Thursday, January 26, 2012

Two words for the screenplay: "Incredibly brilliant"

It was a tough, tough assignment to write about a 9/11 family even ten years removed. Pitching a New York agent a few years ago with a novel that just touched on the event, I watched as the agent described how he simultaneously witnessed the towers come down on TV and out his office window. His breathing became labored and I though he was going to cry. He wasn’t about to consider my book. I understood. Eric Roth’s (Academy Award for “Forrest Gump”) screenplay for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” may make it possible for others to now write on the subject if written with Roth’s sensitivity and genius – a salute also to Jonathan Safran Foer for the book.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012


Carman Tilelli with Eagles cap featured on the cover of my book, DOWN BUT NEVER OUT. Carman worked at Cherry Hill, NJ’s City Hall as a custodian for 28 years before retirement in 2005. His father a world champion middleweight boxer helped Eunice Shriver launch the Special Olympics.