Fanny, 7, and Charlie, 8, circuitous soulmates in life, and beyond They met in Little Italy. Fanny was seven; Charlie eight. At first, it was puppy love. Soon it became something more. For the next 20 years, they were inseparable, pledging unrequited love now and forever. Somehow, fame got in the way. The handsome Charlie... Learn More

Kitchen seranade by a young accordionist with absolutely no musical aptitude When I was about 11, and pudgy as a pig, mom suggested I learn to play the accordion. “Every child should learn to play a musical instrument like the accordion,” she said. “You’ll never forget the experience.” I was skeptical; I’d never even seen... Learn More

Fanny and Charlie as they were in Cotton Club publicity photographs. Imagine two handsome soulmates—looking like a Vogue Magazine couple—romancing and dancing the night away at the Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1930s. Imagine America’s then-favorite romantic baritone, Russ Columbo, singing Save the Last Dance for Me, on center stage in front... Learn More

When you’re trying to get your big break in the entertainment business, everything else takes second place. So, it was with Charlie and his soulmate Fanny, who nurtured his career by dancing on the Staten Island Ferry to earn money for Charlie’s music lessons. Fanny, 15, as she appeared on New York City’s... Learn More

80 Years of love ever after, compressed into 61 seconds Alas, we live in a world of soundbites! Everybody wants you to get to the point in the least possible time. The above video about an intimate, epic love story, that spanned 79 years, was meant to give prospective readers a brief,... Learn More

Eight-year-old artist’s rendering of New York Harbor "Watcha doing, Charlie?" asked the beautiful, 7-year old young Fanny with long brown curls flowing out of her straw hat on Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy. “I’m making you a picture, Fanny,” replied the handsome 8-year old Charlie, drawing a boat in New... Learn More

Fanny and Charlie in their 20’s loved to dance the night away at New York’s Cotton Club People always ask, how do you find your stories? The answer? The story is either something I feel passionate about or with which I have some direct or indirect connection. Save the Last Dance, which critics call,... Learn More

Circa 1990. Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest military medal awarded by the USSR Thanks to the diligence of former military officer, and later curator of the Lilia Liyvyak Museum in tiny Krasny Luch, Ukraine, Valentina Vaschenko, Lt. Lilia Litvyak was posthumously named a hero of the Soviet Union by President Mikhail... Learn More

Lilia’s crash site as it sits today in the middle of a barren field in the Eastern Ukraine. What Amazon readers are saying about Call Sign, White Lily. “Deeply recommended to anyone who cares about justice, freedom, and the gifts God has given women.” “The life story of a woman who most people have never... Learn More

Ten years ago, I became fascinated by the random lore surrounding Lilia Litvyak, a soft-spoken Moscow teenager, who somehow became the world’s first female fighter-pilot and Adolph Hitler’s worst public relations nightmare, at the age of 19. Lt. Lilia Litvyak, 1921-1943 Despite the fact that Lilia completed 268 missions, recorded 15 solo kills, assisted... Learn More