About Richard

This quote by John Updike in an interview with his alter ego, Henry Bech… well, let’s just say I relate:

“You are the person I, once a woeful country boy, wanted to be: a New York writer, up to his ears in toxic fumes. But I came to the metropolis, inhaled, and fled. What remains of that ignominious episode are the words “New York” on my elder son’s birth certificate, and you. You have stayed the course. I envy you. I envy you your city banter, your zaftig women, your dignified ennui, your underground ability to tell uptown from downtown and the express from the local. Me, aboard the subway, I find myself hurtling toward Harlem when I want to get to Little Italy.”

That’s me in sharp relief: woeful country boy and hardened city inhabitant. Once a callow, yet hopeful actor, I continue to have a love-hate affair with a city that offers fairy dust with one hand while picking the pocket of such a foolish rube with the other. I struggled, wandered, married, had two breathtaking children, divorced—and began anew. Writing has been part of that renewal process.

Born during my early days at Northern Kentucky University, my love of writing was smothered by my fascination with the stage. A dormant alphabet awakened, I began again, writing about a great love—baseball. This place is my blank canvas; a home to write; to fail and grow; a place to share; and with little luck, hop the right train, become a master of that “city banter” and make myself worthy of my own dignified ennui.

Examples of my writing can be found here.

Thanks for reading.

rf