Author's Blog - Podcasts will feature sample readings from my published books on subjects that include law, poetry, science fiction, speculative fiction, my recent novel and articles on law-related subjects published in academic journals and law reviews. I will also feature content from my various blogs and works in progress and samples of original poetry and fiction. I hope that you will find subjects of interest here and would very much welcome the pleasure of your company in my personal and professional journeys of discovery. Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B001KMII74
This is the latest addition to my longest free-verse poem, Unsung Heroes, that deals with the lives of my grandparents and parents. This episode deals with my father-in-law who passed away three weeks ago and who, like my other beloved personal heroes, was very special to me.
This is my reading of one of the 13 short stories from my Echoes of the Mind's Eye collection (C) 2021, 2024.
From my Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems (C) 2011, 2024
This is the final part of my longest free-verse poem. It details the life of my mom who overcame blindness in childhood during the Spanish Civil War and left school at the age of 11 to illegally work on a full-time basis in a cousin's fish cannery to help provide for her eight brothers and sisters after her dad's death after being persecuted by the fascist forces for his anti-fascist non-violent resistance during the war. At 16 she emigrated to join an aunt and uncle in Argentina and worked (by lying about her age) tirelessly to make enough money to reclaim her mom and two youngest brothers in Spain. Hers was a life of incredible hardship and tragedy that would never break her or rob her of her can-do attitude, optimism, humor, and faith in God. She faced and overcame adversity at every turn in times of poverty and plenty through self-reliance, honest hard work, and an unwillingness to view herself as a victim, speaking truth to power long before the phrase became a cliche, and always seizing focusing on the silver lining in every storm cloud. She had the singing voice of an angel and the heart of a lion. As I noted elsewhere, she was always proud of her only son on whom she doted, but " . . . one of her cells was worth ten of me." The poem was written in the days following her death after a four-year battle with Alzheimer's that robbed her of her eloquence, her prodigious memory, and her quality of life. I miss her every day.
This poem is about my dad who passed away in 2018. It was first published in my Echoes of Dawn at Dusk second book of poems in 2020. Like his parents before him, he had a hard life from the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War that saw his father self-exiled leaving behind a wife and four very young children to fend for themselves. Through hard work and self-reliance he overcame adversity in three continents during his life, without a single complaint or assistance from anyone other than my mom. He lived under fascist dictators all of his life prior to immigrating to the U.S. in his late thirties with my mom and me. Serious illness, runaway inflation that caused his two businesses to fail, persecution in his native Spain for being the son of a non-fascist-sympathizer, and a roller coaster of success and failure never held him down. He persevered the old fashioned way: by pulling himself up by his bootstraps and working hard even as society crumbled around him. His word was his bond, just like his father and mother before him, and his ethical compass never wavered from true North. The world never needed more men like him more than it does now (and women like my mom cut from similar precious cloth). I will never see or be their equal.
This is the fourth part of my longest free-verse poem. This part deals with a portrait of my paternal grandmother and her struggle to raise four children during and after the Spanish Civil War after her husband fled to Argentina when warned he was about to be arrested by the fascist forces and woud not return for nearly two decades, after Franco pardoned those who supported the losing side but had not fought and spilled blood in the conflict. This poem was first published in my Of Pain and Ecstasy collection of poems.
This is Part III of my longest free verse poem that first appeared in my Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems. This episode relates to my maternal grandmother who was taken back to her native Galicia, Spain, by her husband, my grandfather, from her comfortable home at 10 Perry Street in New York City's Greenwich Village when winds of the coming Spanish Civil War began to blow with gale force. Her story both during the Spanish Civil War when my grandfather was taken prisoner and tortured as a supporter of the doomed Republic leaving her to raise 8 children on her own through hard work, while still helping less fortunate (and less industrious) neighbors with the help of her adolescent children during and after the war. Her life is the stuff that heroic fiction is made of, without the glitz, glamor, or accolades heaped upon both fictional and lesser heroic figures in real life. She was poor in material wealth, but one of the richest human beings I ever met or will ever meet in life, and one of my personal heroes. In writing and reading this poem my intent was to tell their untold stories, and also to have my readers and listeners take a closer look in their own lives for those worthy, unacknowledged heroes who may never have gained their fifteen minutes of fame or sought it, but lived lives of quiet heroism, lifting themselves by their bootstraps and facing adversity head-on guided by a belief in themselves, a firm moral compass, the knowledge that no honest work was beneath them, that no one owed them a free ride, and faith in a God who might test them but never place upon their shoulders burdens they could not overcome. The lessons they teach us if we choose to absorb them are worth more than any taught in any classroom. The wisdom they impart can never be bought with gold.
From my Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems (C) 2011, 2024
This is my reading the first part of my longest blank verse poem first published in my first book of poems, Of Pain and Ecstasy (C) 2011. It deals with the ultimate price paid by my maternal grandfather's non-violent support for the doomed Republic in opposition to the fascist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and the ultimate price he and his family paid in following the dictates of his conscience.
This is one of the 13 short stories in my Echoes of the Mind's Eye collection. It involves a young, successful professional in NYC who learns an important life lesson at a friend's birthday party from an uninvited guest.
This is a reading of some newer poems from my Echoes of Dawn at Dusk collection (C) 2020, 2024
From Echoes of Dawn at Dusk: Collected Poems, Volume 2 (C) 2021
This is a reading of my poem Athena in praise of both the goddess and women.
