Occupy This! Junk Bonds & Good Mourning, America

Before I became a writer, I traded mortgage-backed securities on Wall Street and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor Barry Sullivan during the Dinkins Administration.  When Mayor Dinkins lost to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, most of us at City Hall found ourselves unemployed, and depressed.  It's not fun facing the holidays without work.  I wrote as I searched for gainful employment to chase the blues away.

Had no intention of writing professionally when I graduated armed with an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.   Grew up too poor, as immigrants, and like Gatsby, I believed in the green light.

JUNK BONDS won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center and Best New Play from the Katherine and Lee Chilcote Foundation.  With Occupy L.A., Occupy NYC, Occupy Movements everywhere, the themes and issues in JUNK BONDS feels more relevant, more urgent than ever.  Was invited to speak at Smith College, Northampton, MA, last October, and the students all read and got JUNK BONDS.  Was graciously invited to read some of my work at an event downtown Los Angeles 99% Guerrilla Literature.  Save the date Feb 21.  Details to follow.

GOOD MOURNING, AMERICA is the bookend to JUNK BONDS.  I was in NYC for 9/11, having flown in the night before.  Saw it happen from the balcony of my friend's penthouse.  Lost former colleagues and friends.  It was so awful.  I can still remember the acrid smells and smoke, the losses, the nonstop tears.  Eric Bogosian convinced me I had to write this play inspired by my experiences and vantage points.  So I did.  And it poured and roared.  A mixture of comedy is sprinkled in with the pathos.

Both plays are published by Original Works Publishing, available on their website, on Amazon, on Kindle, Google.