I hope you can follow this link to hear about why you should vote for my friend, Jamie Shapiro, for judge in Cook County.  Jamie is a fellow lawyer, and a writer, who entertained The Chicago Literary Club last night with his paper, “Wedding at the Ashram.”  Also at last night’s meeting of The Club,...Read More

My friend, Julieanna, sent this loving tribute to Gwen Ifill.   The HistoryMakers is a unique and extensive collection of in-depth interviews with black leaders in all areas of American life, founded by Julieanna here in Chicago and now housed by the Library of Congress.  Year-end and memorial contributions are always welcome.  Read Julieanna’s tribute (photos...Read More

I recently attended the Oswego Literary Festival at the beautiful Oswego Library District Oswego Campus.  Forty-six authors were there to hawk their works, but I doubt that we sold 46 books among us.  This could be depressing.  OK, it is depressing.  But we still made lemonade.Read More

        I doubt that any of my books will ever be banned–what a boost to sales that would be!–but over the course of our history, some classics, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick...Read More

Looking forward to speaking at Chicago Writers Conference on September 26 at 3 pm.  My session is a “small session” where participants can “ask a lawyer anything.”  I attended CWC last year and was impressed by the high quality of the presentations.  I’ll also be selling copies of LCA’s Book Law for Authors for $10 for...Read More

If you like mysteries,  and especially if you like baseball, my friend Bill Kennedy (G.W.) is a wonderful writer! DEAD ARM, his newest, is just out!  Bill and I are both students of Fred Shafer, the best literary coach in Chicago, as far as I’m concerned. Dead Arm As a favor to a faculty colleague,...Read More

Episode 163 of Library Life  features an interview with me at “my mother’s library,” Mt. Prospect Public Library, on my novels and becoming a writer.Read More

Saluting the Sun is now available in  paperback!  Official launch is Monday, early evening.  If you are going to be in the Chicago Loop and would like an invite, email me right away.Read More

A good writing conference energizes and inspires as well as providing new information, or at least old information in a fresh way.  Chicago Writers Conference, which wrapped up today, was a great writing conference.  Speakers were candid, generous and actually concerned, it seemed, with sharing information rather than gratifying their own egos.  While shattering dreams...Read More