Not that you can’t. Just that a lot of people try to get a lot of work published and even great stuff is often passed over. We’ve all heard those stories, of how many times bestsellers were first rejected. My purpose here is just to make you understand that self-publishing is a viable option and a reasonable alternative to attempting to go through the process of finding a traditional publisher. Things are changing weekly in the self-publishing field and it doesn't pay to go into all the things that have changed since---they’ve changed. But just to give you an idea, in the last few weeks, it is gotten easier to publish e-books on Amazon for the Kindle, it has become more expensive and difficult to use some companies to self publish a paperback or hardcover book, and it has become cheaper to get your printed book distributed in more places. Some of these I will explain further because they’re necessary for these articles, but on other changes, the details are too complicated, voluminous and unnecessary to this discussion, to detail here. There are primarily two e-book formats out there. There is the .mobi file for Kindle and the open standard .epub file used by iBooks from Apple, Barnes and Noble Nook and other e-readers. Until very recently to publish on Kindle you had to do an HTML conversion that often looked considerably different than your original document. Now, however, you can enter a Word document directly into the Kindle Direct Publishing system. I was going to pay a company to help me with the conversion when this change occurred, and when I entered my document into the system my first try at an e-book came out looking pretty good. Whether you're making an e-book or a print book, it will be near impossible to get it to look completely right the first time. Fortunately there are companies out there looking to help you. Some will charge you and give you independent assistance and advice. Inmy particular case, utilizing Kindle to help me get a Kindle e-book up and running and using Createspace to make my paperback, I was able to get all the help I needed without additional cost. However, those companies also offer design and implementation services for a fee. I found I didn't need to utilize those. When we talk about paperbacks in the next part of the article I'll tell you about hardcover printing though I’ll also review why I chose not to utilize that for my book. The first thing you're going to want is one document with your entire publication, except for the cover. You'll be entering the cover into the publishing systems separately. I'm not going to go into header and formatting issues specific to any particular word processing program. If you have trouble getting those things to look the way you want, there is ample help for these issues if you search the Internet. Any article you read on self-publishing will tell you that the cover is one of the most important parts of your publication, whether it's an e-book or a print book. People will see the cover first. In an ad, on an internet listing, a vendor site, on your Facebook, or wherever. In my case, I had an idea for a picture I wanted on the cover. Interestingly, while my photographer delivered what I asked for, during the shoot she explained to me that she wanted to take a few more pictures. She wanted to get my entire shadow on the ground in the picture. As you can see from the cover I've included as an illustration for this article, she was right on the money and that's the picture I used. Seeking outside opinions and help are highly recommended to review your cover design and the look of your book. A lot of people choose designers to make their cover using stock photos and drawn illustrations and computerized elements. I have seen a lot of striking covers out there, so I can't tell you how to proceed. While I wasn't looking to spend extra money on cover design services, if I didn't have an idea for my cover, or if I couldn’t make it work, I no doubt would've spent the additional money to make sure my cover was professional. There’s nothing that I can tell you about the content of your book except to make it the best you can. If it's not a novel, it's a good idea to have a reason why you included that particular body of content together in one publication. If it's a novel obviously you put in what you think you need to put in. If it's a nonfiction book, you will not only need to produce your book, but to convince people that you should be the one who wrote the book that they should read. It may mean establishing yourself as an expert in a particular field or area. In my particular case I tried to include a body of work that illustrated the range of stories I think I write well. Regardless of the content of your book, once you make it the best you can write, you need it to be the best that can be produced. This means editing. There are two things I can tell you about editing. It stinks. And it sucks. Those are two things that I felt needed to be said, but they are not actually the two points I need to make! 1) It's no fun editing. If you're really good at editing your work, that's great! I do the first couple of edits of my work, but those are usually content edits and for obvious grammatical flaw edits. I usually have another set of educated eyes do an edit for me. This is not always possible with a story or article, but it is absolutely essential with a book. In fact, in my case, after one editor went through it, I paid another editor to go through it again. Ironically, what you'll learn is, 2) editing is a never-ending process. I'm not sure why that is, because the number of words in your document is finite. However, after each edit, when the editor (or you) believes they've found all the errors and quality corrections--- you will find more! Now technically, in an e-book you can make corrections after its first published, and submit them, and they'll re-publish the e-book. It's a relatively seamless process. But not everyone will have the final version and you don’t want too many different edited versions out there. Take your time and try for one great edited work before you publish! Take this from my experience because I did a few re-publishing’s of my e-book! Certainly, it’s no longer practical to keep making edits once you have a print copy out there, if you choose to go with a print copy. Therefore you need to edit your work as best you can, then be at peace with the result once it's published. That’s why the subtitle to this particular article is “OCD and the Art of Self-Publishing”. Because with many aspects of the publishing process, you need to be relentless in going over your work, over and over again, as if you have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), yet then, you will have to reign in your OCD, or you will forever fret over the results---because you will keep finding things you could correct, or rewrite. It’s just the nature of the medium, and our own desire to always make our work the best it can be. Most of you don't have OCD, so this really shouldn’t be an issue. For those of you that do, I sympathize, believe me. So you wrote, you edited and you made the cover as best you can. You have yourselves a book! It might be a compilation of work you've already done, or it might be all-new material. Whatever it is, it's the best you can do. If not, why would you publish it? This is an important point, because in order to effectively promote and market your publication you will need to solicit reviews and handout, or e-mail, a lot of copies of your book to get the word out. If people end up not liking your book, you want that to be because they just don't ---“get you” and not because you--- could’ve, would’ve, should’ve--- done a better job! In my example, I wanted my book out at the end of the summer but, editing and other issues required, that to get the job done right, it didn't come out till November. So, technically you now have a book. What the $#@& do I do now, you're probably asking?! (Though I imagine your expletive was more colorful than decorum would allow for this article.) You need to determine what formats of the book you want to sell and where you want to sell them. In the e-book format you have the opportunity to sell your book through many venues on the internet at a very low price or cost. In my case I decided that a low-price that should allow anyone who wants my book to buy it would be $1.99. Now, if you find my book online you'll see that the Kindle e-book is $2.99. WTF? I'll tell you. You see, there are forces at work beyond what we know, until we do our research and get ready to publish. If you sell an e-book through Kindle for under $2.99 you get a 30% royalty. At $2.99 and above, you can elect to get a 70% royalty. Some people sell their books at $.99 believing that they will more than make up with greater sales, what they lose in potential royalties on each copy. However, you’d need to sell almost 