about me

A journalist, freelance writer and photographer, former daily news reporter, I spent my prom night in high school on deadline for our small town weekly. Specialties include Middle East politics, profiles, music and entertainment reporting. ***Becoming the great American novelist was always my dream, but you gotta eat, right?

****Why I haven't been on Autho lately: http://www.sawtbeirut.com/all-news/world-news/world-news/17174-dozens-reported-dead-in-syrias-bloodiest-day-of-protests.html
If you get a chance, please check out and comment (or on my Facebook page). This people need to know we care over here. Its been 2 days no sleep and such horrors to have to write about. Keep these poor people being massacred by Assad regime in your prayers.

Updates on my facebook page hourly: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000716138235


****for all you great writers out there who aren't marketing your wonderful book, except on this site... Get crackin'! Get some queries out there!!! Start at the top and work your way down. Don't sell your work short. Remember, even the loftiest agent or editor can only say "no". No bodily harm involved (unless you count the occasional bruised ego).

Check out this link for agents who are accepting queries:
http://www.agentquery.com/search.aspx
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/CategoryView,category,AgencyProfile.aspx

HELPFUL SITE: Writer Beware's Thumbs Down Agency List.



A word about my novel: "The Demon Lover" is meant to be an allegory of sorts, incorporating the various techniques, cliches, etc of pop fiction genres such as romance, action-adventure, the old series western, and even sci-fi and erotica - but with a dark twist. Beirut, Lebanon in 1987 could be any place, time or city where ordinary people have been subjected to the horrors of man's inhumanity to man. This is the tale of everyman. (There but by the grace of God, Cosmos, Universal Mind, Great Code Writer in-the sky, etc. go any of us?)
As I get part two and three loaded, please be warned that there is adult language and (explicit) content. If you're offended, its meant to offend (and take to task) most of the human race for our shameless desire for power, and insistence that we be vindicated, justified, mollified - and might makes right, of course! That said, I'm apologizing up front if my main character picks on anyone's sacred cow. Stick around, everyone gets their turn eventually.
****What we should be offended by: men with guns (sticks, stones, siege machines, bows and arrows) who (for no particular reason) have perpetuated genocide on millions since the beginnings of human existence; and the gangster war-lord wannabes (some of whom lead nations, religions, empires and armies) who convince us to slaughter one another's children for some trumped up slogan, creed or cause. I'm betting the entire Universe is offended, but that's just my take...

favourite books

Venus on a Half Shell by Kilgore Trout; Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut; George Orwell's 1984, Animal Farm; Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All - A Novel, by Allan Gurganus; The Little Drummer Girl by John LeCarre; The Physician, I forgot by who - but its good; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks; Oh Jerusalem!; The Color Purple by Alice Walker; The Windflower by Laura London(best romance novel ever!!!); (nonfiction) Beirut Fragments by Jean Said Makdisi; Delta of Venus, by Anais Nin; anything by Bertrice Small; right now anything by Susan Johnson or Laura Leigh. Dang, I do love me some modern-style erotica! ; D
***A new Author I want to plug, my dear friend Karim Al Koussa, whose book, Pythagoras, the Mathemagician, is available on Amazon on kindle and paperback.

my websites

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10000071613