Some Other Projects
ebooks
Written through the voices of three main characters, Tipping Points focuses on issues of attraction versus love, the familiar versus the evolving, and safety versus commitment. Jared, divorced with a school-age daughter, finds himself attracted to virtually the whole human race. Eena, an enigmatic scientist of singular beauty, intrigues him like no one else. Deirdre, Jared's office mate, finds the relationship between Jared and Eena troublesome and tries to meddle in it. Available on Smashwords.
In Letters from Novosibirsk an international group of iconoclastic colonists living in New Siberia (of the late 21st century) communicate to the rest of the world via a journal in which they offer advice for saving human civilization. Trouble is, a group of ghosts in their town, previously known as Vydrino, does not welcome them, nor their attitudes. In the end no one’s life is what it used to be. Available on Smashwords.
Signs is a magical story in which two young adults who had known one another in childhood are reunited during their sojourns in Europe. It follows the extent to which their lives are unfulfilled until their accidental reunion. Throughout the book both characters notice objects around them that communicate their own thoughts and feelings. Available on Smashwords.
Older Print Books
Desperate Remedies is an anthology of British and American writers published by Apis Books in 2008. It contains stories and novellas, including my novella, Thaddeus Olsen. This is a story about a young man of Polish and native American ancestry who works at an ivy league school and finds himself embroiled in a contentious battle concerning native artifacts that are found on the school’s property. You might still find a copy of it on Amazon.
Three Women: Touching the Boundaries of Life is an anthology of three epic poems published in 1996 by the Mellen Poetry Press. It contains my first major publication: “Judith of the Lights,” my epic poem which won the Mellen Poetry Prize that year. A fantasy set in the South Side of Pittsburgh, the protagonist is a little girl who embarks on a journey to discover the meaning of friendship. It takes place during Lent; religious symbols and themes are embedded in the poem.
The Landscapes of Pater was published in 2004 by The Vineyard Press. It was my first published novel. The protagonist, Nick Pater, is a young man who is searching for a father figure, his own having died when Nick was a child. His search leads his to family members, friends, and mentors, but his final destination is Sardinia, the birthplace of his ancestors. You might still find this book on Amazon.
Videos
I collaborated with composer Istvan B’Racz to produce this video, based on a poem of mine called “He Was a Poet and When He Died.” It’s been shown around the U.S. and in India. It was also a finalist in the USA Film Festival Short Film and Video Competition (Dallas, 2005). You can watch it on YouTube.
I created this video in 2013 for Tom Izzo’s composition, “Special Green Interlude.” You can watch it on YouTube.
I collaborated with Sylvan Zheng on this short video called “Exosomes” for a production at Yale called Lux: Ideas Through Light in 2015. Participants’ videos were screened onto the façade of the Beinecke Library. You can watch it on YouTube.
Sylvester and His Polka Dots
Sylvester and His Polka Dots is a children’s story I wrote and illustrated a long time ago. It is still not published.
Sylvester is a duck who lives in a hole in the ground. He has no friends, but he hoards polka dots, keeping them in a sack that he carts around. One day the polka dots start jumping out of the sack and attaching to things of like color in the world around him. This presents a problem: where do the polka dots belong, with Sylvester or out in the world at large? Did Sylvester own all the colors of the world, but refuse to see it?
