A NEW BOOK

I've just finished a first draft of a thriller I'm calling Echo, for now. It's set in my neighborhood, East Harlem, and is about a young woman whose housemate goes down to the basement of their building to do his laundry and never comes back upstairs.

MIKE ANDERSON AND PETE HOCHSTEIN

These two Nebraska inmates spent 23 years on death row and now a total of 34 years in prison for a crime they didn't even remotely commit. Some information here.

THE SUNCOOK RIVER

I'm working on a documentary about a river in New Hampshire that changed course several years ago, altering a landscape that had been stable for eons.

THE NIGHT OF OUR SON'S EXECUTION

A play about a divorced couple who meet on the second anniversary of their son's death by lethal injection. Not a comedy.

WALT WHITMAN

I've had a fascination with Whitman ever since I read the first edition of Leaves of Grass in college. I believe most commentators and scholars miss the deeply spiritual thrust of Whitman's best work. I'm reading David S. Reynolds' Walt Whitman's America now. Very good.

SMALL POTATOES

A simple and welcome way to help the homeless on cold winter days. Bake a bunch of potatoes, salt and butter them, wrap them in aluminum foil, pack them in a cooler with some plastic forks and head for the streets.

JAZZ TROMBONE

Several years ago I picked up the trombone after a forty year lay-off. I've found a group of very good musicians who let me hang out with them, play a bit. I really wish I could play like this.

CENTRAL PARK EAST ONE

A pioneering public elementary school in my East Harlem neigborhood that all three of my sons attended. Embattled for all thirty five years of its existence, it remains a marvelous alternative to the current lock-stepping that passes for education. Information can be found here.