Thursday, September 13, 2012

HUNTER now available as an audiobook

I'm delighted to announce that HUNTER is now available as a 12-hour audiobook. Narrated by talented New York voice actor Conor Hall, the HUNTER audiobook is available on Audible.com, on Amazon.com,  and on iTunes.

You can listen to a five-minute sample of the story on each of these sites -- the scene where Annie Woods meets Dylan Hunter for the first time.

Many thanks to Conor Hall for his splendid characterizations, and to Rob Grannis of Brick Shop Audio in New York City for a first-rate sound production.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

DEATH OF A LEGEND: Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died on August 25, 2012, at age 82.

A man of surpassing intelligence, dignity, and self-possession, he will remain an inspiration for all time. And not just for his iconic status as the commander of the Apollo 11 lunar mission.

Armstrong's subsequent refusal to hog the public limelight -- his withdrawal into a completely private life, because he didn't want to take exclusive credit for an achievement that he felt (rightly) was the product of many brilliant, dedicated, unsung individuals -- is one of the things that, in my mind, most marks him as a hero. And certainly, as an individualist.

His post-Apollo career -- in which he repelled every offer to exploit his status for glory or money -- is completely opposite the typical course followed by the vacuous instant "celebrities" of our morally bankrupt Reality TV era. His life, to the contrary, was the triumph of private substance over public "celebrity." He simply refused to sacrifice a personal life and its independence to become some sort of collective "role model." 


Armstrong had begun his career as an engineer's engineer, as a brave test pilot -- a man for whom the substantive rewards of conquering Nature were infinitely greater than the illusory rewards of conquering Society. He later became a teacher and a businessman. All of these were the professions of someone whose focus was on the facts of reality -- not winning the approval and adulation of others.

Neil Armstrong's greatness was not that he was the first to make that "one small step for a man" that became such "a giant leap for mankind." His real greatness is that he grasped, at the core of his being, what it was to be a man. 


And in that unsung role, as one commentator just put it, his passing is truly "one giant loss for mankind."

Friday, July 20, 2012

NEW PRESIDENTIAL DECREES

THE WHITE HOUSE

EXECUTIVE ORDER #3,425,786

FROM:  THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
TO:         HOLLYWOOD

Given the principles I enunciated in Raleigh, NC, I hereby issue this executive order compelling you to add two hours of closing credits to all future films.

[signed] BARACK OBAMA

President of the United States

----------------------------  

[Handwritten message by the President to his personal secretary:]

Anita: Plz send following memo, my private stationery, to Academy Awards show producers:

"Guys, you're gonna have to allow enough show time for MUCH longer 'thank-you' speeches. In future, figure on two-week Oscar TV show, minimum." -- s/ Barack

Also, dash off reminder memo, again my private letterhead, to my Hollywood filmmaker friends (use Clooney's distribution list):

"You didn't produce and direct that." -- s/ Barack