David E. Feldman-Overcoming Life's Challenges

Show Transcript

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: David Feldman has confronted so many serious health problems in his life that it's a wonder he's still standing. He's faced drug addiction, depression, spinal problems that nearly led to paralysis, two hip replacements, intestinal resection with colostomy and cancer. But instead of letting all of that, What's Feldman done?

[00:00:26] He's written a bunch of books in which his characters overcome life's greatest hurdles. In fact, Feldman's the author of eight books, including his six book, Dora Ellis and Mystery series, and a standalone literary novel, the Neighborhood which focuses on racism. And oh, by the way, Feldman's an accomplished working musician and.

[00:00:50] He's an award-winning filmmaker too. He's his play Love Lives on his play. Love Lives On was a winner of the Artist in Partnership inaugural Playwriting Contest. He's been the owner of Efface Media. That's efface.com, E F A c.com since 1989, which provides web design, videography, brand development, and digital service.

[00:01:19] Among others. Hey David, welcome to Lean to the Left, buddy. 

[00:01:23] David Feldman: Thank you Bob. Great to be here. 

[00:01:25] Bob Gatty: Hey, tell us about your story, David. How's it, how is it that you faced all these serious health issues and still been able to produce all of this creative work and even run a company for

[00:01:37] David Feldman: Crown that in a way, I have to say.

[00:01:41] I had no choice. Yeah. Because if, you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice and if you squeeze me, no, I'm sorry about that. If, you know what I, let me put my phone onto let me shut my phone off. I'm sorry about that. That's alright. If you squeeze me, you get art. Yeah. You squeeze art.

[00:02:04] Yeah. I squeeze you. Squeeze me. You get art. I'm sorry about that. So I've been running this company efface media efface.com since 1989. And and that's gone along just fine. And in recent years, I've really. Scaled it down and much of my income from that is passive. I not, that it's so much income, but yeah.

[00:02:36] So, what's happened is that about four years ago I started to have physical issues and they started. I, I had trigger finger. I'm a piano player and I play in restaurants and in bands and I play quite a lot for seniors. And I would find that if my, I made a fist, if I closed my hand and I opened it.

[00:02:58] My ring finger wouldn't open. And so they call that trigger finger and it's not good for a piano player. Yeah, it's not good. And I had surgery on that and it wasn't all that big a deal. My brother actually had it recently. My brother's a singer, a fine singer. But then I I, found right after that, maybe three, four months later, I had a double hernia.

[00:03:23] Again, not too big a deal. Don't know why I had it. Right about then I, took the the motorcycle safety course. I bought my first Harley at, age 61. Okay. After not riding motorcycles for 40 years, I rode them in my twenties and, started riding again in my sixties and the early in that course you, spend probably the first half hour pushing your motorcycle, and I think that's how I ended up with the double hernia.

[00:03:54] But anyway about six months later I found I needed a hip. Okay. And that was not fun, but I had the hip replacement. And again life goes on. These are things that happen. You get older and if you don't drop dead, you have some of these things and, that's okay. And, a while after that though, I was, I again, playing piano out in the Hamptons and on the east end of Long Island and a, nice steak and sushi.

[00:04:25] And I found that my hand was not, my hands were not working so well. Not only that, but I was starting to stumble when I walked. Now I've been clean and sober since 1994. So it wasn't alcohol, it wasn't booze. So I went to a doctor and I remember on my way to the doctor, my wife and I were on the phone.

[00:04:47] I was in the car and she said, for goodness sake, don't make any more surgery appointments. And I said I'm going to see a surgeon. I'm, having these crazy I'm losing dexterity in my hands. My feet are cold all the time. My hands and feet are numb. I'm stumbling when I walk.

[00:05:09] I can't write well, I can't play piano well, I'm gonna see what the doctor says and that's what's really gonna determine what, what happens. And, the doctor said, I. You're heading towards paralysis because I had to have an mri. And after the MRI he said the vertebrae are pressing, not outward into nerves, which is what happens very often with people with spine issues, but inward into the spine and they were blocking.

[00:05:37] Impulses everything you do is governed by electrical impulses. Sure. That travel through your spine and that stuff was being blocked so I couldn't walk my brain was telling my feet to move and my hands to work and, the impulses, the messages were not getting through. So I needed to have a plate put in my neck and I had to have the la.

[00:06:02] Around the, one of the vertebrae removed and, screws and bolts and stuff put in there. And, that was really a drag. Yeah. And then three as bad as that. And I was, okay. I came home from that and I started to have right after, three days later, actually the first symptoms were, sooner.

