What inspired you to write this book?
TESSERAE: A MEMOIR OF TWO SUMMERS was my first memoir written in 2016. Essentially a narrative of my younger years and a search for awareness; I was an unaware adult. At 76 I completed my second musing about my life which really examined not what answers I had attained but what questions I should pose as I near my end. Kazantzakis's observation comes to mind: "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." I have moved in that direction.
How did you come up with the title?
I have learned to come up with a title early on and to move my narrative in that direction. It is work of aging and of old age, meditative, reflective, about years lived and years to come, of the passing of time.
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
Sam Goldwyn reputedly said, in response to what the message was of his latest film, "If I want a message I'll go to Western Union." Messages, for me, are wearisome. I write to express what I feel and leave it to the reader to assess that. I think it is a writer's burden to carry a message throughout a writing event. Better, to relate an experience and leave it at that.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Nikos Kazantzakis, writer of ZORBA THE GREEK, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, SAINT FRANCIS, REPORT TO GRECO
What book are you reading now?
THIS IS ORSON WELLES, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich
