I was walking down one of those M.C. Escher stairs, in a museum, when I reached the end. From where I stood I could hear a young boy below, sobbing. The sound wasn’t echoing, as it should have been in such a large space. Fortunately, some of the railing was missing, so I jumped down […]

No. No-o. Nope . . .  No-o-o-o. No! No-u-u-u. NO! We shouldn’t complain.   But here is a list of things that make me snarky, anyway. Some I am guilty of committing myself, while others are pure abstractions. At any rate, it’s what I’ve come up with and would like to share.     10. […]

I.   Leroy was an exceptional man. Except, for one reason or another, no one wanted to date him. It led to much confusion, then suffering. Why?   In answering this question, he began to consider his mother. The cause of his loneliness might be in her. Only, she was a grand woman, always available […]

Sound that breaks is noise, sound that moves is music.   And from where he stood, Ilya Nikolayevich could almost hear the hum of a ship’s haul in the distance. It cut right across the line where ocean meets the sky, the horizon. He wished for the silence necessary to tune in. But from everywhere […]

The following is about the last two weeks, at times a Herculean effort on Ela’s part, while at times an Ovidian exile for me. Now that it’s over, I think Ela’s mother put it best, when she said, “You two will always remember getting married.” In her own witty way, she means we had better […]

Dear Charlie Kaufman,     After an hour of thinking about what to write, I’m ready. Why I am writing this letter is because you wrote two of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation.   You’re up there with Tarkovsky, Linklater, and Noe for me, but why I write to […]

I feel like someone has to slap me across the back of my head to get me to write about this. My eyes shoot for the horizon, yet I look down at my feet. I can only see the here and now, can’t imagine some other later, just yet.   Today’s inspiration comes from a […]

Feel free to fail. You are climbing over a stumbling block. That’s one.   What are other, recent life lessons? Some silly things. I feel like I am holding a hot ginger tea and wearing pajamas as I explain things or muse, like some youtubers I saw recently. But on an unrelated note, why is […]

Some months ago, my graduate department asked me a similar question in an interview. Now I’m thinking why not expand a little, let my hands hopscotch over the keyboard a little, improve a little.   I think my answer remains the same: Vronsky and Levin. But, adding some meat to the dish, it pays to open […]

Let’s assume I’m this world-renowned author, with aspiring writers from around the world flocking to me for advice. I have this wild, white beard from years of paying attention to other people, a colorful yet tasteful garb over my head to prevent ideas from spilling out, and a voice as clear as ice water. A […]

Outside in Bucharest the clouds pour gentle, warm buckets of rain. Button-up shirts look three shades darker around the shoulders and back. Hair, too. The smell of flaky, crispy pastries finds its way through the wetness of morning.  It is still early, but not for long. One reads.   A list, it can be fun, […]

New Eyes   They say that the natives on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean never saw Columbus’s boats coming, because they had never learned to recognize the four-mast ships, let alone imagine one previously.   Now, look here: I am in a new country, surrounded by a new culture, equipped only with what I […]

The list, the log   It helps to return on occasion to the list of books you’ve read; granted, if you keep such a list. Remember how in elementary school teachers asked us to keep a “log” of titles and page numbers, maybe a summary? Students earned stars. Parents were happy. And though it might […]

The next book is called They Lived They Were at Brighton Beach. And this post is a respite from feeling like I have to work at it. Thank you post!   What else compares to the chasm between inching forward in life and looking back to see how far one has come? Nostalgia wins every time. […]

A shout out to Michael, my friend who tugged at my writer’s collar the other day, asking, When are you going to start blogging again?   So here I am. Not necessarily at his behest, but reminder. It’s nice to feel this digital cauldron burns again for hungry readers.   A lot has happened since […]