FIGHTING FEAR WITH LIGHT

Life is strange. Here I am in this beautiful place by the sea in Costa Rica, in a little outdoor restaurant, lights twinkling, the hypnotic sound of the waves, and I am at the same time watching on the news the carnage and suffering in Paris, and thinking next Friday I will be in Marrakech […]

TRAINING DAY…EVERY DAY

Above left are two of my students. Photo on the right, I am teaching my class at Tarzana Boxing. I love to train on my own. Right now, I’m at Lake Arenal in Costa Rica, writing for one month and I have trained every day. Thirty years ago when I was in the depths of despair I […]

ISLANDS & LAKES & the SKY IN-BETWEEN, Part II

The little Cessna plane that took me on the last leg of my journey from San Jose to Liberia, in a thunderstorm, no less. I was the only passenger on that bumpy ride with two jolly pilots, who laughing and joking, plunged in and out of clouds, vision obscured, rain pummeling the panes, the plane shaking […]

ISLANDS & LAKES & THE SKY IN-BETWEEN Part I

The first two weeks of October at Noepe Center on Martha’s Vineyard, working on my Night Angels series, and what better place to create a sense of intimacy in writing. A perfect little world, detached from all the rest, no car, not even a Starbucks (hurray). Only sea and sky and wind-swept beaches, delicate forests that open onto ponds where […]

WALK ABOUT

As of August 15th I am going “Walk About” as they say in Australia. I will be gone for at least two months. Life is an adventure. Live it to the fullest. Don’t get stuck, look up to the sky, be filled with curiosity, take an unexpected turn, see what awaits you. I will keep you […]

Memories of Silvia Sanchez

Here are two photos that I found from the past: Silvia and her date at the prom with me in the background, and Silvia being crowned as Prom Queen at the first-ever prom held at Central Juvenile Hall, June 24, 1999. Follow-up to my essay WHY I CHOOSE TO REMEMBER MY 50TH BLOOD-BATH OF […]

Remembering

Instead of lying in bed beside a wonderful lover, or even just a warm body, by midnight of my 50th birthday I was standing in a dingy apartment, covered in someone else’s blood, and wondering what to do about it.

Streets of Istanbul

Boys playing with guns as I walked to my favorite café…

Istanbul, I love you

Just returned from five weeks traveling to Lake Bled, Slovenia; Vienna, Austria; Lausanne, Switzerland; and Istanbul, Turkey. I spent two weeks in Istanbul, staying in a penthouse flat near the Galata Tower with a view of the Bosporus from the terrace. I went there to finish writing the last chapter of my book, Letters from […]