Translation of my poem The Subway from my Of Pain and Ecstasy collection (C) 2011, 2024
This is a simple book trailer for my Mindscapes short story collection with my reading of the first two pages of each short story. The book is available in eBook and print versions as well as a professionally produced audiobook version read by voice talent Dale Wilcox. You can preview versions at Amazon and Audible. As always, thank you for listening.
Translated from my Echoes of Dawn at Dusk: Collected Poems (Vol. 2) (C) 2021, 2024
This is the shortest story in my Echoes of the Mind's Eye science fiction / speculative fiction short story collection. It involves the last remaining crime punishable by death in a fully connected world in which opting out is simply not an option.
Este es el cuento más corto de mi colección de cuentos Echoes of the Mind's Eye, traducido e incluido en mi colección de cuentos Libro de Sueños.
This is a brief paper presentation based on one of my articles published this spring in the North East Journal of Legal Studies (Vol. 44, Article 1, 2024) that deals with the problem of unscrupulous notaries public who engage in the unauthorized practice of law and prey upon unsuspecting foreign-born individuals who mistakenly believe U.S. notaries public to be highly trained lawyers who have successfully completed additional training and rigorous exams to become notaries public (or Notarios in Spanish-speaking countries) unlike U.S. notaries public who are not required to be lawyers and have a very limited purpose and power such as verifying the validity of signatures in legal documents. Unlike their foreign counterpart in the vast majority of countries around the world, U.S. notaries public have few if any training or educational requirements beyond being 18 years old with a high school diploma or equivalency, and a clean criminal record.
May we never forget the true purpose of Memorial Day. May God bless our fallen men and women in uniform and their families. May we never forget the debt of honor we owe them all.
This is a reading of Parts 5 and 6 of my longest free-verse poem, Unsung Heroes, about the lives of quiet heroism and self-reliance in overcoming adversity. The first four parts of the poem deal with the lives of my grandparents, and the last two read here of my parents. As I note in the introduction to the poem: Although I stand on the shoulders of giants, I see little farther than the bridge of my none. The fault is mine. The shame is mine. For I am unworthy of you, my beloved dead.
A reading of my original poem Mi Canto in Spanish followed by my English Translation.
Although poetry represents a minuscule amount of my published writing which is mostly non-fiction, it has been and remains close to the core of who I am as an author. In this podcast I will read samples of my sonnets from my two books of poems, Echoes of Dawn at Dusk (C) 2021 and Of Pain and Ecstasy (C) 2011. I hope you may find at least some of these to your liking. As always, thank you for listening.
This is a sample sonnet reading from my second book of poems, Echoes of Dawn at Dusk: Collected Poems, Volume Two (C) 2021.
I am posting some English and Spanish version readings from my novel Hire Lernin': An Idealist's Quest Through the Realm of for-Profit Education here and elsewhere and wanted to provide some general background for the novel. I hope you will sample and enjoy my cold readings from the novel.
his novel involves the bittersweet journey of a young, idealistic, naïve attorney who takes on the role of academic dean at a for-profit business school in New York City in the late 1980s knowing very little about the industry. Unable to accept the way things are, he immediately launches into a personal quest to change lives for the better in an environment where only the bottom-line matters. Hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit quickly propel him to professional success, but at a deep personal cost in the process as he learns critical life-altering lessons about himself, about leadership, about for-profit and not-for-profit higher education, and about love.
This is a cold reading from my novel, Hire Lernin': An Idealist's Quest Through the Realm of for-Profit Education (C) 2021, 2024.
This is a reading from the first two chapters of my novel about an idealistic young lawyer hired as the dean of a for-profit business school knowing next to nothing about the industry. Unwilling to accept things as they are, he launches on a personal quest to implement meaningful changes, achieving in the process unprecedented professional success, devastating personal loss, and some profound lessons about leadership, about love, and about his own weaknesses and strengths.
Esta es una traducción del autor de los dos primeros capítulos de su novela Hire Lernin' (C) 2021 traducida al español. La versión completa en inglés de la novela y la traducción al español en curso están disponibles de forma gratuita en el siguiente enlace: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/368939/fictions.
Este podcast contiene mi lectura de los dos primeros capítulos de mi novela 'Hire Lernin', publicada en 2021 y que estoy traduciendo al español. He publicado la versión completa en inglés de la novela y también estoy transfiriendo la versión en español. Puedes acceder a ambos de forma gratuita en el siguiente enlace: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/368939/fictions.
I published this novel two years ago which is now available in paperback, hard cover and eBook versions at most bookseller sites, including Amazon. This is one of two poems that deals with the emotionally draining process of reliving the past in order to recast it into a lightly fictionalized novel. At present, I am making the novel available for anyone to read free of charge in a serialized version at Royal Road that you can access in both English and a new Spanish translation by clicking HERE. As of today, I have posted 29 chapters in the original English version and more than 20 in my ongoing Spanish translation. If you sample it, please let me know your thoughts at Royal Road or here. Thank you!
I published my first novel two years ago which is now available in paperback, hard cover and eBook versions at most bookseller sites, including Amazon. This is one of two poems that deals with the emotionally draining process of reliving the past in order to recast it into a lightly fictionalized novel. At present, I am making the novel available for anyone to read free of charge in a serialized version at Royal Road you can access in both English and a Spanish version by clicking here. As of today, I have posted 29 chapters in the original English version and more than 20 in my ongoing Spanish translation. If you sample it, please let me know your thoughts comments at Royal Road or here. Thank you!
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