7 times as many copies, at $.99 as you would at $2.99, to make the same amount of royalty. I think this is eminently possible if you are selling a non-fiction book with universal appeal. $.99 truly would seem to be a price that makes the purchase a no-brainer (at least as far as cost goes). I have seen a couple of informal studies that claim $.99 through $2.99 is actually all no-brainer territory. These purported results would indicate there wasn't much difference in sales for any amounts in that price range, which would indicate $2.99 and $.99 would sell about as many copies and you should go with the $2.99 price to earn more income. However, at this time there is no hard science that I am aware of that proves the accuracy or veracity of those study results at this time. For my example, I certainly was not offering a nonfiction book with universal appeal. I am offering fiction that I put a great deal of time and effort into. Although the self-publishing process can be free or near free of cost, I paid for an editor and there would be some elective costs that were still to come. Also, promotion has its costs, such as, gas and travel expenses, your time, and handing out free copies of your book (in print form, which are certainly not free to you). Self-publishing is not a cost free endeavor, although it can be done for minimal outlays compared to what was available years ago, before the advent of current publishing and e-reader technologies. When you look at the sales of e-books, you will see that is it an attractive market that you probably shouldn't pass by. And when you look at e-books you will have to consider that the dominant platform currently is Amazon's Kindle. Why do I bring that up when you can simply publish on all the different platforms available? That's a good question! Because you'll be offered a service called Amazon KDP Select. With this, you give Kindle exclusivity to your material in blocks of 90 days. In exchange, they will make your book available to be lent out in their Amazon Prime program. This means that Amazon Prime members can borrow your book for free but you get financially compensated by Amazon. Other benefits include putting your book on sale for a lower price for a specific amount of time. You can even give your book away for free for a specific amount of time. Why would you do that? Some people do that to promote other books in a series by giving the first book of the series away for free. Since I only have one book, giving it away for free makes no sense. The potential rewards for the Amazon KDP Select program made it seem worthwhile to me. However, at this point I can't really say many people have rushed out to borrow my book, even though the cost to them is free. On the other hand, the downside to giving Kindle limited time exclusivity is reduced because there is a free Kindle app that allows almost any e-reader to read Kindle books. I have several readers that are currently reading the book on their iPhone or iPad using the free Kindle app for that device. So whether you should go exclusively with the Kindle platform in these blocks of 90 days, either once, or if successful, then you would continue to renew each 90 days, is entirely up to you. But if readers want your e-book they can manage to get it, even if they have another e-reader platform. If you want to publish to each e-platform on its own, you'll need to go to Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble Nook, the Google Playstore, and there are also offerings from Sony and a couple of other players. I'm not familiar with all of them yet because I decided to explore the KDP Select program. Unless something substantially changes I will not be renewing that exclusivity and I will be placing my book on every platform I can find, once the first 90 days is completed. So in the next article I will probably have a few more platforms to mention, just as an addendum. When it comes to putting out an e-book, and you will find the same for putting out a print book, there are many companies that look to get between you and the customer, and help you out. They all charge various fees for these services. After researching the many different venues I decided to pretty much go direct. I'm technologically savvy enough to get the job done and truthfully nothing was so complicated. Everyone that publishes here at Yahoo Voices should be able to handle those tasks necessary to get their work through any of the systems I'm discussing. If you’re more newbie than that, you either need to do some research or take some help. However, a lot of the systems will offer enough help without cost, if you’re patient and willing to learn. I have not found a foolproof method, or a perfect method, to publish and promote. Whenever I see a potential service I might be interested in, I do an Internet search for reviews of that service. I believe this is a good way to handle many things, by the way. I have found no service that was so loved or highly rated, that I believed it could make the difference between success and failure. That's just me and my understanding of the issues. I am becoming quite active in the online writer and self-publishing forums and I believe I've researched the topic enough to know that there are no shortcuts to success. If you are going to self-publish it behooves you to also become at least somewhat active in online forums. The more internet research you do, the more forums and discussion groups you will find. There are certainly easier ways to get things done if you want to pay someone else to do them. I was not looking to pay anyone else, because I didn't want to spend the money and I want to understand the processes involved, as best I can. When you understand something you can work with it and take control of it. I will tell you right now, that when you research online, about putting out an e-book, you will barely think it's necessary to publish a print book anymore. But that’s not true. I've run into many people that waited to buy my paperback, which came out several weeks after the e-book. Also, in the next article, when we talk about promotion, if you're able to do any book signings or drop-offs to a book club, you will need a hardcover or paperback print edition, to do so. Distributing an e-book is quite simple. Each platform that you agree to sell it on, Amazon, Apple iBook, etc. will put it into their system; make it searchable and available, and work out the financial details with you of how to pay you. They want product to sell and they want to compensate their authors. Promotion and marketing is quite different from distribution. When you form an agreement with each of those platforms, they distribute your e-book. If you choose to go with an intermediary company to assist you with creating your e-book, they'll tell you they'll distribute it for you as well. But what they'll be doing is placing it in those different platforms for you. It is convenient and a time saver but it is not an indispensible service. While I plan to cover promotion in the next article, along with how you get the book out in print, I'm going to cover a little bit of it now because if self-publishing is an area you wish to explore, there are some things you'd better set up ASAP. You will want a Facebook page and most probably a professional Facebook page. If you set them both up, they’ll link together. You'll want a twitter account. If you can swing it financially, you'll want a website. You can shop them from all the major web companies and you’ll find there are some very affordable opportunities out there. The thing is, you can get by just with your Facebook and your Yahoo contributor profile. But if you set up your own website, it can be the hub where you have links to Facebook, to your contributor profile, to your twitter, as well as any other social media you may pursue. You may also blog to support your writing. I was blogging before I was publishing anything else online, once I discovered Yahoo I was only blogging material I wasn't putting on Yahoo Voices. However, once I put out a book, I now use the blog as a promotional tool, as well! As we come to the close of the first part in this series of articles, I hope you'll come away with a better understanding of why you might self publish, what you might self publish, and how an e-book might fit into your plans. You should also be considering all the social media and web presence options I just mentioned, at a minimum. Because, the reality is, if you’re going to self-publish, then you’re going to have to self-promote. You don't have to do it alone. You can hire assistance or your can cajole assistance out of your friends and relatives (we’ll discuss that more in the next article). But however it's done you will need to promote and market. In the next part, we’ll look at getting a print book published and distributed, as well as the promotion and marketing of your publication!

