Cameos from France

About the Book

Returning home late at night, the author enters his attic apartment, pulls off his wraps, and makes a pot of coffee. Opening the French doors, he steps out onto the balcony and lights a cigar. Below, in the tranquil cobblestone street, wisps of fog drift around the antique lamps hanging from the storefronts. A furtive cat "slinks catpaw silent" through the shadows. Chilled, he moves back inside and sits down at his desk. His neighbors begin to hear the muffled clacking of his manual typewriter as he starts his nightly vigil...

It's Cameos in progress, written during the author's three-year stay in Dijon, France. Much of it inspired by his experiences there, and by the city itself, Cameos is yet a work about universal themes of life. And though written from a personal perspective, the reader will often hear the echo of his own voice.

About the Author

In 1979, at the end of my senior year at USC, I spent a summer in Dijon, France.  I fell in love with the beauty and charm of its architecture, its winding cobblestone streets, its rolling countryside and the elegance of its parks.  I was introduced to café life and the French lifestyle.

I was a young developing writer, suddenly discovering my voice, while immersed in the atmosphere of Dijon.  The images and experiences it proffered, harmonized with my own aesthetic sensibilities and intellectual preoccupations.  In trying to describe what I saw and experienced that summer, theme and form finally came together into a style I felt truly reflected by thoughts and feelings. 

 Returning to the U.S., I felt alienated by the aesthetic sterility of modern life, and my creativity suffered.  My one obsession was to return to “home.”  After three years, I was able to do this, and hastening back to Dijon, I spent the next several years under the direct influence of my “Muse.”  Cameos is the result and it gives me the greatest pleasure to share it with you.