"But of all other stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind must have his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very far distant either in time or place. . . speaking to those who are not yet born, nor shall be this thousand or ten thousand years?

My new book The Siren Sea has just been published!  It concerns two sailors who steal a nuclear weapon off the USS Midway in Japan for humanitarian reasons.  See below.

I just recently published a paper on the Origins of the Alphabet in Sino-Platonic Papers (SPP), a scholarly journal that is edited by Professor Victor Mair at the Univ. of Penn. This is my 6th paper in Sino-Platonic Papers, and it is my most important. It is titled, "On the Origins of the Alphabet:  The Cycle of Emmer Wheat and Seed/Word Selection within the Proto-Sinaitic/Phoenician/Hebrew Alphazodiac and the Chinese Lunar Zodiac" (go to www.sino-platonic.org to download them for free -- SPP 196, SPP 219, SPP 246, SPP 263, SPP 296, and SPP 328). My new paper contains new evidence that links the Phoenician alphabet to not only the zodiac and the Egyptian and Mesopotamian celestial diagrams, but to the vital cycle of Emmer Wheat. The paper also provides new evidence that shows that the Chinese Lunar Zodiac and Ganzhi are based on the Phoenician alphabet. I also give updates to several of my discoveries, including that the Phaistos disc is in fact a calendar (as discussed in my last paper -- i.e., there are really only 12 outer boxes to the disc. The 13th is in fact the head of a snake that spirals into the center of the disc. That snake is a depiction of the goddess as the Milky Way, which is how the ancient Egyptians viewed the sky goddess Nut). 

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I recently finished a book on Shakespeare. It's called Shakespeare's 'Master Mistress'.  It concerns the identity of the youth and mistress of Shakespeare's Sonnets -- and it's not what people would expect.  It breaks new ground and complements Clare Asquith's  two books on Shakespeare -- Shadowplay and her follow-up book Shakespeare and the Resistance. I'm putting the finishing touches on it and I'll be sending it out soon to publishers.

I'm also rewriting my short story collection Between Fire and Sea. It's based on many real-life adventures and close-calls that I experienced while serving on the aircraft carrier USS Midway from 1979 to 1981. The USS Midway is now a museum in San Diego, CA. 

I'm also working on a few Children's stories (which I will also illustrate). One in particular is called There's Trouble in the Atrium. It's already received a wonderful response from the children of a recent co-worker, Ashley. I did one illustration and can't wait to finish the rest of them.

Lastly, I'm working on an autobiography.  It will largely entail the many adventures I had while in the Navy and afterwards. In it I'll discuss my grandmother missing the Titanic in 1912 -- her horse and buggy was late getting to Queenstown, Ireland;  When she finally got to America, she worked as a maid and cook for various prominent Boston families, including the Logan's and the Kennedy's. I'll also discuss my dropping out of high school at 17 and joining the Navy, where I graduated first in my GMT "A" School (Nuclear Weapons Training Group Pacific) and then served two years on the USS Midway, CV-41, in Japan and then 1.5 years on Guam.  On board the Midway, I received my high school diploma and took 8 college classes. While on Guam, I took more classes and ended up receiving my associates degree. And while still on Guam, I applied to, and was accepted to, UC Irvine as a biology major.  I'll also discuss several close calls I had  -- i.e., almost murdered in San Diego under a freeway overpass, with a Naval Chaplain trying to take advantage of me afterwards; a collision between the USS Midway and the Panamanian freighter Cactus,  with my nearly falling off into the ocean from a damaged part of he ship afterwards; almost killed by a butterfly knife wielding Fiilipino gang, with a prostitute saving my life; almost killed by a gang in a Jeepnee on a mountain pass in the Philippines, with quick thinking saving my life; walking just past a lioness in the dark on a Navy safari in Kenya and almost getting bit by a black mamba -- the tour guide killed it just in time; I was also nearly killed by an intense lightening storm out on the water at Grande Island in the Philippines (I can still feel the shock that went through my body when the lightening hit just behind me in the water. My friend, Tellings, who faced the strike, completely lost it, and i had to slap him to get him to calm down).  I'll also discuss my year studying biology at the University of Sussex in England (UC's Education Abroad Program) and meeting Claude Nobs while hitch hiking from Switzerland to Germany. He then offered me a job at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the summer of 1986. There I met Jimmy Page, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, the artist Keith Haring, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau,, Sade, Anita Baker, Simply Red, Al Di Meola, Dr. John, Chaka Khan, and many other rock and jazz greats (as well as getting some photos and their autographs). I had to leave early as Claude turned out to be someone whom I didn't expect to be and I felt quite threatened.  While traveling through Europe that year, I was also chased by an unknown group of people in Athens in 1986, and I had to hide out at the Acropolis; I'll also discuss my participation in a conference on nuclear war and it's prevention that was held in Dubrovnik that same year (before the war). While touring the ancient city walls and standing over a crowd of people at the main gate,  I was punched in the jaw by a security guard. That incident really undermined and highlighted the very reason I was there. After UC Irvine, I was involved in a serious car accident in 1988, with a last second swerve of the oncoming driver hitting my engine instead of crashing into my  driver's side door at 55 mph.  My car was flipped 90 degrees and I suffered severe whiplash -- the consequences of which I still suffer from (recently diagnosed with cervogenic vertigo from a reverse curve in my neck that originated with that car crash). In fall of 1989, I was accepted into UC Berkeley for a third degree, and then after taking a job on Market St, I happened to be on the Bay Bridge during the SF earthquake in Oct of 1989 at the point where the span fell. I ran for my life to Treasure Island, and then was ordered back onto the bridge to the car (It was my co-worker's Ed's car, and we had to drive backwards into a dark SF. If it wasn't for us waiting for our drunk and racist boss to take the elevator down by himself, we would have been on the Cyprus structure on the way to Chinatown in Oakland at the time the quake hit --which pancaked and killed many people);l'll also discuss my two-week adventure out to Como Bluff, Wyoming, in the summer of 1995 (during grad school at UC Irvine), where I got to work with Dr. Robert Baker, the world famous paleontologist who transformed the world's thinking on dinosaurs.  It was paid for by a UC grant. It was exciting to work on an actual dinosaur dig and be part of finding new dinosaur trackways.  But I was also involved in a car accident that really shook us all up. I'll also discuss my 2006-2007 experience with Cancer and chemo. I'll also discuss my very close call during the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. I tried to get over to the finish line to watch the race, but I couldn't cut across Copley Square in front of the Boston Public Library. I got into a heated argument with a female security guard who wouldn't let me pass through (the finish line was just on the other side). She insisted that I walk down Huntington Ave to Mass Ave and head back Boylston (the race route) and up to the finish line. Just then I saw the winner of the men's race walk past me and head into the Fairmont Copley Plaza. I then made a decision to walk back to work and catch the race from the finish line the next year. But not long after I got back to work at the JFK Federal building, I was told about the bombing -- and I was quite shocked, as was everyone. I would have been right there where the two bombs went off. I then immediately headed back over to the site and took many photos and talked to several survivors. Lastly, I'll also discuss my four independent encounters with moving light objects in the sky, two of which were witnessed with another person.  Etc., etc.