Next Stop on the College Radio Tour---DePaul University, Radio DePaul

2014-02-07T07:21:00.002-08:00

You can listen in at 11am EST Friday February 7th, here http://radio.depaul.edu/#/

On Sale for Groundhog's Day!

2014-02-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

The book's on sale for Groundhog's Day on demand of the Groundhog from "Fur and Loathing". The sale goes on for another day. You can get the ebook for only $.99 at Amazon And the paperback, signed by the author (written the way you want) is available direct from my website The paperback is at the cover price, but that includes tax and shipping so that's a big savings. You can buy up to 3 and each one gets cheaper! What a bargain! If the sale goes well I may keep selling the signed copies on my site. You can also get them at Amazon, and the Barnes and Noble website. You can also order from your local bookstore!

My Mom's Birthday is January 24th. In honor of my mom,this story is available for about the next 36 hours.

2014-01-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

This story, Mother's Nature, has only been available in my book "Not From Around Here" For my mother's birthday, I make it available, here to everyone interested for a limited time. -----Mother’s Nature----- My mother has always been there for me. Sure, she once pulled me out of a pool when I was a drowning 3 year old, but all mothers would have done that for their kids. I mention it because that’s just one of the first memories I have of a lifetime of her taking care of, and looking out for, me. It’s fitting that it’s a memory from many years ago, because, things have changed in a very strange way. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like a man out of time. It’s as if my entire life is laid out before me and, when I deal with my mother, rather than just move through life, we randomly bounce around it. I think it’s because so much isn’t right anymore. My mother read a lot of my writing even though when I started writing it wasn’t her cup of tea. That’s mostly because she was always a tasteful and discerning reader who was into --- you know --- good writing. When I first started writing my work was, well, not that. It never stopped her from reading my stuff, though. I could talk to my mother about anything, and she often had wise counsel to give me. More than once, when talking about girls, she shrewdly observed that I should break up with them, and unwisely, I usually didn’t take her advice --- at least not right away. But even when I didn't, I could still see the wisdom in it. More importantly, I could see the love. Whether I followed my mother's advice or not, it was always plain to see it was in my best interest. A moment has never gone by where I didn't know my mother wanted the best for me. My mother and I faced many difficult times together. It should’ve prepared me for what I’m dealing with now, but it didn't. I can remember some of those earlier travails, such as, when my father left home. It felt like things would be very difficult indeed, though it wasn’t long before we realized the biggest effect on our lives was we now had a lot more closet space in our tiny apartment. Also, after he left, I learned there really was something called leftovers after a meal. Until then, faced with my father’s never ending appetite --- I thought ‘leftovers’ were just a comedic prop used on television sitcoms. Still, when my father left, it was a difficult time for my mother, and she showed me through example that, life goes on, and you must let nothing stand in your way from doing what you need to do. She taught me about courage and strength, but never from oratory; always through deeds and actions. Soon enough, sadly, we would learn how much worse things could get. The really difficult times began with a noticeable decline in my mother’s health. She lost the front of one foot to diabetes and poor medical judgment. She had other health issues as well. But still we persevered---and by we, I mean ---she, she persevered and I went along for the ride. But illness in your parent does make you think…and worry. My mother took these events hard, but in stride, and she never gave up. She truly taught me by example that despite great adversity, we can always carry on. I’ve known people who are estranged from their parents, so I think that’s why I always make sure to tell my mother just how important she has always been to me. My mother and I have never spent even one moment estranged, which shouldn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but there are many who would think it is. Nevertheless, can a parent know the profound effect they have had on a child if the child doesn’t make a point to speak of it? If the child doesn’t tell them, thank them, and discuss it with them, how would they know? Which brings me to some of the odd experiences I've been having lately. How I've come to feel like a man out of time. These nights when I speak to my mother our talks contain elements from conversations long past. Perhaps this is merely a function of my aging and revisiting topics with a revised perspective, but sometimes I am still surprised at my inability to drop a particular point. For instance, I mentioned that my mother often read my writing. I think my topics of ‘speculative fiction’ were less appealing to her. She enjoyed elements of fantasy, she enjoyed the work of Stephen King, but she could also be found reading the historical fiction of Michener or the intrigue of Le Carre. So again, just the other night, we were speaking about my writing. As usual I did most of the talking but later on we had more of a dialogue. I reminded her of a story I wrote called “Wall” and how when I gave her the original unabridged novella version so many years ago, over 50 pages, she very nicely remarked that it might be a while until she could get to it. She was having vision problems and reading was becoming a more difficult proposition. As reading was always one of her joys, I was not looking to take some of her precious reading time away for something she might not particularly enjoy, so I said, “You know what, how about we save such a long story until I actually get it published?” That was years ago, and currently, “Wall” has been published. It would seem fair for her, after so many years, to finally read and critique it. I guess that was on my mind, because I brought it up in more than one conversation I had with my mother, on different nights. Again, with that feeling that I had been removed from my timeline and floated above my life and could just dive in any place or time, I brought it up, matter-of-factly, as if there were no intervening years. As much as I could not explain why at that particular time it seemed perfectly normal to bring it up out of the blue, I might also mention that no matter how much I hinted, she spoke about other things as though she didn’t hear me, or maybe, didn’t understand me. Sadly, this is how most of our conversations go these days, the ones where she responds at all. Much of the time I do the talking. I talk to my mother just about every day. But when she and I have a real discussion, few and far between, she rarely addresses anything I hope or expect. Another example, she has never, since it occurred in 2001, at least that I can recall, had a comment about my birthday being September 11th during one of our infrequent dialogues. Yet I can remember how important my birthday always was to her in the past, and how special she made me feel as we celebrated it. I remember she once arranged a small surprise party for me. She sent me on an errand and when I returned, my cousin, close friend and girl friend were all there waiting for me. Before this birthday, my father had already left and my older brother had moved out, and it was just me and my mom. She worked very hard for modest pay, took care of the apartment, while I was in school at that time, and yet she would balance everything, including making that small party for me. Still, the few times my birthday comes up during one of our infrequent conversations, she indicates no understanding of the significance of the date. In fact, I tried to bring up my birthday and that specific party recently, though I’m not sure why it was on my mind. She ignored the topic and instead asked, “Remember your favorite green glass?” “Oh man, ma, I haven’t thought of that in years!” When I was a kid, my mother and brother used whatever glass was available when they wanted a drink, like most people would, I guess. My father had his own, special glass though, and I wanted one too. And I wanted a big one --- I remember being thirsty! I was at an arcade in Coney Island, and did really well at Skee Ball one afternoon, and got a lot of tickets, and traded them in for the biggest glass I’d ever