LIFE FROM BEHIND THE RECEPTION DESK
Twelve years into running a Mom-and-Pop motel in Down east Maine, and six years after my first book; Living off the Road, I felt that was time to give our motel experience a new, hard look. It was time to reflect again on our journey, time to write a book.
Chasing Memories
Chasing Memories: Anatomy of a Family Search
http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Memories
Chasing Memories is about a journey. Its goals are to inspire other fellow travelers while sharing with them the knowledge I gained on how to conduct a genealogical research, starting from zero. The realization that one is only a link in a long chain and the pressing need to find the missing connections are so unique, and personal, that no one story is like another while at the same time, so universal that each one can find pieces of himself in other people journeys. Genealogy has become in the past few years, due to the prevalent online sources, an approach that everyone can choose to connect with his family's history. The vast amount of knowledge at one’s fingertips can be both exciting and intimidating. As in any other online media the know-how of the pitfalls and detours, can shorten the way considerably, while the awareness of the gains will sustain the drive. Many books were written about genealogy but a lot less specifically on Jewish genealogy, and of those the most are how-to guides on the way to conduct a research. Only handful of them is personal accounts relaying a sole family story. While some might argue that a guide has a wider approach, I believe that it is easier to connect with a personal story and draw inspiration from it.
Living off the Road
Living off the road - Stories from a mom-and-pop motel
http://www.amazon.com/Living-off-road-mom---pop/dp/1475004389/ref=sr_
The Mom-and -pop motel seems like a nicely wrapped package. Compact enough to make it manageable yet sufficiently varied to keep it exciting. Other people with no prior experience have done it, and survived, so how hard can it be? And so people often dive in without doing their homework, not realizing what it actually means, mislead by their own misconceptions and wishful thinking. It might seem simple, but small does not necessarily means effortless, and a motel is not like any other small home business. When every room is crucial, when one good season does not guarantee another, rain, or shine, or snow, in health or in sickness, the show must go on in order to keep surviving. That is the nature of this business in a nutshell. No wonder then that the burnout rate is rather fast and small motels change hands so often. The mom-and –pop motel is not for the faint of heart.
All books can be purchased on Amazon.com
Paper dragon
Drawing With Light - Painting With Words
Photographs can enhance writing by injecting creative energy that originates in the sense of vision. There is an untapped treasure of images that can be used to prompt writing, and they are all around. All we have to do is open our eyes and see. All we have to do is look around as explorers and be open to what the views stir inside us.