About
My novel is partly autobiographical, partly fantastic. If you read it you’ll get a good general (though not a literal) idea of me. At the end, I give a whimsical “About the Author” blurb. Inasmuch as I’m breaking into print at the age of 79, it seemed appropriate to draw on “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” which also gets life from a strong fantastic element. Here’s the blurb:
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
…
He holds him with his skinny hand,
‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.
‘Hold off! Unhand me, grey-beard loon!’
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
He holds him with his glittering eye—
Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The author has put all he has learned on the seas of life into this tale.
Whimsy aside, I moved from San Francisco to Albuquerque in 2005. Toni had been dead some years; my generation in North Beach kept thinning from year to year; and, though my apartment was rent controlled, that would disappear if the building should be sold. I looked for a place where my savings and pensions would keep me well enough and ended in Albuquerque. It hasn’t been a bad move, and I’ve been back to San Francisco to visit every year since the move.