seen! It was green, rippled glass and I thought it was beautiful. I came home with it and said, “Hey ma, look, I won my own special, really big glass!” She took one look at it and said, “That’s a vase.” “No, wha—yeah? Really?!” I loved that vase-glass. It was huge. I drank out of it for many years! Quite some time after that birthday, and years after I got that glass, my mother took in a stray cat off the streets of Brooklyn. She loved that cat. He had a heart condition and usually cats with it live only 5-7 years, but Buddy as we ended up naming him, had a great cardiologist in Manhattan; Dr. Fox from the Animal Medical Center. His fine work, our diligence and Buddy’s lively spirit, kept our cat alive until he was over 13! Nevertheless, as close as she was with Buddy, I can’t recall a show of emotion when we had our only discussion about his death, years ago. She visited his grave with me once, but as was often the case at this time in my life, her conversation did not match the events very well, unless she was being allegorical or something. If she was, it went completely over my head. Yet, other times, my mother is still right on the money. I talked about how much I wish my brother and his family lived closer, so we could see each other more. “It’s good when family is physically close, like Lil (her sister) and I always were. But you know, Scott and you are very close, and distance doesn’t matter like it did when I was young!” She smiled, which I don’t see enough these days, unless I look at pictures of her from years past. My mother grew up in the depths of the depression. The world was a much different place back then. Now with cheap long distance, cell phones and internet, as well as more accessible transportation, the world truly is a smaller place. I thought I knew exactly what she meant, which was nice, but unusual these days. One afternoon, many years ago, my mother was making her homemade marinara sauce, and she called to me, “Come here, I want to show you how to make my sauce.” “Why ma?” “Because, in case something happens to me, I want to make sure you won’t starve!” She mentioned this long before disclosing to me some health issues, including an enlarged heart, which caused her physician to make a prediction that she wouldn’t live to 50 (but thankfully that proved not to be the case.) I was talking to her about her sauce just the other night; “I’ve been making it for quite a few years now, and I know I’ve altered the recipe over the years, but you never tell me what you think of it.” She looked at me then asked, “Did you speak to your brother?” I don’t always speak to my brother enough, but we speak regularly, and have a great relationship. Still, I guess one of us was concerned that I wasn’t calling him enough. Speaking of my brother, and hopping around my timeline some more, many years ago my brother wanted my mother to move out to Florida with him, and in fact, had even brought up my looking for work out there as well. Since my mom and I lived together, she was not anxious to leave if I were not going also. I told her my life was very Brooklyn oriented and I couldn’t see leaving. We had a very small apartment, and I was in school, but I told her someday soon I would get her out of there, to a really nice place. Recently, one lazy weekend afternoon, I got the opportunity to ask her if she regretted my not agreeing to move to Florida. It’s something that has bothered me for quite some time; that I did not get her right out of that small, old, rundown apartment and into something bigger and nice in Florida, near my brother. She didn’t even answer, but I guess I knew what she would think, or feared I did, anyway. As I hop around my timeline, going far back and then fast forwarding to the now---it must seem that my mother is of two natures---the old mom that was amazing, funny, caring---and the recent mom that’s detached. I can’t argue that. In fact, I was talking to my mother just the other night when the frustration seemed to break through. I was trying to tell her how great it was to see her because it had felt particularly long between visits. As usual, her words were making sense but were not directly related to my conversation. “Mom, it’s great to see you. I’ve missed you so much. I don’t know why it’s been so long.” We were standing outside our apartment building in Brooklyn, in front of my first car, an orange-rust colored Caprice Classic. “We need to go shopping. Waldbaum’s will be very crowded if we wait much longer.” “Ma, if we have to, we can go to another store. There’s no rush. It’s so good to see you. You really look great.” As I said it, I noticed that her left arm had the bone exposed from the elbow down to the hand. Something like this was usually the case for so many years when I spoke with my mother; that something was “off” just a bit --- or perhaps in this case, more than a bit. There was almost always a sign: dark, maudlin outfits, something unsettling around us, inconsistencies or anachronisms; in this case her skeletal arm, our old apartment building and my first car, which would all tell me something was clearly amiss. It’s probably because, while I do talk to her every day, many of the dialogues I mentioned have happened in my dreams. My mother died quite unexpectedly and abruptly 25 years ago, and since then I speak to her a lot, but when I’m awake, she doesn’t answer. Sometimes, when I sleep, much more so the first few years after she died, I speak to her in my dreams, and she does answer, but my conversations are not always what I would most like to talk about, and the words my mother chooses, are not as direct and related as they were when she was alive. The events I mentioned when I was younger, the advice, the writing, the birthday party, making her sauce, her failing health, those took place when she was alive, of course. Talking about my current writing, visiting our cat’s grave, talking about the family, hanging out in our old Brooklyn neighborhood --- all a construct of my somnambular desires, I guess because I miss my mother so much. Our cat outlived my mother by 11 years. Buddy sure missed her, too. Many a night he would stand in the doorway of her bedroom and let out a mournful howl. When I could give my mother writing of mine to read, it was hot off --- the typewriter, complete with whited-out corrections because Buddy the cat loved to walk on my keyboard, the typewriter and years later, the computer, whenever I was working. My mother was a very honest, strong and intelligent speaker. Rather than frustrating it was almost always helpful and fun to speak with her. I think you would’ve liked her too. Everyone did. That’s how I know my dreams are my mind’s creation, not a visitation. It’s how I know this is a tale of loss and not of supernatural occurrence. Because my mother would make plenty of sense if that were her talking with me, instead of my brain trying to create her presence from a string of memories and sleepy synaptic impulses. I remember before she died, my mom, Rae, was very sick and half asleep in a hospital room, and I heard her call out to her mother and speak to her, though her mother had died about 17 years earlier. My mother wasn’t delirious or confused; I knew she knew her mother was dead. And because my mother was always so smart, and so grounded, I didn’t understand what she was doing, or why. But I do now. She talked to her, because it was her mother---and that never changes. And here I am 25 years after my mother died and, I don’t think a full day goes by where I don’t think about my mother ---and few days go by where I don’t talk to her either. The conversations are more one sided now, but when I am awake and speaking to her, I can often reason things out with the memory of the guidance she’d already given me, when she was alive. That is the real impact of my mother’s nature --- that I know what she would have told me to do, and even now, if I don’t do as she would, I am quite well aware of it. So I jump around my timeline in my dreams. I go in search of something, but I usually find something different. I searched for the reason my dreams did not reveal my mother’s nature, but in the end I found her nature in so many ways when I’m awake, because I’m my mother’s son. Unlike the very wonderful dreams we see or read about in movies and novels --- the mother of my dreams is not much like the mother I knew. She doesn’t guide me when I sleep, though she does when I’m awake. My mom doesn’t sit down and talk to me in my dreams, not as she did when she was alive. But when I’m awake, I know what she would tell me… …because my mother’s nature is alive and well in me. ----------------------- Happy Birthday Mom! I miss you. This story will still be available in my collection,"Not From Around Here", along with 17 other stories.

