Robert Alan Glover

I am adding this brief update on April 20th. 2016.

A new edition of my book - in paperback - has

just appeared on Amazon, and Create Space.

Since uploading my Kindle version two years

ago, I have battled failing kidneys first diagnosed

while Gerry's book was only half done.

Now I face the prospect of home dialysis in the

near future, and had two surgeries on April 6th.

One for the dialysis tube, another for a hernia.

The operations affected my bladder and I was

hospitalized two extra days. I wore a catheter

for seven more days. Now, we have lift off.

A writer for 40 years - this is my first book.

Catholic,Democrat,a former military "brat".

We moved frequently and it was a good time.

My favorite book is still Bernard Malamud's

"The Fixer" (1966). A Pulitzer-Prize and National

Book Award winner. This novel,like his other books

and short story collections,is not in print anymore.

People no longer read his work. SAD. I first read

"The Fixer" in high school,and have never been

without a copy since.

This story teaches one to endure,and it has

helped me,an African American,often. Not just

in dealing with race in this country, either.

I am talking about the adversity I encountered

while growing as a "mainstream" writer, and sometimes

the "reverse racism" I experienced from Black Muslims

and other hardliners of my color.

That Malamud's hero is also a persecuted minority -

a Russian Jew -and that his book was written during

our Civil Rights era - triples its importance.

Her name was Geraldine Lee Fish. She is the reason my book,

"A Love Remembered Is a Love Forever", came about.

She got sick, and I never got to stand by the woman I loved, when it counted,

or say goodbye to her. She made a decision regarding her illness - and me -

which hurt more than it helped.

Now I am on the LONG road back.

My book opens with our first meeting in January, 1983,

and moves on through the 1980's,90's and the millenium.

Then a dreadful diagnosis early in the new century,

and years of struggle that,eventually, proved futile.

My uncle,Donald Goines, pioneered what is now

called "urban fiction". Author of 16 books,he

and his wife were killed in Detroit in 1974.

I lost him just as I was starting out, with 1 and a

half years on the college paper as its film critic.

Little did I know that a professional debut awaited me

as 1974 ended. Weekly, community newspaper exposure

would be followed by another small daily, then another.

"Donnie" however, as we called him,would not live to

see any of this. We would meet and talk one last time -

just two weeks before his murder.

This September,I am beginning what could be a regular

venue:lecturing about him at a Northern Kentucky public

library, and reading 10 of his short,unpublished essays.

Movie reviews would be supplemented by previews of

mini-series,like "Roots", and "Jesus of Nazareth".

Then came the personal interviews: Anthony Hopkins

in 1978,William Holden (via telephone),Patty Duke,

Richard Harris in 1981 and 1983,Sandy Dennis in 1986.

The list goes on forever, as do the publications.

A & E magazines like the legendary CINEFANTASTIQUE

(now digital online),a Canadian Business monthly,

a weekly Construction book,two full-time newspaper

jobs, more freelancing,and then the big time.

First, the Detroit NEWS in 1999,appearing on its

Education,Business,and urban edition pages.

Then the Detroit Free PRESS as well, followed by

two years with the now-defunct Cincinnati POST

and its sister daily in Northern Kentucky.

By the time this happened,my dear Princess was fighting

for her life,and unaware of my success just 50 miles away.

Now I understand so well what she experienced, even though my

seven or eight Rx's pale by comparison with what she must have needed.

The paperback edition has new front and back covers. The hostility and

silence from her siblings and a friend or two has not changed, however.

Apparently,even in this age of the Internet and an African American president,

it is still not "OK" to love someone of another race. Even after that woman is

dead. You can like her,but just don't love her too much.