WRITING PROJECTS
PAPA ON THE MOON
SHORT STORY COLLECTION
Papa on the Moon
is a set of inter-related stories that begins with Percheron, a single page account of a son witnessing his father’s unexpected death. The collection leads to novella-length stories that dig deep into the knotty theme of fathers and sons. Here are unlikely heroes - the children of an ostracized Jewish pig farmer (which was my real-life childhood). In each story, want-to-be’s and loners wrestle with their demons in the strangest places: a white trash suburb in upstate NY, the galley of a Navy battleship, a one-traffic light town in the Rust Belt.
PAPA ON THE MOON
a novel in stories
What happens to the dreamers and the hard-luck cases, the washed-up lovers and the wild-eyed children when life gets messy?
Here is a novel-in-stories with a structure as raw and unexpected as the characters who inhabit it. Paul, the child of an ostracized Jewish pig farmer, searches for meaning in the most unexpected places— from the bottom of the local swimming pool to the galley of a Navy battleship. Along the way, we crack open the private lives of his parents before and after their divorce, and get to know his brother, who spends time in a mental institution. We ride shotgun with Hitch, a wannabe musician who walks out on his terminally ill wife. Trish, a single mother in a backwater town, celebrates her disabled son’s birthday. The threads all weave together in the near-operatic final story, “The Year of the Horse,” a harrowing account of a mysterious young boy living in a Russian village.
IMPRESSIONS OF AN EXPAT
PERSONAL BLOG
The ongoing real life story of a New Yorker living in exile after his daughter was kidnapped to Moscow.
This highly regarded blog is described by one reader as “the work of a modern Chekhov”. Impressions of an Expat is a fascinating novel-in-progress, a weekly dose of heartache, a chunk of solid writing to savor. The fact that the ongoing story is not fictional, that North is really an expat New Yorker living in Moscow because his daughter was kidnapped there only deepens the experience.
IMPRESSIONS OF AN EXPAT
PERSONAL BLOG
The ongoing real life story of a New Yorker living in exile after his daughter was kidnapped to Moscow.
This highly regarded blog is described by one reader as “the work of a modern Chekhov”. Impressions of an Expat is a fascinating novel-in-progress, a weekly dose of heartache, a chunk of solid writing to savor. The fact that the ongoing story is not fictional, that North is really an expat New Yorker living in Moscow because his daughter was kidnapped there only deepens the experience.
IN THE NIGHT COUNT THE STARS
ANTHOLOGY (CURATED AND EDITED)
Stories and images from corners of the world both odd and familiar are represented in this unique anthology, all inspired by an exotic handful of words from Jack Micheline’s magnificent poem Tale on a Slow Moving Freight (1988). Iran, Brooklyn, Germany, Italy, New York, France, England, Africa, Ohio, California and St. Petersburg come together in this e-book that defies description, offering 121 pages that spin a luminous web across our fractured, compartmentalized world.
IN THE NIGHT COUNT THE STARS
ANTHOLOGY (CURATED AND EDITED)
Stories and images from corners of the world both odd and familiar are represented in this unique anthology, all inspired by an exotic handful of words from Jack Micheline’s magnificent poem Tale on a Slow Moving Freight (1988). Iran, Brooklyn, Germany, Italy, New York, France, England, Africa, Ohio, California and St. Petersburg come together in this e-book that defies description, offering 121 pages that spin a luminous web across our fractured, compartmentalized world.