[00:06:23] It was about two days later, I started to have these monster, crazy hiccups that would literally lift me outta my chair and I bounce on it was crazy. Wild hiccups. Wow. Then I started to get physically ill like exorcist throwing up like for distance. And I went to the 24 hour er and I live in Long Beach, New York, where there used to be a hospital.

[00:06:52] But ever since Hurricane Sandy, there's no more, the hospital was destroyed. Everything here was underwater in, in Hurricane Sandy, my home, everything. And that, that's another thing that happened. But that was in 20. And, the ER said, you have air in your intestines and we need to put you in an ambulance, send you to a hospital that's about 20 minutes north of here, and you're gonna have to have your intestines, a piece of your intestines cut out, or it's called a resection, and you might wake up with a bag.

[00:07:23] And I said, wait, what? What? And I, and that's exactly what happened. I, woke up with, a colostomy. And I had to poop out my belly for, three months. So, then they were able to reverse that, which is not always the case. There's people with things like Crohn's Disease, right? And other things, irritable bowels.

[00:07:44] Some folks who have these, they live with them forever. And I talk to some people during that time just to cope with it. So I had that fixed and I knew I was gonna need another, the other hip was, And all of this is in the last five years. Wow. And I was set, all set to have my other hip replaced last April.

[00:08:08] And a doctor told I had to have a bunch of blood tests for the hip replacement. And right at the end, just as I was about to have, about a week before the hip replacement, my urologist called me and he said, you have prostate. Oh boy. And you can't have your hip replaced. Oh. So I had to have treatment. I had and, look, prostate can if you're gonna have, can some people say if you're gonna have cancer, you should have prostate cancer.

[00:08:33] And I am not sure I see it that way. I I don't want any cancer. I don't know that any cancers the cancer to get, but at the same time I was diagnosed, my best friend was diagnosed with pancrea. And he's gone. He, got, he was very sick. He got very, sick for about two months and died.

[00:08:52] Yeah. Yeah. So, I had to wait to have my hip replaced and eventually I did in December I had my, finally, I had my hip replaced, and during all of this I was writing. Because first of all I, was able to sit still. Yeah, that's something I could do. I couldn't walk very well. The right the cancer really was not visible to me.

[00:09:22] The, symptom, the primary symptom I had from that was fear. Was was, anxiety and terror and Sure. I joined a bunch of prostate cancer groups on Facebook and one that is like a phone group. With a bunch of older men. I was one of the younger guys, and I was one of the healthier guys.

[00:09:45] There were guys there with stage four cancer that began as prostate cancer and was and, they were living I also communed with a bunch of musicians or two musicians on there. And we talked a lot about music. And music is very healing. Music is Really the answer to a lot of my spiritual issues.

[00:10:05] And and as is writing and I, was able to process a lot of this through my writing and, while I do give various of my issues to my characters, that's not really what my books are about. Most of my books The, majority of my books now are mysteries, and I do, I did write this novel about four families in the town I grew up in, which is Valley Stream New York, which back then was a hundred 99% white, more than 99% white.

[00:10:37] And And the book surrounds racism. It's about the first black family. It's a novel, it's fiction about the first black family that moves in and what happens between four families. And one of them is that first family of color to move in. And which book is it? That's called The Neighborhood?

[00:10:55] It's a standalone novel, and it's a again, it's about, essentially it's about racism, but it's also a love story. All my books are love stories and mysteries. They're mysteries because hopefully as you're reading. You wanna know what happens next, so. in a way that's, the definition of a mystery.

[00:11:14] You want to keep reading what's gonna happen. And there's always love in my books because I think love is really the answer to, a lot of, the world's ills. Yeah. 

[00:11:24] Bob Gatty: I agree with that. Let me ask you this. How is it that during the period that you're undergoing all of this, these health issues which must have been extremely traumatic, And I just had a hip replacement myself, so I know what you went through with that.

[00:11:45] And, that's not easy recovering from. So while you were, going through all of these health things, you were able to sit down and create. Create these books. You, brought in some of your own health experiences, I guess you gave those to some of your characters, right?

[00:12:10] Yeah, 

[00:12:10] David Feldman: that's right. 

[00:12:11] Bob Gatty: Yeah. And you did that 

[00:12:12] David Feldman: why? Because I needed to. Because that's how I process these things. I, read a mostly mysteries. At night before I go to bed, I read for a couple hours. Okay. And it's very helpful for me to see people who are in much more dire straits than I am.

