Saying things you shouldn't say makes for good writing.

I learned this quickly growing up in the border region of southern California in the 1970s and 1980s. 

And I'm not talking about the pretty southern California you find on TV, but the inland desert where high unemployment and environmental pollution are the norm.  

Poetry, short stories, plays, and a rough draft of a novel is what I am working on.  

I also write children's picture books. 

Yes, picture books. 

      That's not a typo.

I write because I want to experience life through many perspectives and experiences. 

The only way to do that is through stories and poetry.

And there's also this feeling of being out of place.

I tell people that if in my past life I had been an Albanian Jew who had immigrated to Nebraska, then my entire life would make sense.

     So, my writing reflects that.

I also have an obsession with the multiverse theory where I am a different individual in each reality.

I hope that in one of them I am wearing a watch since I'm always late.

Years ago, I taught adult ESL classes and was a volunteer reader for children's picture books.

      Maybe one day I will do that again.

For the past three years, I have been a board member of San Diego Writers, Ink, a San Diego-based nonprofit for writers.

I like meeting people from everywhere and anywhere.

However, people in the middle of nowhere have the best stories.

Drop me a message anytime.

November 2019.  Zagreb, Croatia.

Hanging out with the father of modern Croatian poetry, Antun Gustav Matos.  We stayed up until midnight trading stories.  Then I couldn't remember my way back to the hotel. Photo credit: Jim Martin

When writing, it's open season.