The National College Radio Tour Continues...!

2013-12-13T17:05:00.001-08:00

My interview with St. Bonaventure can be heard here. I was interviewed by Andrew Bevevino of St. Bonaventure's WSBU FM 88.3 the Buzz, which incidentally is nationally ranked No. 1 college radio station by The Princeton Review.

Ban My Book---PLEASE!

2013-11-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

In yet another selfish bid for attention for my new book, Not From Around Here, I must ask all of you to help me call upon, and infuriate, all the repressive cultures of the world to help me publicize my book---by banning it. That's right, we're talking to you; Iran, North Korea, Utah! Not From Around Here is filled with all the things that you guys hate. It's got thought provoking ideas, strong, independent, free thinking characters, it has adult themes, vivid imagery, and spans multiple genres. It's everything good that you wish to hide form your populace as you seek to shroud them in darkness and keep them repressed. You know you want to hate Not From Around Here. The only reason you don't hate it already, is because you've never heard of it. Don't let a little thing like anonymity stop you from doing what you do best---repress the hell out of Not From Around Here! I dare you, I double dare you! You know what would be nice? A book burning! Come on, you know you want to, you know you need to! Now, ebooks don't burn very well, so you'll need to buy a bunch of paperbacks---but that's okay because right now they're on sale! And when you burn them, don't just call the local media---get international coverage, you deserve it! Except for you, Utah, national is good for you. Please, friends, family, readers, help get the word out---Not From Around Here, is a threat to authoritarian governments everywhere, and full of much too much fun, free thinking and frolicking for any repressive regimes. Ban the book! Burn the book! But above all, make sure the media is there when you do! Thank you, and please remember, Reading Is Fundamental. And Books are our Friends! Larry

Where the $%#& is Not From Around Here?

2013-11-21T17:07:00.000-08:00

NFAH was invited by some other books to visit the Rhinebeck, NY library. This was a good opportunity for the book to get some exposure, and possibly be invited back as a book instead just a visitor. NFAH didn't show up.

Thank You to Our Service Men and Women on Vetran's Day and Everyday!

2013-11-11T05:37:00.001-08:00

You, who protect our freedoms and allow us to pursue our goals, beliefs and happiness---we thank you and we salute you.

Satan asks, "What's in a name?" About 20 cents a use, apparently.

2013-11-11T04:28:00.002-08:00

In a show of the modern over classic, Voldemort, Harry potter baddie, had the forethought to trademark "Dark lord" and now Satan has to pay a small fee each time someone refers to him in that capacity. "There were no trademark or copyright offices when I started using that title!" Satan exclaimed with his lawyer, Johnny Cochran, at his side. Johnny explained that Satan would be invoking Habeus Corpus. When asked how that applied in this instance, Johnny used his flair for turning a phrase, if Satan doesn't prevail, I'd say "Hey bus--get me out of here before Satan makes everyone into Corpuses." The thinly veiled threat was not taken lightly, and an action of contempt of court has been threatened. However, that is by acting temporary Judge, Judge Judy, while a new official magistrate is appointed. The first appointed Judge, Antonin Scalia, was protested by Voldemort's legal team as being in the pocket of Satan. The second Judge, Clarence Thomas, was also cited as owing his career to Satan, but strangely, Voldemort's team declined to protest. However, Satan's team refused to accept this appointment on the grounds that "Justice Thomas is incapable of rendering a credible and coherent opinion, and during opening statements, seemed confused as to which was the defendant and who was the plaintiff. Heaven has intervened and has offered up a bevy of honorable, long deceased Judges and a final decision is expected soon. Stay tuned. Also, Satan would like kids age 6-16 to know that, should his court battle fail, he'll be looking for a new moniker and will be running a contest soon. Watch your sugary cereal box for details!

Win a free ebook or paperback!!!!!!!!!!!

2013-11-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

I just scooped this out of the latest review for "Not From Around Here". I reversed it. Details of free book first, then the review is below that! (Re-Published with permission of Styll Reviews) The author, Larry Hochwald, wants to help us celebrate our review, and upcoming author interview. So, we will be giving away 5 Kindle ebooks and 5 choices of ebook or paperback during the next week. To enter, just send an email to my blog at marysub76@gmail.com. In the subject put NFAH Free Giveaway. The ebooks will be given as gifts from Amazon so you need an email used for an Amazon account that you should write into the body of the email. Kindle ebooks can be read by most devices with a free Kindle reader app for your appropriate device, downloaded from Amazon. If the ebook option doesn't work for you, or you only want a paperback, you must say that in the body of the email, along with an address to send the paperback if you win. To choose a paperback you must live in the contiguous 48 states. Our blog will be hosting the giveaway. We will print out each entry email, fold them all up exactly the same, put them in a pouch and observe as the author draws out the winning entries. The review, courtesy of Styll Reviews: http://styllreviews.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-best-book-you-probably-havent-read.html I try to find stuff for you that you might not find on your own. Sometimes I bring you the big stuff, like “Doctor Sleep” or “Gravity” but I prefer to make finds like I did with the musical work of Leah Finkelstein. Now, I bring you one of the most exciting, interesting and thought-provoking books I have read in years, and definitely one of the best for this year. I am speaking of “Not From Around Here,” a new book by a relatively new author, Larry Hochwald. You may have seen Larry’s work before, because he was publishing regularly online, until last year, when he started to seriously work on this book. On the surface, Not From Around Here, is a collection of fiction that spans horror, fantasy, humor, literary, contemporary and science fiction genres. However, it is more than just a collection of exciting and surprising stories. There are several threads and themes that run throughout and, without providing a spoiler, I can tell you that it all comes together. It starts, innocently enough, with a story called “Best Friend”. By the end of that story I was hooked. I was surprised by what happened, but also by my reaction. I was crying at the end of the story, and that was to happen 3 more times while I read the book. Now, I read short stories and I love good ones, but I’m not a big fan of collections in general. Why? There are two reasons for this, though I am very pleased to say that Not From Around Here avoids both pitfalls. One reason I skip short stories collections is when they are filled with stories that are only slice of life. You come into a scene, you live it, and then you leave, without anything finishing. Thankfully, all of these are satisfying and complete stories, more like mini-novels, in that they are complex tales with a beginning, middle and end. The other reason I often avoid short fiction collections is, sometimes, I find the quality of the stories becomes inconsistent in the middle of the book. They start with their best, and try to end on a high note, but the middle feels like filler, as does a lot of the content on many a CD. Fortunately, this book hold up very well, with some of the most inventive, surprising and visual stories right in the middle of the book. A handful of the stories have been published previously, and in fact, my first brush with the work of Larry Hochwald was a read of the second story of this collection, “The Placebo Effect”. Now, even those previously published stories have been polished and , in some cases, added to, so even though ire ad this one I was happy to read it again. This story is one of the most gripping I have ever read and I found there are comments all across the internet from people who back this up. One commenter recommended the story saying, in effect, “I don’t even like to read but I loved this one!” This story is an action packed thriller with an ending I couldn’t predict. In fact, that’s a hallmark of most of these---“WOW” endings that you just can’t predict. One of the most surprising stories was the 4th story, “Join the Club”. I’ve excerpted here on this site. I already called it “50 Shades meets The Shining”. I have to tell you, I don’t find much writing truly scary, and almost no short stories ever rise to that occasion but this was the scariest story I have ever read!” Now, I could keep going story by story, but that seems a bit too much. It is hard for me to choose favorites because I really enjoyed every story, and certainly there were no disappointments. “Faker” was a twist I’ve never seen before. “Mirrors” was a very original vision turning the nature of some beliefs upside down. Though, “Revelation” had some twists that I saw some readers said they haven’t seen that caliber since “The Sixth Sense” and I can’t disagree. “Wall” and “Desolation Lovers” were two visual stories that I think would make great movies, though, “Old Ways” could be anything from a great adventure movie to a series of novels. “Mother’s Nature” and “When this War Began” are two very special and effective stories. Some stories just flat out freaked me out, and I would list “OCD”, Carpet Shock” and “The Group” in that category. “A Present For Mikey” was a very short horror movie that I had the bad fortune to have someone tap me on the shoulder just as the family cried out in unison. And “Almost Home” was one of those I cried at the end.” All in all, there are laughs in just about every story, many in some of them, such as “Fur and Loathing” and, ironically, “Join the Club”. This book is like a roller coaster ride and I can’t remember enjoying a book, of any type, this much in quite a while, and in my entire life there are only a handful of short story collections that I enjoyed even close to this much. I think this is a wonderful first book, and springs Larry Hochwald on the world in a very enjoyable, exciting, thought-provoking and convincing way. The price of entry, for 18 stories (totaling274 pages in the paperback) if you read the ebook is an excellent bargain at only $2.99! The paperback is a very reasonable $12.99. You can get the book at Amazon, by clicking here . The paperback should be available by November 18th. You will find it on Amazon, or you can ask for it at your local bookstore. If you like to read, you need to read this book. If you don’t like to read, you should read this book…it will get you hooked on reading. Enjoy!

