# Please introduce yourself and your books…
I am an intensely curious person who has never followed a straight career path trajectory. I started off as a researcher and associate producer for CBS-TV News in NYC back in the late 70’s. I was researching a story on childhood cancer at the new NYC Ronald McDonald House where families stayed who had children being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. When I stepped into the House, I had the strangest feeling that I belonged there. Consequently, I abandoned a better-paying TV job and took the position of helping run the NYC Ronald McDonald House. That’s where I wrote my first book on death and dying for children. I soon found myself invited to do in-service trainings for therapists working with this issue. These professionals assumed I was also a health care professional, which I wasn’t. At the time I only had a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from NYU and here I was suddenly helping therapists. So, the next logical step was to go back to school to become a real therapist, which I did, leading to my receiving a Ph.D.
I was a clinical psychologist for 30+ years, which is something I thought I would always be. But life threw me another curveball in 2003 when my heart stopped, and I had a near death experience. I found myself going through a tunnel towards a bright light, but for some reason I was stopped and sent back. I returned to my physical body a very different person—more like a physics geek. This led to my inventing holistic healing software known worldwide as Trinfinity8. Now I’m on my latest career writing sci-fi novels about discovering portals into truth with my STACKS Library of Truth book series. Life is an incredible journey. You never know where you will end up.
# Tell us some quirky facts about yourself?
My whole life has been pretty quirky by most standards. I’ve lead Ancient Egyptian Mystery School groups to Egypt to share much of the historical story you don’t get from textbooks. I’ve explored the hidden water tunnels deep down under the Great Pyramid of Giza where a mysterious submerged sarcophagus lies. I’ve crawled down a tunnel under the Sphinx which at one time was open, leading to the Great Pyramid. I’ve even been on an ancient alien artifact dig in the Jalisco hills in Mexico where I discovered some pretty strange stuff, which puts our human origin dating into serious question. I’ve managed to get into places most people never get to see. Shall I go on? It would fill another book.
# What is the real life story behind your books?
The concept for the STACKS Library of Truth book series came to me in a dream I had one night. I got up and started writing it down. It was the story of a young library employee named Zach who accidentally stumbles upon an inter-dimensional portal into a Library of Truth hidden right inside the Library of Congress. He soon discovers it is being manipulated and controlled by an ancient secret society bent on world-wide dominance.
I had a therapy client who once told me about a near death experience they had where they went to a place where they could read the truth on everything. “Kind of like a Library of Truth?” I asked. And from that moment on the seed was planted in my subconscious. It was an intriguing concept and akin to when ancient texts refer to the existence of an Akashic Record that offers the same level of truth.
In the beginning of March 2020, I was prompted by a strong premonition that I needed to get myself to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. to do my research to get the story setting as factual as possible. At the time I remember wondering what the big rush was, but I followed my intuition and flew to D.C. where I spent a full week in the Library going behind the scenes and getting help from many of the librarians. One week later the Library was shut down indefinitely due to COVID. Had I not followed that instinct, the book would not have the true realism it does have.
I wrote part of the first chapter of STACKS right inside the Library of Congress’ Main Reading Room. While I knew where the story was supposed to end, and some of the plot points along the way, most of it just flowed onto the page as I wrote. It felt like I had otherworldly muses helping. There were some things I did not know and had to look up and was more surprised to learn my “imagination” was right on. A few events in the book became prophetic of what is actually occurring today in our world.
# How has your creation process improved over time?
Definitely. I write a few hours every day. The more you write the easier it becomes. I remember reading how Stephen King wrote five pages a day, so I gave myself the goal of 3-5 pages. Some days I surpassed that. It’s also good to remember that whatever you do get down on paper is only a first draft. After my first draft I go back and puff it up with more detail and dialogue until it flows off my tongue as I read it.
# How do you deal with creative block?
I go to the beach here in Maui or swim in a pool. Immersion in water always gets my creative juices flowing again.
# Do you tend toward personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
I write what I know and what intrigues me. As a movie and book addict, I like a fast-paced story that gets my attention, makes me think, and has realistic characters that evolve. If I can please myself, I am more likely to please others. I often say that I may not be the best literary writer, but I’m a good storyteller and that’s key. STACKS Library of truth is a sci-fi-, thriller, mystery and has some hot romance. Those ingredients usually grab the majority of people.
# What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
Writing one dimensional characters is a big mistake. It certainly helped being a clinical psychologist for over 30 years. I wanted believable characters with their own real foibles to overcome. The main character of Zach has Acquired Savant Syndrome with Synesthesia, due to a childhood head injury. As a result, he is both blessed and cursed with some very unusual abilities—one being seeing numbers in everything. When you’re a therapist you see some pretty unusual psychopathology. Many of my clients had Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder. You learn a lot about the mind as a therapist and it comes in handy when writing novels. I wanted my character, Zach, to reflect how he deals with life through a different lens and the challenges it presents.
# How do bad reviews and negative feedback affect you and how do you deal with them?
You can’t make everybody happy, so don’t even try. Luckily, I haven’t had any bad reviews. So many of my fans said that they couldn’t wait to read Book 2 in the series and didn’t want the story to end. They began relating to the characters as if they knew them. That would make any writer feel good. One woman told me she cancelled going to a dinner party so she could finish reading my book. You have to laugh at that one.
# Do you have any creativity tricks?
Yes. I never write at home where I can be distracted, even though I have an office there for my other business enterprises. Every blog article and book I’ve ever written has been created at a Starbucks. They’ve made a fortune from me over the years. Wherever I’m living, I find a nice cozy Starbucks where the baristas know me and that I am a writing novelist. Some have even read my books. And get this—they even deliver my drink to my table! For some reason a good chai tea latte gets me in the flow and I can block out the rest of the world, but still feel I’m still a part of it.
# What are your plans for future books?
I’m writing Book 3 in the series now and am about halfway through the first draft. Each book gets more involved and complex. There are some days where the plot takes me in a direction I hadn’t foreseen. And yet it always turns out to be surprisingly better than I would have thought.
STACKS Library of Truth book series available on Amazon in Kindle and Print format. Coming soon to Audible.
WEBSITE: StacksLibraryofTruth.com; FACEBOOK: @StacksLibraryofTruth