I was a cop for twenty-eight years, until two heart attacks killed me in 2013. I was not allowed to continue serving and left the Alexandria Police Department. And, apparently, most of my friends. That brotherhood thing we like to tell about police work doesn’t always hold true, and I remain close to only … Continue reading Kind New World

It has been, um,  a while since I last posted (three years, oy vey!) so I will reignite the blog with a few unexpected but welcome compliments I got while preparing my novel, APPREHENSION, for publication. Which occurs at the end of this month. It's on Amazon now, in ebook form, but won't transmit till … Continue reading Gritty, with typos

          So I’m talking to my new good buddy Grant Blackwood, international bestselling author and a co-writer of the ongoing Tom Clancy novels (Clancy being dead, he needs a cowriter) and he says to me, “Your book sucks.”           Well, maybe not in those exact words. And definitely not in that tone.  But the meaning … Continue reading “Your Book Sucks!” or What I Learned at Thriller School

We find new successes to measure in this web age.  I recently had my highest response ever on a Facebook post.  My wife Ruth says this was because it is a picture, and people are visual.  I wonder if it is just timing, so a post on a weekend captures more idle surfers instead of … Continue reading Judge A Book By Its Cover

I had lunch recently with Tom Young, a good novelist who lives in Alexandria and was gracious enough to meet with a fan.  Since I finished my novel I’ve learned that getting published no longer involves sending a full manuscript to publishing houses and waiting for their review and approval. It now requires sending “queries” … Continue reading Cut Off One Toe, or What I Learned at Writers’ Camp

A scene from our future… Ring, ring… “Police Department, may I help you?” “There are suspicious men on my sidewalk, maybe selling drugs, maybe gonna rob somebody.” “Well, thank you for calling and good luck with that.” “Aren’t you going to send somebody?” “Sorry, ma’am.  We don’t do that anymore.  Call us back if they … Continue reading A Modest Proposal, or The End of Policing As We Know It

(Note:  this blog was written by a friend who prefers to remain nameless, as he works in a sensitive job in a sensitive state. I may not agree with all of his points, but they are carefully considered and well written.  MB) I’m a former law enforcement officer – both a National Park Ranger and … Continue reading Some Thoughts on Gun Violence

I’ve never understood “The South.” Born in Philadelphia, raised there and in Massachusetts (except for a tiny stint as a tiny infant in Florida where, legend has it, I was kissed by a campaigning Richard Nixon)  I found myself landing in Virginia and marrying a girl from a little further south – a land where … Continue reading “Be Proud You’re a Nazi” (satire, folks)

I’m a racist. I’m a bigot. I’m prejudiced, against black people probably. Or, at least, I must be.  Everybody tells me so. I’m the little street crimes cop in Staten Island, grabbing the big man around the neck, not in a proscribed choke hold but in an attempt to control and arrest a combative man-mountain … Continue reading “Racist”

Want to know what I did on my summer vacation?   I died. Twice.  Three times if you count when doctors stopped my heart during open heart surgery.  Overall, the first week of vacation with sun, sand, seafood and family was fun, the second week with two heart attacks, three ambulance rides, four hospitals and double … Continue reading What I Did On My Summer Vacation