[00:12:34] The people in these mysteries are they're on the receiving end of real bad stuff. Yeah. And most of the time in Mysteries, the Good Guy win. Yeah. The bad guy or, the bad girl is caught or killed, and. That doesn't always happen in life. That's true. We don't always That's true. See, things work out the way we want them to.

[00:12:56] Yeah. Or do we, things are not always fair so, reading mysteries is helpful for me to make sense of the world and, writing them also. Helps me to make sense of life and make sense of the world. And it takes my focus off my own problems be with my health situations. I was, for the most part, able to sit on my couch with my laptop in my lap and type.

[00:13:22] So I was physically, I was able to write as once I started moving. All bets were off. Especially the, most painful of all of these things really were the hip replacements and because I had to postpone my second hip replacement because of the cancer I was in a lot of pain from, August.

[00:13:43] I, the second hip replacement was December, this past December 7th. So from August through December, I was using a walker and I was in a lot of pain. But if I sat on the couch, Just wrote, just sat on the couch with my laptop. I was okay. Okay. I wasn't in pain, so that's really how I was able to do it. And spiritually and psychologically, it was important for me because it took my, my focus off my own problems and enabled me to focus focus on others.

[00:14:14] And to the degree my. My problems intruded on my consciousness. I gave some of these issues to my characters. That's interesting. Yeah. I had to I, I my family has a, streak of depression running through it. Okay. I would even say galloping through it. Wow. And we have had some suicides in my family, not my immediate family, but in, in my extended family.

[00:14:42] And, So I gave that to my main my main character and my Dora Ellison mystery series. Dora Ellison has P t s D and anxiety and depression related issues that come from trauma. I had some trauma early in life. I was around some violence early in life, and I gave that to her. It's a different situation but, she lives with that all her life and, she's a little bit like, She has a streak of Jack Reacher in her Jack Reacher's, the the main character in the Lee Child the famous Lee Child Series and now TV series. Where, Jack Reacher doesn't like bullies, he runs into bullies, or he runs into a town run by a bunch of bullies.

[00:15:29] Kind of like some of the old westerns bad day at BlackRock and movies like that. Yeah. And, he mops up the street with them. And Dora does a little bit of that, and she runs into bullies in every book, and she teaches the lessons. She's a tough cookie. She's physically strong. She, in book one, she starts off as a garbage collector, and that makes her, that made her physically very, strong.

[00:15:53] She's lifting garbage cans and flipping 'em over with one hand. And she's physically, she's a beast. She's a big child. Girl. How did you decide 

[00:16:01] Bob Gatty: to make her a garbage collector? 

[00:16:03] David Feldman: I people ask that, people ask about how where these characters came from and why I'm writing about.

[00:16:10] Two women who are lovers. What do I know about lesbian? And the answer is, I don't know. The, characters decide that from me. The characters show up and I write about them and I don't know. They just show up. Huh? They, yeah. And this, they just write themselves and ask.

[00:16:30] That's amazing. They're using my fingers and, my pen and my computer to, to write their own stories. That's amazing. 

[00:16:38] Bob Gatty: Now your, book touch your, books touch on issues of the day, much this podcast does focusing on Yeah. Such issues as bigotry to gender issues right to the lives of people with special needs.

[00:16:54] I think that's really important. Yeah. What do you see in society today that makes these topics important and relevant? 

[00:17:03] David Feldman: Dora. Doesn't like bullies, and she runs across bullies on a small scale. If someone's beating their dog or someone is there's a, fellow with cerebral palsy getting picked on and she, makes things, right in a larger macro sense in society.

[00:17:23] I think there's a lot of bullying going on. We have I, think that the weaker people in society are perpetually beaten on by the stronger people and by the wealthier people. And I grew up in a household where we cared about people less fortunate than us. We cared about poor people, we cared about.

[00:17:45] Folks of color and, racism. We I have someone in my family who has pretty severe special needs. She'll never walk, she'll never speak. She doesn't see to her own physical needs she needs help and she will need help forever. And so I, think it's important. To speak up for these people and, these issues show up in my books.

[00:18:09] Okay. They show up in politics and they show up in my books. Okay. 

[00:18:15] Bob Gatty: Now, in addition to writing all of these books you do ghost writing, right? 

[00:18:21] David Feldman: Yeah. That's a big part of how I make my living is I, ghost write books for. And other things as well, but all yeah. 