A Halloween Tale plus an excerpt from what one reviewer has called "page for page the scariest thing I've ever read"

2013-10-27T13:21:00.001-07:00

Best Friend (BFF)

Do you ever feel like your life is a movie and you're just moving through it? It’s more like you're watching it, than living it, and you just wonder what's going to happen next, or how it’s going to end. That's the way it's been for me, for years. A therapist once told me it's called ‘clinical depression.’ I just call it sad and lonely. At 26 it's rough not to have anybody. My parents have passed on. Most of my family lives far away, and it’s kind of a small family anyway. My girlfriend just broke up with me, though she really didn’t want to. She's a wonderful girl actually; sweet and giving and beautiful. After going together for a few years, she just felt I wasn't any closer to being able to commit. I'm sure she's right. I have trouble doing anything. If I lived in an earlier time, back before computers, I probably wouldn't even be able to feed and clothe myself. I design computer games. I started when I was 16 years old, reviewing them on gaming sites, and then it turned out I had an aptitude to build them from scratch. Gee, a geek who can’t commit. How appealing. It's not that I can't make friends; I just don't make a lot of them. I don’t think I had many friends in elementary school. I had a pretty good friend in high school. His name was Richard and we were going to start a digital gaming business together. That was before he died of an opportunistic infection after contracting HIV AIDS. I know I shouldn’t just be walking around the streets of Brooklyn pitying myself, but I do it a lot. Walking around and thinking is all I do in my free time, and I think the walking around makes me feel better, but the thinking brings me back to worse. I miss my girlfriend. She really was the best thing to ever happen to me. I don't know why I have so much trouble committing. The thought of getting engaged makes me so nauseous, I'm sure I'd throw up all over her if I tried to slip a ring on her finger---which might, quite possibly, kill the moment. Thinking about all of this, I was overcome by sadness and I sat down on the curb and did my best not to cry. If you live, work, or have visited Brooklyn, you're probably thinking it’s not a very good idea to sit down on a curb and be so low you won’t be visible to cars. You’d be right, which is why I was about to get hit by a car that was going way too fast pulling into the parking spot where I was sitting. “Hey, look out!” A little boy cried out as he jumped off the curb next to me, and pulled me up, and we both put our hands up towards the car. The car hit its brake and shook violently to a stop. “That guy needs new shocks.” The kid said, looking at me. I stood up, and we both stepped back onto the curb, and started walking away together as the guy in the car was sticking his head out of his window, trying to park while at the same time cursing at us. “Thanks kid!” I said. “I don't know if you saved my life, but I suspect you saved a part of it anyway.” I smiled as I looked down at the kid. I'm not good at judging ages, but I figured he was about seven or eight. He had a round head with a buzz cut, a chubby round body and cute little stubby hands. He wore a faded red striped T-shirt and a pair of old looking jeans. The shirt looked a little light for a crisp fall day like today. “My name is Georgie.” He said. “What's yours?” “I'm Alan.” I responded. Something about this kid seemed very familiar. Maybe that he vaguely looked like Charlie Brown. Even the name---Georgie---Charlie--- maybe that's why even his name seemed familiar. You don't really meet a lot of Georgies, do you? “You look awful sad Alan." Georgie observed. “I am sad. I broke up with a very good girl, and I don't have a lot of friends.” “What about your family?” Georgie asked. “My parents are dead and my brother lives a thousand miles away.” “I'm alone too.” Georgie said. “My parents and my sister died when our house went on fire.” “Oh, I’m sorry Georgie.” “Me too. I sure miss them. I miss not having a friend too. I live with my grandma. She's real nice, but she’s old and sick and she tells me she won't be able to take care of me much longer and I’ll have to go live in foster care. That's where you go live with someone else's family.” Georgie explained. “You got a lot going on for such a young kid. How old are you?” “I'm 6. How old are you?" “I’m 26.” “Wow, you're old!” Georgie exclaimed. “But you still remind me of my best friend in first grade, right before the fire, and before I had to leave that school.” “So the fire just happened. I didn't realize it was so recent.” “What?” Georgie asked. “You’re six, so aren't you still in first grade? All of that happened this year” “Oh yeah…I wasn’t sure what you meant.” Georgie said a little dazed. He must still be in shock from all the terrible things that recently happened. “Where does your grandmother live?” “She lives on 67th Street between 18th and 19th Avenue.” “That's more than a mile from here.” I said suspiciously. “I like to take walks.” Georgie responded. I was starting to get worried that he was a runaway. “I like to take walks too. Why don't I walk you home?” I asked, getting ready to counter his vague excuses. “Sure that would be nice. But I don't have to go home just yet, so maybe we can hang out?” He asked sheepishly. “You like pizza?” “Sure who doesn’t?!” Georgie responded. “Then let’s go have some. I know a nice place on 18th Ave.” We started to walk and we started to talk. Georgie liked everything I did when I was his age, and truthfully I still like a lot of it now. He likes the old arcade games, he likes chess and he likes to watch science fiction movies. He loves pizza. He's practically a little ‘me’. When we were done with the pizza I looked at my watch I realized it had been three hours since I first met Georgie. Truthfully, it was the most fun I've had since I broke up with Mary. But I didn't know if his grandmother was getting worried. All she needed to do was call the police and say he was missing, and when they found the six-year-old hanging out with the single 26-year-old guy, I'd end up spending the night in jail trying to prove I’m not a weirdo. “I've got to get you home.” I said. “Aww,” he gave a dejected moan, “Can we play again?” “Sure. I have some free time tomorrow. I can meet you at your grandma's house after school, about 3:30.” “I'm free!” Georgie smiled, very excited at the prospect. “Maybe I could meet your grandmother I can bring some cookies.” “Sure that would be nice.” We walked to his grandma's house and stood outside the front gate. I offered to walk him inside, but he said his grandma wasn't used to strangers and he should let her know about me first. Then right before he went through the gate, he said something unexpected. “Did you ever think of taking a foster son?” I looked at him and for the first time a kid made my heart melt. “I don't think they give little boys to single guys,” I said. I meant to smile like it was a little bit of a joke, but it didn’t come out that way, because I honestly felt a little sad about it. “Maybe you won't always be single. You said you really miss Mary. I bet she really misses you too. I know she