Don't Get Old!

Can't believe how long it's been since I've posted to my blog. This has been a difficult year with a lot of strain on my time, nerves and energy. Around September my sister and I made the hard but necessary decision to place our mother in a nursing home – she simply couldn't live on her own anymore. I contacted a place called “A Place for Mom” which listed nursing homes, and they were eager to help. The only problem with them is that they only list nursing homes that pay a fee to be listed on their web site. This means that they don't provide information about other, possibly better nursing homes that don't pay – or need to pay – to be on their site. What good is that? We quickly forgot about aplaceformom.com and decided to investigate different homes on our own.

We considered ourselves lucky to ultimately place our mother in what was considered one of the best nursing homes in New York City, the Jewish Home and Hospital on Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx [which takes people of any faith, although our mother was Jewish]. Mom seemed to be slowly adjusting to the place when my sister got a call in the middle of the night that our mother had had to be rushed to the emergency room after an “accident.” When we got to the hospital we were shocked to see that Mom looked as if she'd been in a head-on collision. I won't go into the details, but it was horrendous. She required surgery, which she survived, but died a few days later. I can't go into specifics as there is still an ongoing investigation into what actually happened to our mother that night.

And this is one of the better nursing homes!

More on this later.

Robert Redford Bio

July 2006 is the publication date for my new Robert Redford bio, co-written with stellar film historian Lawrence J. Quirk. It's because of my work on this and other projects that I find I have little time to post new entries on my blog. I mean, it's been months since I've posted. Luckily this means that I "have a life" and not that I haven't one. I've been online for a relatively short period compared to many people -- about a couple of years -- but I confess I've really gotten into computers and web sites and such, although I haven't yet become a computer geek [no laughing -- one luddite friend has told me that "the computer's taken over your life!" Not so! I've just discovered all of its virtues.] I've built many a web site only to realize I had no time to keep it up to date, or even had to virtually abandon it. [Two exceptions are High and Low NY http://highandlowny.tripod.com/ and Quirks Reviews Online http://quirksreviews.tripod.com/ Oh, have I mentioned them? But enough... what about Redford?

Well, ol' Bob is 68 but he still appeals to a great many women. Whatever you think of his acting ability [I think he's more talented as a director myself] he has had an admirably durable career in a very, very tough business. It's ironic how he developed the Sundance Festival to bolster independent film only to watch independent film become Big Business with major movie stars and over-bidding distributors anxious to snare the next Pulp Fiction. [Tarantino's film was not exactly what Redford had in mind when he put together his festival.]

I think THE SUNDANCE KID treats Redford very fairly, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses of his acting, films, and various political and other projects with as much objectivity as possible. This is not a Bob-bashing book [not to say that he will like it much, given his penchant for privacy and the book's undeniable bluntness] but neither is it a fan-boy valentine, either. Perhaps he'll appreciate that we note that most movie stars often try hard to be all things to all people, and Redford has gotten unfairly bashed because he only wants to be himself. Everyone who works with him wants him to be their best buddy -- but how can he be? -- so they wind up hating his guts due to what they deem his indifference.

Gee, I've got the same problem.

Seriously. This is one good book, if I say so myself. In bookstores and on sale online NOW!

This is the cover of issue # 53 of Cemetery Dance, which features an interview with me by Rick Kleffel, who's written some flattering [if tongue-in-cheek] things about my work on the Internet. Although it discusses some recent ventures, most of the interview is about my horror novels of the eighties and nineties. The article is first in a series of "Where Are They Now?", which will look at authors who were busy in the horror field in previous decades but who have moved on to other things. And there are a lot of us. Often we had no choice, as the Big Horror Boom ended and, as one agent put it, a lot of writers in the field found themselves with "mini-careers." Luckily, I was interested in many other things and types of writing besides horror and fiction, although I still do things in the field now and then, such as young adult bios of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft.

There are also a lot of stories and more articles in Cemetery Dance, an interesting journal devoted to the horror field.

I did not get a complimentary copy. Oh well, it probably doesn't have a huge circulation. Nice of them to run this interview, however. You can order a copy -- cheap -- here.