[00:18:28] Bob Gatty: And it says here, you recently completed a ghost writing project about the history of people of a particular heritage in the US military.

[00:18:37] What heritage was that Muslim. Muslim, okay. You also ghosted a romance novel and, a how to book about fi about fishing. Is there anything you don't write about? Actually, that's a facetious question. Yeah. The fishing book that got me, because I'll tell you what couple of, a few years ago, I guess maybe about eight years ago I, was learning how to fly fish and I had this friend who I met, he was a, great.

[00:19:12] Burley guy with red hair and a big red beard. And he was a friend of mine that they introduced us. And we, were, we actually thought about writing a book about fly fishing. But in, in the end, the guy was just too difficult to work with because he, couldn't even type and that's not 

[00:19:37] David Feldman: good.

[00:19:38] Bob Gatty: And the only way to get information from him was sit and, interview him and take notes and, it just got to be too tedious. So I dropped the project. 

[00:19:48] David Feldman: So I, just wanna say something to that. A book fell into my lap that is not really, not in the notes because. It was published by the University Press about, oh, about 15 years ago.

[00:20:01] It's, a book and it's a cool book. It's called Pilgrimage from Darkness, and it's about a fellow who grew up in, in Nazi Germany. It's a true story, a memoir. Of this fellow who grew up in Nazi Germany during Hitler's rise to power. He was a typical kid. He wanted to there were parades in his, there were parades in his area.

[00:20:24] He wanted to be in the parades, and who who was marching in the parades? Nazis. So he, he joined the hit. Because that was what all the cool boys did. They were all the cool tough boys who played soccer and everything were in the Hitler youth. And eventually he was in the Loof Waffa.

[00:20:43] So he, fought for the Nazis, but in the long run he realized what his country did and, went on a spiritual search and, Sampled all of the world's religions and eventually settled in Israel and married a Holocaust survivor and converted to Judaism. And the reason I bring up this book is that this fell fella had a very thick German accent.

[00:21:13] And we wrote the book by him telling his story into 16 tapes on a tape recorder, which he then, I never met him, which he then sent to me in New York and I wrote the book that way and Wow. It was brutal cuz his accent was so thick. I had to listen to things four and five times. It took a year just to do that.

[00:21:34] And then I had to research everything that he said and sure. It was quite a process, but the fishing book is a buddy of mine. This is my dog here. This is my dog, but hey. Yeah, this's. 

[00:21:50] Bob Gatty: See? Come on. 

[00:21:51] David Feldman: Yeah. Oh, look at that. This is something, he's a Yorker. He's the he's, the mayor of my house.

[00:21:59] Unless he sees his shadow and then he goes running upstairs. But it's, but the, fishing book was brought to my attention by someone. Who knew me through other means. And he decided he's a guy who's on disability and he has almost no money and he, but he fishes all the time.

[00:22:19] Okay? He fishes four or five days a week, okay? He goes out on party boats and fishes and someone had said, talk to Dave and about if you wanna write a book, talk to Dave and. We came to an agreement where I, operate on a sliding scale. I'm not that worried about them. I, don't wanna get paid for my work.

[00:22:36] It has value, but I'm not that worried about the money we figured out something that we could both live with and we started writing this book eight years ago and we're still writing it. But here's the thing. The book was done five years ago. The book was done five years ago, but he liked the process Yeah.

[00:22:57] And he, that he just keeps, every time he wins a pool, he comes over and we, add another page or two to the book and he's turned into a great writer. He, has a sixth grade education and he can't spell anything. But, he knows what sounds good and he makes up, he writes the, he's writing everything now.

[00:23:19] I just transcribe it for him and he pays me a few dollars. That's what we do. Yeah. 

[00:23:26] Bob Gatty: Wow, That's interesting. 

[00:23:28] David Feldman: And the book's not for sale because he's on disability and he's afraid that if the book shows up in Amazon, he could lose his disability. Cuz the disability police will say you could write a book.

[00:23:40] You can't be on disability. What do I know this is people show up. So, 

[00:23:46] Bob Gatty: the guy's not going to publish, actually publish the book. That's a shame. 

[00:23:52] David Feldman: No, and it's a great book. He knows all about tying flies and all, oh, really? Oh, yeah. Not, flies, because he's not a freshwater fisherman but, lores, he knows all about.

[00:24:04] He knows all about ca. He think he can think like a fish. 

