“Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.”--Ernest Hemingway

These are the novels that I have written thus far. You can find them all at Amazon.com as I do not have a publisher (hint, hint). Click on the cover to get to the ″Look Inside″ feature and to order the book if your are so inclined. All books are available in both digital and paperback formats, although the paperbacks are much more expensive due to printing costs. And if you do not have a Kindle, you can acquire the app for other devices by going to the Kindle Reader download.

My most recent novel tells the life and times of actress Sarah Bartlett--the entire life and times of Sarah Bartlett (as well as the times of other people). This encompasses her childhood, her first forays on the stage in high school, her formative years in Chicago, and her major successes in Hollywood and in New York. I wanted to write something that was very funny, and I hope I achieved that. Since it is fiction, I take a great deal of liberties with the lives of others, and as my disclaimer says, ″Literary elements such as, but not limited to, dialogue, scenes, characters, compositions, music, interactions, dreams, settings, books, flashbacks, dog parks, regional parks, performing arts centers, theaters, pots, pans, colanders, pasta scoops, soft drinks, soda, soda pop, pop (or any derivation thereof) and frozen yogurt are the products of the author’s imagination and should not be taken as statements of fact.″ Seriously, do not take any of Rigatoni seriously. To get it from Amazon, click on the book cover; or you can get it from Google Play Books.

My first indication that I do not do short very well. Fun fact: this started out as a single novel, but I decided to break into six separate books because it turned out so long. I wanted to tell the story from the viewpoint of three separate people. I also wanted to place the reader into the person's point of view as much as I possibly could. This resulted in a fair amount of detail which, perhaps justifiably, was criticized by some reviewers. But I wanted the reader to feel Alyana's terror when she is assaulted and Trenil's helplessness at the hands of the soldiers and Velonn's pain when he pushes his hand into a mineral. If this is not what readers want, then this is not a series for you.

This is the second book in the series. Fun fact: all of the titles were pulled from lines in the book. I'd like to think that all the titles work on some level. ″The aroma of heaven″ is my favorite, though, because I find it quite evocative. I'm not certain what heaven smells like, but Alyana has this sensation when she enters a bakery. Writers, though, have to be cruel because what makes for a good plot often involves denying your characters what they want (food, comfort, love, life). Thus it is with Alyana, Trenil and Velonn. Also, the plots within the novels are, I like to think, organic. Each later incident is based on or follows from the former incidents. I make every attempt to avoid or minimize coincidences--″they just happened to be at the same place at the same time.″ To me, that is not very good writing.

The third novel. One of the joys of writing, especially longer volumes like Dragon's-Eye Moon is creating your own universe. One item that presented a unique set of problems was designing the two languages in the books. As suggested above, I wanted the reader to experience what the characters were going through, so Trenil learns Rhennish just as we do, and Alyana deciphers the words of the Shorent as we do the same. And I wanted these languages to be polar opposites because of the people involved. The Rhennish are very warlike, so their language is very aggressive sounding. The Shorent are much more docile and kind, so their phonetics are more soothing. My background in Anthropology was a great help here.

The fourth installment, which is actually the second longest of the six. Fun fact: I design all my own covers, being the frustrated artist that I am. For these six books, I licensed images from Dreamstime and then combined them with the text utilizing CorelDraw. I wanted a different image for each book that would reflect the title, but still needed to maintain a consistent look to show that they were all part of a series. This is where the crescent moon in the center came in. A dragon's-eye moon is also called earthshine, and occurs when the light is reflected off the earth and partially illuminates the unlit portion of a crescent moon. I hope the scientific explanation does not diminish the more fantastical aspects of the story.

Number five, since five generally follows four. The series took me ten years to write. I was working full time and, with my wife Wanda, raising two wonderful children. So I had to write in the mornings, evenings and on weekends, without foresaking my family. That's why it took ten years. I undertook it because my agent at the time (I came so close to selling a Star Trek novel with him. So close. So close. Rats!) said, ″If it's important, you'll find the time.″ I managed to find the time.

And finally, number six--and there is no magical intention here, I simply wanted each one to be about the same length. Fun fact: taking ten years to write something allows for a great deal of instrospection about what you think works and what doesn't. There were some scenes that I agonized over and had to imagine them repeatedly so that I could get the details just right. That universe thing I mentioned earlier? You have to come up with lots and lots of details to make it believable. But it was quite fun, and I really missed the characters when I stopped writing about them. Being with people--even fictional people--allows you to understand them and their flaws.