The Apple and The Shady Tree is my first book; at 62 years old I found my true “career” path! I have always known that I could write well… compositions and essays in school usually received high marks, speeches written for celebrations were applauded, and even letters and emails with less-than-upbeat messages have been acknowledged for their substance. Nonetheless, I ignored what might have been my true calling and spent my younger years in the non-profit world and then administering the family’s retail food businesses.

Okay, so maybe I had the writing skills, but that is only part of the equation in becoming a good author… you need a good story! In my case, I needed decades to gather my ingredients and allow them to cook. You see, I come from a family that could be the poster child for dysfunction: Mental illness? Check. Crippling co-dependency issues? Check? Poor choices? Check. Perhaps the “piece de resistance,” my Jewish father was the moneyman for the Genovese crime family. What material! An author’s dream!

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