[00:24:07] Bob Gatty: This guy that I was doing this fishing book with, or at least I thought about doing this fishing book with, wanted wanted me to go fly fishing with him, saltwater fly fishing with him to Belize. And I'm going like, what? Really?

[00:24:25] We never did it. But sounded like a. Great idea. Yeah. Anyway, all so we don't want to talk about my experiences. We wanna talk 

[00:24:38] David Feldman: about yours. 

[00:24:40] Bob Gatty: Now we live today at in, in a society that is, it just seems there's so many divisions. I know, I just know in my own family, for example there are people who don't talk to me because relatives, close relatives.

[00:25:00] Like a brother who barely talks to me because of my political, my left-leaning political views and his Trumpism addiction. And we see this all over the place. What's your view about all of that and, how does that translate I think into what you do as a, as an artist?

[00:25:29] David Feldman: Oh, that covers a lot of ground. As far as the divisions between people there are greater divisions than there ever been, and there's less courtesy and less ability to have dialogue than there's ever been. And I'm, guilty of it too, Uhhuh because there's people that I.

[00:25:54] Don't speak with that. I have unfriended on Facebook and and I've stepped away from, because they have views that are the polar opposite of my own. And in fact I used to go out to breakfast with a bunch of guys Just quite a few years ago, maybe six, seven years ago. But I, guess it was after 2016, so it was when Trump was in office. And, one of the fellas, soft spoken guy I was friendly with started talking about Trump and a couple of us, myself and another guy really lit into this fella and And the fella got up and left, and I lost my friendship to this, fella, and I regret that because I liked him.

[00:26:44] And we were friends and we supported each other through challenges in life, so. that part of it I, regret that there is, that there's the kind of. Division that has caused people to be caustic and not nice. And I think a lot of it comes from people we see on the news, and I think a lot of it to me, Perhaps the single.

[00:27:11] If there is a one person who's at the root of all of this, I don't know if it's Trump. I think Luper Murdoch is at the root of a lot of the problems that we see nowadays because, and we're seeing it come out in, the news now. Yeah, You know that, that. You know that Tucker Carlson wasn't, really and didn't like Trump supposedly.

[00:27:33] At least that's the headline I saw just yesterday. Yeah. That Tucker Carlson really didn't like Trump, and yet he was fomenting on Trump's behalf. And but the other thing is I don't talk very much about is this, Podcast that we're doing for me is very much an outlier. Not so much because your views are outlier views.

[00:27:53] I actually share your views and when I was growing up, I used to, I grew up in a family of activists and i, was knocking on doors for Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Okay. Four. Eight. Eight. And I didn't know what I was doing. My parents just sent me out to do that and people were slamming doors and yelling at me.

[00:28:17] Yeah. But I, don't talk about politics very much on podcasts, because here's the thing, Republicans, at least some of them read books I don't, I mean, at least some of them. There are some of them. Yeah. I don't know the, that they if, they, I I don't wanna say too much but, look, I want everyone to read my books.

[00:28:42] I want everyone to buy my books. That's why you go see, so you 

[00:28:45] Bob Gatty: don't wanna tick off the Republicans. All right. I was going to ask you what you think about the presidential election coming 

[00:28:54] David Feldman: up. You can, you, no you can, and I'm. It's okay. So, here's the thing you ask. You did ask about how, what I do in my stories.

[00:29:02] Yeah. And I do put these issues in my stories because I think the fact, I think the fact that people of color people. Who are poor who have don't, who don't have access to some of the goods and services of society in, the way that many of us do who don't have access to healthcare who are, who have special needs, who have j.

[00:29:30] Different points of view about gender. These people are on the receiving end of some bad stuff in society. And I think that's not fair. And I talk about that in my book and in my books, and I have, I show it in my books, and some of them are on the receiving end of. Murder in, in my books, although I don't make my books overtly political in that way, but I do put some of that in my, see what's hap What I've found is when I, once I start talking to people with different views and we get off the Fox News and we get off.

[00:30:08] The, hot button issues, the way they're spoken about in the press. I found that we agree about a lot. In fact I, had a, an experience recently speaking with someone. And we were talking about a lot of these things and we found, we agreed. Okay. And at, the end of the conversation I said where's the disagree?

[00:30:28] And we, ended up getting back to the way things are talked about in the news. And listen, I think some out and out lies are put out there. And I'll, say right away, I think Fox News I, don't see any moral equivalence. PE people I know talk about they, they say, You think Fox News is bad?

