Monthly Archives: June 2014
This is a common dilemma when it comes to smartphone photos. In a second, the decision is made, the moment is past, and the decision has had its result. All very fine, when we are talking about phones.
When I wrote my Master’s thesis, “From Reform to Terrorism: Student Radicalism in the 1960’s,” I knew nothing about guns. I had never held one or fired one. I knew many names such as “Winchester Repeating Rifle” or “Tommy gun,” or…..
In corporate America, there are as many leadership styles as leaders. In my novel “Skyscrapers” I contrasted two CEO’s, both flawed. They shared a number of positive traits: alpha personality, a drive to succeed, an ability to manage a large and complex industry, enough charisma to motivate subordinates, and an ethos which so far had worked for them. At the…..
The title “Skyscrapers” reflects the landscape of Powhaten, the city in which the story takes place. It also reflects the location of the two main characters’ offices. And metaphorically, it reflects the characters’ natures. “The sky’s the limit” could be the motto of both.
Fiction allows such associative overlaps. The name “Powhaten” does, too: for the Indians it mean “place where tribes meet,” but it was also the name of a great leader. Although “Skyscrapers” is about Chicago, I fictionalized…..
“Skyscrapers” reflects my experience as the CEO of a big-city independent non-profit for eight years. During that time, I became more aware of the role CEOs of for-profits played and the long years of ladder-climbing most of them put in before they reached the top. I also became aware of the disastrous effects of corporate mismanagement. My non-profit, which distributed 160,000 free books to inner-city kids each year, ended up homeless as a result of corporate greed at Enron, the…..