does. If you decide it's time to grow up, maybe you two can get married, and you could both take me in.” He smiled a little smile, and then went into the gate and started walking to the front door. I turned to leave, and then realized I should wait to make sure everything was okay, but when I turned back he must've already gone inside. I went home thinking about how strongly I felt about this little boy, and how much I missed Mary. * * * That night I had a disturbing dream. I was with Georgie in an old house, but it was not any house I lived in, and it didn’t seem to me to be his grandmother’s house either. There was a figure ahead of us wearing a hooded robe. It stuck out a hand, I think for me to shake it. Its hand and exposed forearm were a sickly blue color, with green patches, and red swollen sores all over. I did not touch it, and I pushed Georgie behind me. I said to the figure, “I thought no one was living here.” And it replied, “There is no one living here.” It let out a maniacal laugh as it held up a large wooden stick match. A flame burst out of the end, and then I heard a scream behind me. I turned to Georgie and he was as pale as a ghost, but instead of wearing his striped shirt, he was now in a fine brown suit with a white shirt and brown bow tie. He said “We shouldn’t have come here.” Then I felt a cold hand grab my shoulder and---I jumped awake in my bed. * * * The next day I couldn't believe how much I was looking forward to the afternoon, when I would be able to see Georgie again. He was one of those people, hard to explain, you feel like you've known them a long time, and even more than that, you feel like you've liked them a long time, like they're already your friend. I picked up some cookies at a local bakery, but when I got to his grandma's house Georgie was sitting outside on the steps. “What's the matter?” I asked “Nothing, just my grandma didn't feel so good and went to the doctor. She wanted me to go with her, but I told her my friend was coming over, so she let me wait out here for you because she didn’t want me to bring strangers into the house.” “Oh.” I said. “Then who’s going to eat all these cookies?” Georgie smiled and I ripped open the box, and as we started walking away from the house we both grabbed some cookies. A little later we were sitting in the park ,still eating cookies, and talking about whether we might like to go bowling, when I asked Georgie, “What exactly is your grandma's name?” “Why?” He asked suspiciously. “Because I really do need to meet her. I can't just keep hanging out with a six-year-old without anybody knowing, and giving me permission. And when I meet her, I don't really want to stick out my hand,” which I did for emphasis, “and say hello Georgie's grandma, nice to meet you.” Georgie laughed and said “Edna McDaniel.” “Thank you.” We were leaving the park when I realized Georgie was wearing the same shirt as the other day. It worried me as to whether things were worse at home than he said and maybe his grandmother was too sick to take care of him, and he wasn’t telling anyone for fear he would be taken away. I leaned in to sniff his shirt but there was no odor at all. “What are you doing?” He asked. “Georgie, I can’t help notice you’re wearing the same shirt you wore yesterday. I was concerned that maybe your grandmother was too sick to take care of you properly.” “No. This is my favorite shirt. She washes it every night for me, and then complains that I can’t keep going out of the house dressed like this.” Georgie seemed annoyed so I dropped the subject since I didn’t see any reason to continue. We did decide to go bowling and afterward, on the way to bringing Georgie home I realized; “Hey tomorrow is Halloween. What are you going to dress as?” “A ghost—but not just any ghost—Charlie Brown, like in his comic and cartoon. Lots of holes for the face, so it looks stupid!” Georgie grinned. “Cool! Good one.” I smiled. “My grandma can’t walk enough to take me trick or treating, and I don’t have many friends, so I’m not sure I really need to dress up. What about you?” He asked. “A few years ago I was invited to a costume party, and I made an entire outfit with rubber rats sewn all over it, holes ripped all through it and blood stains everywhere---a rat attack. I haven’t worn it in years, but I will dig it out---if you will let me go trick or treating with you!” Georgie’s face lit up as I said it. I dropped Georgie off at home. We agreed to meet the next day---Halloween---at his house after school. He also said I could meet his grandmother after we trick or treated, if she was up to it. He said I couldn’t meet her now, because he didn’t know how she was feeling since returning from the doctor. On the walk home I made some decisions. Though I knew it was crazy that a six-year-old was helping me work out my life, Georgie was right, I needed to decide to grow up. I would try to work things out with Mary because I really did love her, and miss her, and want to be with her. I also needed to see what was going to happen to Georgie. Mary and I were not yet in a position to say if we would ever to be able to adopt Georgie, since technically we still weren’t even a couple, and Mary didn’t know about any of this! But it seemed to me that maybe I could get a better sense of what was going on and how much time I had, if I spoke to Georgie's grandmother. Perhaps we could work out an informal arrangement if she were comfortable and trusted me, where I could take responsibility for him periodically to help her out and give her a break. Maybe that could extend the amount of time she could remain his primary caretaker, until I was in a better position to take him. I decided I would speak to Mary tonight about getting back together, and let her know that I was ready to be a grownup, and tomorrow I would go meet with George's grandmother. * * * That night I had another bad dream. Mary and I were living in a house with Georgie. The house looked old, or at least the appliances and furniture looked old-fashioned. There was a knock at the door and suddenly I realized that a fierce thunderstorm was raging. Mary opened the door and screamed. I called her name as I ran to her, to see what happened, but there was no one at the door. She said that when she opened it, there had been a horrible hooded figure at the door, but she momentarily turned away when I called her name, and when she looked back, it was gone. We decided to check on Georgie, who was supposed to be sleeping. We went to his room and opened the door and Georgie was gone. All that was on his bed was the wet robe of the hooded figure. Then, again, I felt an icy hand on my shoulder. I jumped up awake in a cold sweat. My heart was pounding as I looked at the clock and it was a little after midnight—officially Halloween---and I officially scared the crap out of myself! * * * Mary and I met for breakfast, and it was really wonderful. Mary wasn’t with anyone else yet, she was just busy missing me. We agreed to give me—and us—one more chance. Afterwards, I went off to meet with Georgie’s grandmother. I decided it was better for Georgie if I spoke with her before he got home, and without him knowing, just in case it didn’t go well. When I got to the house a middle aged woman answered the door. “May I help