[00:30:46] What about msn B, C? And I say, what about them? I don't think there's any moral equivalency between msn, BBC, and Fox News. I think one of them puts out, out and out lies. And stirs up BS and, has people like we have a a, minority in the House of Representatives that are effing crazy. Yep.

[00:31:06] Absolutely. I think these, people are nuts and if I lose some readers, so be it. I, it's, listen, it's not like I have so many readers anyway. I have to, I, some people read my books, but I don't have millions and millions of readers and I'm not worried about. Pissing off 10 yeah. I, and I think, look, there are sane Republicans. I think Bob Dole I, wouldn't agree with a lot of what he had to say. I didn't. I'm not a fan of Ronald Reagan, I have to say. And that has a lot to do with the House on American Committee and and and people like Pete Seeger and, Oh, I can't think of what his name is. The author who was married to Marilyn Monroe. Who He just can't think of his name. Okay. Folks who had political views were put on trial because of them. I just think that's wrong. And you, get to listen. We live in a country where you get to believe whatever you want and I just think that people who, think that what happened on January 6th of a year and a half ago, if they think that's.

[00:32:13] They're crazy and, some of the Republican senators spoke up about that yesterday and the day before and said so, and I think they're right. I think I don't agree with a lot of what MIT Romney has to say but, he said that, and I agree with him there. 

[00:32:28] Bob Gatty: Yeah, Okay. Looking at the 24 presidential election, we've got on the Republican side, we've got DeSantis who hasn't announced, but shows every sign that he's going to perhaps by the time this thing airs he will have announced and of course Trump.

[00:32:49] And then we've got lesser light. That Nikki Haley for example former governor of South Carolina where I live and she's walking a tightrope of wanting to get to nomination, but afraid to piss off the. Crowd. So anyway that's on the Republican side and then on the Democratic side, of course we've got president Biden and, 

[00:33:30] David Feldman: others 

[00:33:32] Bob Gatty: Waiting to see what he's going to do.

[00:33:34] What are your thoughts about all 

[00:33:36] David Feldman: of that? David? First of all, I'm interested to see if any of this comes back to bite me in the ass. Yeah. Talking about this stuff as an author, cuz I, I, it's something that I've. Not done very much of, but, so my thoughts about all of that I, happen to think Biden's.

[00:33:52] Terrific. You think Biden's what? Terrific. Okay. I like him. Yeah. I like, I liked Obama. I liked Biden. Yeah. I, think that the affordable healthcare act it's not so affordable is good because it, enables people to. To, have access to healthcare. I, don't know that much about the ins and outs of that.

[00:34:17] Yeah. But I don't like I, don't like Trump. I think he's crazy. Yeah. I'm, interested to see if, he and DeSantis beat each other up and what'll happen there. That's the best thing that could happen. I I'm a democrat, I'm a liberal democrat. I was, I'm, I, as I get older look what's the actual definition of conservative is not wanting things to change very much.

[00:34:43] And when it comes to fiscal things and when it comes to Medicare and when it comes to social security. Yeah. I would say it's a truly conservative view to want to keep those things and to not want to change Medicare or social security because, They're a big part of my life. I, have I, still make some money in my business, but I like social security.

[00:35:08] I'm on social Security, I'm on Medicare. I've given my Medicare quite a workout in the last few years, and I'm very, and I have paid. Almost nothing for it, and I'm very pleased. Because I've seen on paper what my surgeries cost. Sure. My first hip replacement was something like $80,000.

[00:35:26] That's 

[00:35:27] Bob Gatty: crazy. Yeah. I know. You you, must have a good supplemental then to go along with your Medicare. 

[00:35:37] David Feldman: I have our, it seems to be pretty good. I don't get any bills. I've, so far I've had maybe $50 in bills for all of that stuff. Yeah. Although, some, quite a bit of it. I'm 60, I just turned 66 a few weeks ago.

[00:35:50] But, hang on, I guess my dog wants to get down. But my supplemental is Arp and I have had, since I've been on Medicare, I've seen maybe 60, $70 in bills total. Right before that, my first hip replacement, I paid $6,500 for, because that was my out-of-pocket and, my abdominal surgery.

[00:36:14] Surgery. I paid $6,500 for it cuz that was my out-of-pocket. The, follow. I didn't pay for it because I'd already paid my out of pocket. So that's the way that worked. And I'm, blessed that I have, I'm not wealthy, but I, have that money. I have a few dollars in the bank. I have some rep retirement, and as long as we don't have another hurricane where I live on, in Long Beach, which is a barrier island off of New York I have a house that's worth some.

