At 13, I wrote in my eighth-grade graduation book, I wanted to be a writer. My first “published” work was in the H.S. paper at St. Nicholas of Tolentine, the Bronx, and later at Manhattan College where I majored in advertising.
First employer was Benton and Bowles Advertising Agency, N.Y.C., where I started writing ad copy. For the next 50 years, I literally wrote millions of business-related words in marketing/public relations. My work provided a very comfortable life. I was able to have four children go through 62 years of private education. I’m published in two marketing and PR textbooks.
When tuitions ended, I semi-retired, and started writing for myself - short stories, poetry, a memoir, and finally at 79 – my first novel: Séamus O’Flynn, New York Diaries of An Immigrant Son, 1931-1945.
Frank McCourt wrote: “Some things insist on being told.” In my novel, Séamus O’Flynn, 13, tells his Irish-Catholic-Immigrant-New York story starting in the chaotic 1930’s.