2/12/2021: Writing During Covid

a classic image from Hamlet

a classic image from Hamlet

It’s been a tough year for everyone. I’ve had it better than most. I live in a beautiful community in a warm part of the country. If you have to be in prison, it’s a pretty nice prison, but like everybody else, I’m sick of it. It’s been hard to concentrate. My previous production, about 3 books a year, has dwindled off. I’m still writing, but at nowhere near the same rate. Kingpin, the latest book in the Kurtz and Barent mystery series, took me nearly six months to write.

However, hope is finally on the horizon. We have two vaccines now, with a third on the way. My wife and I are tentatively scheduled for March 4, 2021. Let’s hope that normal soon returns.

a classic image from Hamlet

Writing

My last Post, from October, 2018, was on the “Writing Career,” but I find that as time goes on, I have more to say. I’ve been writing for close to thirty years and it’s been an engrossing activity from the beginning, but never more so than now. I hesitate to say it’s a “calling” or even an obsession. There are a lot of myths regarding the process of writing and the life of a writer. For me, it’s a craft, and as such it’s something that can be worked on, honed and improved. I’m not big on the “muse” or the “inspiration.” Mickey Spillane once claimed to have writer’s block. He just couldn’t get into it. Then some bills arrived that he didn’t have the money to pay. He got over his writer’s block pretty quickly. There is an attitude that the writer cultivates, however, and I expect that all writers, to some extent, have it. You learn to pay attention to things. You evaluate what you’re seeing and hearing. You listen to the cadence of a voice or an accent. You note a sunset or a beach or a stand of trees and think about the best words to describe it. To other people, you seem preoccupied or absent-minded. Henry James once described a snippet of dialogue or a overhead conversation that he could use in a book as a “Donner.” In French, this means a “gift.” And it’s also a gift to be have the resources to finally write full-time. In the past two years, I’ve published 9 books: eight novels and one non-fiction book on defensive investing. I hope I never stop.

3/20/18: The Empire of Dust

The Empire of Dust: Chronicles of the Second Empire, is the third book in the series, The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind. It will be published on March 25, 2018 but is available for pre-order now.

“Michael Glover survived every mission the Empire assigned him and then he survived the revolution that ended it all.

But can he survive when everything he knew and held dear has vanished into the past?

Awakened after 2000 years to find a new Empire rising to replace the old, Michael is given a second chance to make a difference. Can he take advantage of that chance? Does he even want to?

Trouble is brewing among the stars. Ships are vanishing. Military bases are being attacked. Chaos is spreading. Is this random piracy or a wide-spread conspiracy?

Naval intelligence is desperate to find out and Michael Glover, a soldier without a country, a man thought dead for over 2000 years, reluctantly decides that he cannot stand by when duty calls.

It’s a new Empire but the same old mission, and Michael Glover, deep in his soul, is still a soldier who can be counted on.

But Michael Glover has an independent streak. He’ll carry out the mission but he’ going to do it in his own inimitable way, whether naval intelligence likes it or not.

You will love this fast-paced science fiction adventure from award winning author, Robert I. Katz.

Buy it now!”

2/19/18: The Chairmen: A Kurtz and Barent Mystery is Now Available

Well, it’s been a long slog getting this book into print. I’ve been thinking about the idea for the Chairmen for a number of years. To some extent, it focuses on some issues outside of the central mystery, namely the challenges facing academic physicians in a work environment that expects the successful practitioner to be able to take care of patients, teach students and residents and also do research. It’s a rare individual who is capable of doing all three and an even rarer individual who is willing to sacrifice the time and the income required.

A chairmen of an academic department in a medical school has to have a history of publishing meaningful and significant research and also requires a history of being able to maneuver through the system of acquiring grants to fund that research. A successful chairman has to provide leadership and has to be able to gain the respect of the medical staff, both within and without the department, and also has to satisfy the myriad demands of the institution, particularly the demand to make certain that the money going out is more than balanced by the money coming in. It’s a tough job, and many chairmen find that it’s not one that they can do, either because they themselves lack the skill or because the institutional environment precludes success.

In The Chairmen, we have a Chairman of Cardiac Surgery who is retiring, a Chairman of Anesthesiology who is making himself so obnoxious that his department is in open revolt and a Chairman of OB-GYN who is being stalked by a lunatic. As harassment escalates into vandalism and then assault, Kurtz, Barent and Moran are propelled into the center of the mayhem!

7/25/17: Shakespeare and the Transparent Style

a classic image from Hamlet

Years ago, I read an excellent book by John Gardner, entitled On Becoming a Novelist. Gardner advanced the thesis that the purpose of the words is to convey the sights and sounds and plot and action directly into the awareness of the reader but that the words themselves should be unobtrusive. They should in no way interfere with the sensory experience of the book. This is generally known as the “transparent” style. It’s what Samuel Johnson meant when he said, “When I come across a line of mine that I think particularly fine, I strike it out.”

Nobody thinks it strange when a work that is written in German or French or Ancient Greek is translated into English. There is a general awareness that no translation is perfect. There are always nuances and subtleties that are beyond even the greatest translator, but nobody objects to the attempt, and an excellent translation certainly conveys most of what was there in the original language. But what about translating English into English? There is also a general awareness that Old English, a language closer to German than modern English, can no longer be understood. Many people have read Beowulf, but only scholars read it in Old English.

We often make the attempt with Middle English, in college, at least. I read some Chaucer in High School. It was a translation but in college, I read it in the original. I no longer remember how much of it I understood. I suspect that the professor spent a lot of time simply translating.

But how about Shakespeare? It’s a contentious subject. When Shakespeare was writing his plays, everybody could understand them. Most of his audience was not well educated but they all understood the language. I recently read an article outlining the pros and cons. There were a lot more cons, arguing essentially that Shakespeare’s language was so glorious and distinct that it must be preserved. Well, I suppose you could say the same thing about Homer but if you want to understand it, you need a translation. Shakespeare, simply put, can no longer be understood, not at least, without tremendous thought and concentration, which certainly detracts from the immersive experience that the transparent style is supposed to provide.

No, I’m with those who say that it’s time to translate Shakespeare. It’s too bad, but if you want Shakespeare to live beyond the classroom and a highly devoted elite, then I think it’s necessary.