[00:36:43] Good. I'd like to sell it and, get the money, but then I'd have to talk to my wife about that. 

[00:36:49] Bob Gatty: She doesn't Yeah, I know what that's about. 

[00:36:52] David Feldman: And she has a good job too. This is she, I'm married to a scientist, so climate. Climate and she's an environmental scientist, so Okay. About climate change quite a bit.

[00:37:01] Oh 

[00:37:02] Bob Gatty: wow. Oh, maybe I'll have her on my show, cuz I'd love to talk about that. Hey what's the goal of, what's your goal in, writing all these. 

[00:37:13] David Feldman: What's your goal? My goal for me, I would love for them to be a significant part of my pension. Okay. A as is music. My, I my music is a significant part of my pension.

[00:37:27] I play piano mostly for seniors. Okay. But also in, in restaurants and so forth. Okay. And I sing also. I love to sing. Okay. My goal, Entertainment. So it's a combination of entertainment to write a good mystery. I am really transported. I really find my way of dealing with a lot of what I see in the news.

[00:37:48] We talk about it at the dinner table, but is By, by putting these things in my books and reading about them in other people's books I, reading is a big deal to me. I didn't get much of an education because I was a bad boy. I was in a lot of trouble when I was a kid, but I read constantly and I'm a big fan of people like John Steinbeck who wrote about poor people and also wrote terrific books.

[00:38:15] Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are two of my favorite books. So I'd like to write good mysteries other books as. I'm writing a book. It's essentially about my father, although I ha I changed the person's name and identity because I, can't think through my father's brain and in his eyes, so I, fictionalized it a bit, but my father had polio at two, and I'm writing a book called Percival about someone who has polio and transcends it the way my father transcended his.

[00:38:41] Polio and he was a, working jazz musician and he, mowed the lawn and he did everything. Wow. He could climb a ladder with his hands. My father was a really, something and I want to honor him by writing that book. So I wanna write books that people enjoy the way I enjoy books. And I hope to have a, lot of reader.

[00:39:01] I have some readers of my mystery series because people do order the books via pre. So, essentially, I hope that answers your question. I was a little all over the place there, but, 

[00:39:13] Bob Gatty: okay. Yeah, it does. And, you also indicated earlier that, hello there Mr. Dogg. You also indicated earlier that that you found doing this writing to be helpful.

[00:39:33] Mentally yes. I'm not quite sure what the word is I'm looking for, but emotionally, 

[00:39:39] David Feldman: spiritually emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Those are all different facets of my mind. Yeah. Come here boo back. Come here. He's gonna start. He, hears something outside me, thinks it's a threat to my home, so he barks.

[00:39:54] But, in any case yeah. Help me to transcend and, adapt to life. I had depression. I've been clean and sober for decades, for almost 30 years, 29 years. And books are a big part of that. What whatever, the case may be. And I infuse my books with those things because that's what.

[00:40:20] All I can do is put into my books what I got. You. 

[00:40:23] Bob Gatty: You, brought up the issue about being clean and sober. Had you been having some difficulty with, booze before that? 

[00:40:31] David Feldman: I had difficulty with booze. I had difficulty with cocaine and marijuana. Okay. My, my drug of choices more. Whatever you got.

[00:40:41] What do you have? That's what I wanted. Oh, wow. That's what I did in high school. I, stopped attending high school when I was in ninth or 10th grade. I was sent away to a private school that was very strict. I was Jewish and it was a Christian school. And you had to go to chapel every day and sing and wear a suit.

[00:41:02] One of these strict pr Christian private schools. Wow. And, but going there got me into a college. And when I was in college, I hung around with the rugby crowd and I smoked a lot of marijuana. And I did a lot of cocaine and I got myself under trouble. But I love to read. Okay. And reading, really helped me, and John Steinbeck really helped me.

[00:41:22] And I read a lot of science fiction and oh, I can't think of his name now. The guy who wrote f Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 4 51 Ray Bradbury's work and John Steinbeck's work. I don't know if my writing is anywhere near up to snuff with regard to them, but both of those guys in influenced and, infused my writing style with what it's today.

[00:41:48] And, so that's where. That's what I know is reading and writing and not and, definitely not arithmetic. I'm not a math and science guy. My, my wife and my sons, I have, I'm the dumbest one in my family. My wife is a scientist. Both of my children are really, smart. And then there's me 

[00:42:09] Bob Gatty: You know what I, share some of your, background there.

