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Valentine’s Day 2026: Emily was in South Carolina visiting her brother and sister-in-law. I texted her in the morning, because I knew she would still be asleep: “Happy Valentine’s Day, my love. On my way to prison. Will call when I get back home.” I Dress for Decency My game plan for the day was to visit a prisoner at GEO North Lake Processing Center, aka North Lake Immigrants Concentration Camp, in Baldwin, Michigan. I was prepared to follow all the rules so that I wouldn’t be denied entry. I took my driver’s license and a $20 donation out of my wallet so I could store my wallet with my keys in my knapsack. My pen and notebook I left there as well, comforted in the assurance that “3×5 note […]

Happy new year to you. Congratulations on surviving 2025. If you had a pulse, you know that an orange wrecking ball is on the loose. But the resistance is strong and getting stronger. Popular mantras are “He can’t live in my brain,” “Keep laughing,” and “Keep the vision.” With them in mind, 2026 is going to be amazing. If you are anywhere near the Ann Arbor area, I invite you to begin it with me by joining me at Schuler Books on Thursday January 8, at 6:30 p.m. Schuler has chosen that day to spotlight my book, Thumbs Up: Memoir of a Joyful Organizer, and they’ve invited me to tell stories from it. Thumbs Up is one Baby Boomer’s story of how he navigated his new reality after Kent State, […]

I’m proud to say, and I say it often, that my generation, the Baby Boomers, came of age as leaders of the largest antiwar movement in our country’s history. I say, just as often, that the current, emerging anti-fascism movement will be even bigger. No Kings March Unites the Best of America The nationwide No Kings March on Saturday October 18 was the latest demonstration. Over seven million America-loving peace-and-joy fanatics attended over 2,700 marches in all fifty states! If you participated, you are part of history. And if you think this was about hating America, you are delusional. Emily and I attended the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor No Kings march at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti with over 1,500 fellow patriots. Energy was already high when we arrived. Marchers came with painted […]

I’m pleased to announce, to bookstores everywhere, that Thumbs Up: Memoir of a Joyful Organizer is now available on IngramSpark with the standard 55 percent discount and the right to return books. Making it so was a major adventure that included long email discussions with IT and HR representatives from Draft2Digital and IngramSpark. If you’re an independent publisher, this blog is for you. Here’s what happened. Azenphony Press Uploads “Thumbs Up” to Draft2Digital Azenphony Press, my publishing house, uploaded the book files to Draft2Digital (D2D), the digital distribution platform I have been using since I discovered them. Among the many advantages of using D2D is, they distribute books through most of the major platforms so you don’t have to, saving publishers from having to individually upload files to every single […]

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The person with breast cancer is the perceived victim, and with good reason. Meet the Silent Victim But there is a silent victim: the support person, not always but more often than not a man. Feel especially for those young men who think toxic masculinity is the way to be a real man. My book, Your Partner Has Breast Cancer: 21 Ways to Keep Sane as a Support Person on Your Journey from Victim to Survivor, is for them. I wrote it while I was playing that role as support person for Emily and discovering that no resources were available anywhere to help me take care of myself so I could take care of her. What Others Are Saying I felt guilty thinking I […]