Altimexis

Traveling the lecture circuit was a major part of my job. I lived in L.A. but spent at least as much time on the road as I did in Southern California. I was an endowed department chair, and with that came responsibilities. I was expected to recruit the best and the brightest scientists in my field, to mentor them and to encourage them to conduct cutting-edge research that supported the aims of the department. Left to their own devices, they’d spend all of their time in the lab, so it was

Tuesday, December 24, 1968 I’ll never forget the day Dad died. It was on Christmas Eve, and I was as excited about the holiday as any twelve-year-old boy could be. The tree had been up and decorated since just after Thanksgiving. Our house was festooned with brilliantly-colored lights. Beautifully-wrapped gifts spread out around the base of the tree. I’d been pestering my parents for a home planetarium I saw advertised in the Edmund Scientific catalog. It cost $30, which was a lot of mo

A Summer in Iowa is based on two key times in the author's life. In 1968, the author turned 12 and began junior high. It was a tumultuous time in which protests rocked America and MLK and RFK were assassinated. Fast forward to 1972, when the author turned 16 and was in high school. The author experienced his first time on his own while attending a summer science program at the University of Iowa. Although the romantic aspects of the story are fictional, much of the rest of the story is based on real events. A Summer in Iowa also serves as a prequel to the modern-day story in the author's New York Stories series, Reminiscing About the Future.

The year was 1969, and I became an uncle at the age of thirteen. My sister, who was fourteen years older than I, had moved with her husband to California. After a couple of miscarriages, she finally had a successful pregnancy. Then, just as I was finishing seventh grade, she gave birth to her son. Of course I was anxious to meet my new nephew, but he was a month premature and faced a stay in the hospital before he could go home. My mother offered to go out to California to help my sister ta

In 1969, when I was 13, my parents and I set out on an adventure. We took the California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco. My mom refused to fly and there wasn't time to drive during my winter school break. Besides which, highways could be treacherous in the winter. Nothing was going to keep us from seeing my new nephew, but the train was much more than a means of transportation. This story is autobiographical, but some memories have faded and where necessary, I've embellished things to make the story more complete. Even so, this is an accurate portrayal of an experience that has stayed with me for more than 50 years.

Thursday, November 23, 2023 Thanksgiving was one of the busiest days of the year at the Ragin’ Cajun. Only on Mothers’ Day did they serve more people. Asher always made a traditional turkey dinner, several kinds of stuffing, candied yams and homemade cranberry sauce. His turkeys were roasted on a rotisserie, which gave them a juicy texture that was lacking in most home kitchens. His turkey dinner was the Ragin’ Cajun’s best-selling takeout and delivery meal of all time. Short bow

Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Halloween Three weeks had passed since Larry had returned from the Middle East and still no word on Robin. At least Israel had finally begun its ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, so there was hope that she’d be liberated. Unfortunately, the risk that she might be killed during the conflict would escalate with each passing day. Larry had returned to school a week ago, Friday. Although he was no longer the subject of intense stares, he was only going thro

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 If felt good to be back on American soil. Congressman Moore watched as the giant Airbus pulled up to the gate at JFK. A subdued Larry Sanders was by his side. Getting back to the States wasn’t easy, requiring multiple flights. Finally, they were home. The same couldn’t be said for Larry’s girlfriend, Robin, who was known to have been taken hostage by Hamas. The congressman didn’t even want to think of what she was going through. The whereabouts of the rest of

Friday, October 6, 2023 Robin could do little more than smile. English might be the second language of Israel. English might be required teaching in all the public schools. It wasn’t required teaching in the Yeshivas, though, let alone in the schools for Orthodox girls. The girl sitting across from her had apparently never studied it. She didn’t even seem to speak Hebrew all that well. Not that Robin did either. The family seemed to speak Russian at home. Perhaps the entire ultra-Ortho

Sunday, October 1, 2023 It was a lazy Sunday morning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and not much was going on. No classes were scheduled, and very few students went to church. Students who opted for one of the block meal plans often took the opportunity to save a meal ticket and have Sunday brunch on their own. Indeed, many of the dorms had communal kitchens for students who wished to cook their own meals. Late Sunday morning was a great time for students to get to

Author’s Note: The horrific events of October 7, 2023, impacted the lives of many New Yorkers. The city is home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the world as well as a large Arab-American population. Many New Yorkers were in Israel or had family in Israel at the time. It seems only natural that some of the characters from my New York stories would’ve been in harm’s way. To be clear, Hamas’ barbaric attack can’t be justified under any circumstances, nor, in my opinion, can the bru

The impact of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 was felt around the world, but in few places more than in New York City. Not only is New York home to the second-largest Jewish population in the world, but it’s home to peoples of many cultures, including a large Arab American population. In my New York Stories, New York Holidays and New York Anthologies series, I’ve introduced characters who might well have been in Israel at the time of the attack. October Fire is a 6-part story about Jewish and Palestinian New Yorkers who persevered in the face of hate.