[00:42:15] I was a horrible student. And when I went decided to go to college, they asked me, what is it you wanna major in? And I said, anything but math or science? And they said, why don't you become a writer because you're really good. And so I did, and I did that for what, 50 plus years? 

[00:42:36] David Feldman: Yeah. There you go. I, do wanna say one thing you asked about clean and sober.

[00:42:40] So one day I, used to be high. I, was high from about 1971 or so until 1991 or so. And one day my, my son who was born, my first son was born in 1990, my second son in 1994, which is the. Of my sobriety date, my clean date but my, first son was about a year and a half old, and one day I was taking care of him and I was high.

[00:43:08] I'd had a few and he got hurt. Okay. And it was over on that day, it, I would've done anything. I was very proud to be a father. Yeah. And I, there I was doing the wrong thing and he and my son got hurt and I became ready to change. And I believe despite I don't know if it's, despite all the things I've said, I am someone who has come to believe in something greater than us and. That has the spiritual connection I have to, whatever it is. I do use the word God, but I, but that's a stand in for just some stuff that I don't understand that I don't think science is quite figured out yet. So, that stuff is a big deal to me. Spirituality. And I have people in my books who are active addicts and alcoholics and who are clean and sober and are involved.

[00:44:00] Programs about getting clean and sober, not, which isn't something I don't really talk much about here. 

[00:44:05] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. So where can people find your books, David? 

[00:44:10] David Feldman: So all of my books right now are in Kinsel Unlimited, so you'd look for David e Feldman. The E is important. There's a David Feldman who writes a lot of other stuff.

[00:44:18] Feel free to buy his books but, I hope you buy mine. My David e Feldman and my website is also that David e Feldman. And, when you get there, there's a doorway for music. You can hear my. If you want, but all my books, there's links to all of my books there and box sets and all kinds of things 

[00:44:36] Bob Gatty: okay.

[00:44:37] I, suggest you guys listening and watching to check out his website, david e feldman.com. I, did that. And it's a great site and, everything you need to find his books and to learn about his books is right there. So what's ahead for you? What's going on?

[00:44:58] David Feldman: So I'm writing two books right now.

[00:45:01] I'm writing book six in my series, in my Dora Ellison mystery series called A Divisive Storm. It's essentially about racism and I've We see a lot of, I don't really think it's necess it's associated with far right. But there's a lot of thinking. There's, people believe some really crazy, things now, and I have some of that in my books because I think it's really important to draw attention to it.

[00:45:31] And there's some of that what are you talking about? What are the craziest things she. Oh, ku. All right. Sure. Things and, there are other things too, but that's sort of stuff Okay. That people just have nutty ideas like flying saucers stuff that's just so outrageous.

[00:45:52] Yeah. That and so I, have some of that in I'm, just, I'm about fit. Once I get going in a book, I, it moves fast. So I'm about, I've been writing for about three weeks and I'm. Page 50 or 60 in, a divisive storm. It's about racism, but it's also got some crazy ideas. And it's also a pretty good mystery where some a guy get gets killed at the beginning of the book and, there's all kinds of connections to all kinds of things.

[00:46:20] And what happened And do Dora and her. Her new love interest. New in book two. Missy Winters, who's a librarian by the way, I'm a big fan of librarians and Missy is the Watson to Doris Sherlock, although I guess the roles are a little reversed cuz Missy's very, smart. And when anyone says, how did you figure that out, Missy?

[00:46:44] She says, I'm a librarian and, she's very cool. And I'm a big, that's my degree of my master's is in librarian research. So I'm writing that and I'm writing this book that's essentially about my dad called Percy Percival per of all. Okay. And, both of those will be out at the end of the summer.

[00:47:04] Okay, 

[00:47:05] Bob Gatty: We're looking forward to those. That's for sure. I know I am David e Feldman. Thank you so much for being with us today on the Lean to the Left Podcast. I know we got you talking a little bit about politics, but you don't usually do cuz you don't want to piss off the Republicans. But, I do understand that you need people to buy your books regardless of their political persuasion.

[00:47:29] Sure. 

[00:47:30] David Feldman: Yeah. Maybe I'll help 

[00:47:31] Bob Gatty: him somehow. Yeah, Maybe okay, my friend. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. 

[00:47:37] David Feldman: This was lots of fun. Thanks so much, Bob. Okay. Hang on a second.

[00:47:41]