you?” She asked. “You can’t possibly be Edna McDaniel.” “That’s true. Is that who you’re looking for?” “Yes, an older lady, Georgie’s grandmother. I didn’t realize this is a two-family house.” “It’s not. We’re the Anderson’s, the only owners and residents. But the name Edna McDaniel does sound familiar. Let me call my husband at work. He’s better with these things.” She left me standing on the outside steps, which I could not blame her, because she didn’t know me, and then returned a few minutes later. “Of course, as soon as my husband told me I couldn’t believe I forgot, but it was years ago. Edna McDaniel was the previous owner of this house. Her family sold it when she got very ill. I think she went to a nursing home, or perhaps she moved in with her family.” “I see, thank you.” I left and went home to my computer. I started to search the internet for Edna McDaniel of Brooklyn. I could only find one and it didn’t seem likely, unless Georgie had been lying to me about almost everything. That now appeared to be a realistic possibility. I decided to seek this Edna McDaniel out and see what I could learn. She wouldn’t tell me much, because she was buried in Greenbriar Cemetery, on the other side of Brooklyn. As I drove to the cemetery I tried to figure out why Georgie would lie. Was he really living with his family, and the entire story was a lie? Or did he run away from home, and is he living on the streets, and making believe he lives with his grandmother--- just to have a convenient story while he tries to find someone to adopt him? I couldn’t know for sure, but if this was the right Edna McDaniel, I was hoping I would learn more from the cemetery office, or maybe get some other family names off the family plot, and seek out further information from there. I realized I never asked Georgie his last name, but if it was McDaniel, I couldn’t find him on the internet. The cemetery office staff, due to privacy concerns, wouldn’t give me any information about the family names, or ownership of the plot, where Edna McDaniel was buried. They did however give me directions to the actual grave, so I could see for myself. I followed the path signs and numbers, and found myself looking at her grave. Edna McDaniel Beloved Wife, Mother and Grandmother Born May 5th, 1905 – Died September 11th, 1992 Died in 1992? Maybe this was not the right person. It made no sense. I started to look at the other graves in the family plot. I was desperate to find any information to make this clear; either family names I could track down, or something that told me this was not the right woman. The grave right next to hers, gave me something: George “Georgie” Tomlinson Beloved Son, Grandson and Brother. “Rest in peace and in heaven our sweet and beautiful boy” Born May 13, 1985 – Died October 31st 1991 Icy fingers caressed my sides, and dug into my brain, as I read that over and over. Surely this was a mistake, or this kid has been pretending to be someone he’s not…. I started to run through all the possibilities in my head, when something began to nag at the very edge of my consciousness---just as I looked at my watch, and realized it was getting late. I had to go meet Georgie. * * * I was standing near the house Georgie said was his grandmother’s, when he came skipping down the street, dressed in his little ghost costume. I knew it was him because the face had about 10 holes cut into it, just like he had said it would. He ran over when he saw me, pulling up the sheet and smiling: “You’re early!” He said. His smile faded when he realized I was not in my costume, and he saw the expression on my face. “What’s the matter?” He asked, with a look more of fear than of concern. It took everything I had not to start crying like a little baby, when I said to him; “I remembered everything on my way home from the cemetery.” “What did you do?” Georgie asked, with a look of horror and anger on his face. “I visited your grandmother today. Oh, not the woman who lives in this house, though she steered me in the right direction. I saw everything. But still I was confused, until it all flooded back on the drive home. I can’t believe myself, I’m so ashamed, please forgive me. How could I not remember my best friend in first grade? And you were just about my only friend too. That is, until you died in that fire…the only one of your family that didn’t get out.” “No! Why did you have to do this? You didn’t remember! I thought we could be together. You’ve ruined everything!” Georgie began to cry, as he yelled. He seemed to be turning red from his anger, and screaming, and the air began to fill with a strange and unpleasant odor. “I don’t think I forgot, really, I guess I just blocked it out. It was such a terrible thing. And there wasn’t a lot of closure. You disappeared from school, and my mother said our telephone calls weren’t getting through at your end. Then they announced it over the school loudspeaker, after your funeral was already over. I never got to say goodbye.” Tears were running down my cheeks now. “I waited…I waited so long until you wouldn’t remember, but you would also be able to be with me. I tried so hard to get back to everyone.” Georgie moaned, as his tears subsided. “My sister saw me when I first tried, but instead of being happy---she was so upset she was put in the hospital. They gave her medicine for seeing things like me---and she still takes it, even though she hasn’t seen me in over 15 years!” Georgie shook his head, as he turned an even deeper shade of crimson. “Oh Alan…I just wanted to play with you again….” “I wanted that too…and to get to say goodbye this time.” The air around us started to get very hot, and smoke started rising off Georgie. His skin started to blister, but instead of crying out, he just started to cry…and I continued to cry…. It was a horrible sight as his flesh blackened and shriveled, but we just stared into each other’s eyes, and as I realized he was starting to fade away, and the awful tableau was almost over, ending with him showing me how his life had ended those 20 years ago, I said; “Goodbye Georgie, my first and best friend.” And though he was just about completely gone, I heard a faint whisper in my ear, “Goodbye Alan, my last and best friend too.” Another excerpt from "Join the Club" “Damn it.” He muttered, “Don’t come any closer, I’m armed.” He called into the darkness as he knelt down and started to feel around for the lantern. He found it, but could feel that the battery compartment had opened on impact. He felt one of the ‘D’ batteries was in there, but the other must have popped out. He started to feel around in the darkness for it along the floor, but screamed when his hand felt a cold piece of flesh that moved at his touch. Alan fell over backwards and started crawling and scrambling away from the spot, leaving the lantern behind. It felt like a bare foot, but it was so cold, and if those were toenails, they were awfully long and sharp. It must be one of the club members! Probably wearing some stupid plastic Halloween costume foot. Alan was sure of this, as he quickly crawled back towards his unpacked stuff, trying to find his flashlight so he could see what was going on, and find the lost battery. You can find the entire story, plus 17 others, here: Not From Around Here