Novelist

When I retired from teaching I prayed that I could write a novel. I did write a book on raising children, and finally I started a novel. I wrote most of a YA (Young Adult) novel while visiting my oldest son, a research chemist, in Princeton, NJ.

That accomplished, I started an adult novel. Then — adversity — I was hospitalized and told I needed a quadruple bypass. I prayed again, because I wanted to finish The Last Torpedo.

Now a quadruple bypass is no tonsillectomy; it involves taking the heart out of the chest. Providentially, Dr. Colangelo at St. Francis Hospital performed his usual art with great skill and I came through it, and finished the novel. I didn’t have to dig a Sumatran Tiger Pit to catch that prize. The book went on to become one of my best sellers.