I discovered Comicality's writing in 2005, at a time I was coming to terms with my own sexuality. By then, I'd been married to a woman for 20 years and although I'd known for at least that long that I was bisexual, I was finally coming to terms with what that meant. A fictionalized account on my coming out to my wife can be found here. That was a dark time in my life. I'd just moved to a new city while my wife stayed behind to sell our house. It was then that I discovered online gay fiction, which has served as an essential outlet for the gay side of my sexuality ever since. Not only did I enjoy reading gay fiction, but I found I loved writing gay fiction. As with a lot of people in the early days of the online gay story community, my earliest experiences were with the Nifty Archive and I gravitated to gay teen fiction, perhaps as a vicarious way of reliving the youth I never had. I met a number of authors online through personal correspondence by email. Although I didn't know Comsie well, his fiction was an inspiration to me and my occasional contact with him gave me the inspiration I needed to come up with new ideas for stories. Not to criticize, but if there was one thing I leaned from his writing, it was the need to decide how and when to end a story before I ever put my fingers on the keyboard. God love him but if Comicality had one serious fault, it was in not being able to end his stories. He wrote endless soap operas that never ceased to entertain. The boys in those stories shall forever remain in their teens. Just as his stories went on forever, I always assumed Comicality would be around forever. We also lost Mike Wengert, the founder of AwesomeDude, this past year, but Mike was 80. Comicality was only 48. That's an obscenely young age at which to die. Sadly, a number of the most talented musicians, writers and artists in history also died young, so Comicality's in good company. There will always be a part of Comsie in me and in the stories I write. He's forever a part of my muse, and of course, his stories will live on forever.

Saturday, July 8, 2023 “Where the Hell is he, Kyle?” my boyfriend asked as we both scanned the circular drive in front of Washington’s Union Station. We’d just taken an early morning Acela Express train from New York's Penn Station, down to Washington, D.C. “I don’t know, Freck,” I responded. “He said he’d meet us right out front.” “There he is!” Freck shouted. It took me a moment to spot Seth, but he saw us and started waving his arms wildly above his unruly mop of golden

The invitation to spend a week of sightseeing in Washington, D.C. seemed like a great idea to Kyle. With his good friend, Seth, interning in Congress, it was a great opportunity for him and his boyfriend to see things most tourists didn't see. Kyle thought he'd fully recovered from the injuries he’d sustained three years earlier, but then a series of encounters forced him to recall a time he’d long thought he'd put behind him.

Saturday, July 1, 2023 “Oseh shalom bim’ramov,” the cantor began to sing in a loud, pure voice. “Hu ya’aseh shalom aleynu…” the entire congregation joined in. Of course, most of our friends, who weren’t Jewish, were clueless, but they’d catch on soon enough. “V’al kol Yisrael, v’Imru…Imru Amen.” It was the last line from the Kaddish, the holiest of prayers in the Hebrew liturgy. Better known as a prayer said by mourners for the dead, it was actually a concluding prayer, said – or more often

What do Bar Mitzvahs and food carts have in common? Nothing… unless you’re talking about a precocious young teen with a Jewish boyfriend and a best friend who's half black Cajun and half Asian, and who’s a gifted teenage chef. With a double Bar Mitzvah on the Fourth of July weekend, why not make it a pool party? Oy Vey!

The story dates back to a time before the site used the current software, and signature authors had much more control over the look and feel of their sites. The pictures were in a domain that no longer exists and I was unaware that they were no longer visible. Altering an anthology story requires working with the site admin, which I'll do after I come up with a permanent solution. The simplest solution would be to use the pics as stored on an external site, but the site owner recently passed away and it appears it may be moving to a new domain, so I'll wait until things settle down.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm aware of the misspelling, but it's difficult to make corrections to anthology stories. Regarding the philosophy of homosexuality in Orthodox Judaism, I cite some of the literature in one of my other stories. I was raised in a Reform household, married into a Conservative family and my wife's sister's family became Orthodox. Sadly, she passed away some time ago, but her son is now an Orthodox rabbi in Queens.

Memorial Day Holiday — Monday, May 29, 2023 “Asher you must think I’m stupid if you think this is gonna be a surprise,” I chided my husband as we got ready to go to a pool party on Staten Island. “I know Seth, but please humor everyone, okay?” Asher responded. “Tomorrow you’ll turn eighteen, and that’s a big deal.” “Yeah, okay,” I replied. “I’ll try to act surprised, no matter how obvious it is.” “And here I thought we were being clever, disguising your surprise birthday party

While attending a Memorial Day 18th birthday party, Seth is asked by a friend's brother about being interviewed for his high school newspaper. The interview brings back vivid memories of serving as a Congressional intern and being trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Asher and Seth just graduated from New York's top public high school. With so much to celebrate, their parents throw them a surprise party, where they meet new friends. The son of a black Creole father and an Asian American mother, Asher has developed his own style of Cajun-Asian fusion that has earned him a reputation as one of New York's top chefs. The son of a politician, Seth plans to follow in his father's footsteps. Both boys will begin college in the fall, but first there is an opportunity to help Asher's parents realize their dream of opening new restaurant.

It’s really amazing to think of how far I’ve come in such a short time. My name’s Asher White and I just graduated from Stuyvesant High School, one of New York City’s elite public specialty high schools. When I started there four years ago, I was a lonely fourteen-year-old boy living with my parents in a tiny apartment on New York’s Lower East Side. Although I could hardly be considered disadvantaged, my parents weren’t around much and when it came to friends, I didn’t really have any. It wasn’t

Saturday, February 11, 2023 “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Robin. Happy birthday to you!” Everyone sang out at the top of their lungs as Asher wheeled in an enormous birthday cake and set it in front of me, ready for me to blow out the sixteen candles on top. As a group, my friends sounded awful but I didn’t mind. My boyfriend, Larry, might have perfect pitch and a truly amazing singing voice, but there was no way he could compensate for all the kids wh

Larry was the son of a famous opera singer and a well-known conductor, but his passion in life was to be a medical scientist. However, when the pandemic waylaid his plans to go to the Bronx High School of Science, instead he applied to LaGuardia, New York's premier public high school of the arts. Just as an intermezzo is a short musical bridge, Intermezzo brings together characters from other stories in the New York Stories series while filling in some gaps. Told from the point of view of Larry's girlfriend, Robin, he learns that sometimes the shortest path to one's goals isn't the straightest one.