Posts

The Cloth of Truth

My father was a Yiddish literary star, writing short stories, essays, and novels. He lectured in Canada, the U.S., Argentina, Venezuela, the former Soviet Union, and more.  He was a Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford University.  Nobel laureate Eli Wiesel said he was “the novelist of the Warsaw Ghetto,” whose book “Ship of the Hunted” was “…cut […]

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Kill the Indian/Jew, Save the Child

There is a sad children’s story about a Czarist Russian soldier who threatened an elderly, terrified Jewish man.  The brutal soldier rolled up his sleeve to administer a beating, revealing an ugly scar on his forearm. The old man looked at the scar and froze.  “Yossele?” he said to the soldier. “Huh?  Who’s Yossele?” Tears […]

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Dreams of the Moon

I am pleased to present a guest post by fellow speculative fiction author Lorina Stephens.  Lorina  has worked as editor, freelance journalist for national and regional print media, been a festival organizer, publicist, lectures on many historical topics from textiles to domestic technologies, teaches, and continues to work as a writer and artist. Her short […]

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (we hope) It’s the five thousand, seven hundred and eighty second birthday of that fourteen-billion-year-old ball of rock and water we call home (see Happy Quantum New Year for the math).  The day is relevant to all humans, not just the Jews.  After a year like 5781, everyone should take it seriously. […]

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COVID: The Questions Stand

Though answers may change, many questions stand.  Dr. Anthony Fauci made an important statement about the fluid responses to the Wuhan virus. “So when you hear someone say something at one point and then two or three months later, if you stick with what you said at the original time when you had one-fifth of […]

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What Are You, Transformed Person?

Transgender rights (privilege, if you prefer), are an intractable issue in contemporary Western culture.  Is a man who decides he’s a woman entitled to be treated as one?  In the novel Quantum Cannibals Aarluk, a major character, changes from male to female as part of becoming a powerful shaman. (S)He marries and copulates with a […]

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Beauty and Wisdom- The Character

There’s an ancient story about a man who was walking down the road when he encountered a great sage, whom he greeted with great respect.   The rabbi replied “You worthless, ugly person. Are all the people of your city as ugly as you?” The man rebuked him, saying “I don’t know, but you should say […]

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Sexy Cuties: Art or Abomination?

This is the first in a series of posts introducing characters from the novel Quantum Cannibals Alex is a secondary character in Quantum Cannibals. He’s a renowned poet whose wife tells a friend “Alex likes young men and boys.”  The character was inspired by the pederasty of beat poet and cultural icon Allen Ginsberg. He […]

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Trying To Be a Good Character

The novel Quantum Cannibals has a large cast of characters, some evil, some saintly.  Most are complex, neither black nor white.  A person can be a good character, but simply confused when facing an impossible situation.  All of the characters in the book are intended to reflect back on our non-fictional world, to say something […]

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The Plague of Our Complacency

The coronavirus pandemic could be something out of a horror movie, perhaps from sci-fi, a thriller… mystery…  existential fiction.  What the world is experiencing with the coronavirus has been well covered in literature and film, dealing with questions of the origin of the plague, and how people, society, the world responds.  The book may focus […]

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