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Michael Grossman is the author of Coming to Terms With Aging: The Secret to Meaningful Time , from RDR Books. Grossman, a former journalist, has also written numerous newspaper commentaries, consumer and trade articles on topics ranging from ecology, ethics, travel marketing, flying, and bank marketing to applied ergonomics. Among the publications in which his works have appeared are Advertising Age, Ergo Solutions, The CLIA Cruise Industry Annual Report, The American Banker and Plane and Pilot Magazine. Grossman has appeared on national radio and TV shows including Arthur Frommer’s Travel Channel show and NBC-TV’s New York City affiliate. Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Grossman currently resides in Rhode Island with his wife, three dogs and a cat.

Thank you Michael for answering a few questions for us!  Please tell us what you're currently working on.
 
I am currently working with a group of Rhode Island based writers to develop a web site that will offer writers an opportunity to submit their work for on-line publication. I am also the Director of The Life Awareness Center, a web-based resource that deals with issues about human mortality and the psychology of dealing (or not dealing) with man's fear of death.
 
Have you received any awards for your work?
 
I have been given no awards. Please send me an award. Someone. Anyone. I'll take an award even from the town dog catcher or the cub scouts!
 
Do you also do speaking engagements, or seminars?
 
I have a speaking tour in progress on my latest book Shrinkwrapped. I spoke recently at the Mid Manhattan Public Library in New York City, at the Hartford Library, in Ludlow, Vermont and I will be speaking at the Newport RI library in September. I enjoy my speaking engagements and offer a calendar of them at this address:lifeawarenesscenter.com
 
How has your education, profession or background helped you in your writing career? Or conversely, how has you writing success helped you in your  profession?
 
Shrinkwrapped: My First 50 Years on the Couch is a book about my experiences in over fifty years of therapy. Not as a therapist but as a patient. The book takes readers back to the 1940's, early in the history of therapy, and readers experience the bias against going to psychotherapy. Prejudice against therapy is still an issue today but it was especially prevalent earlier in the last century.

Shrinkwrapped readers also meet all types of therapists and a rainbow of "ologies" from classical psychoanalysis to modern day "touchie-feelie" therapies.  While the book is a memoir with a psychological focus, the history of twentieth century and how it contributed to my rite of passage is an important aspect of the book. It's a funny book, but a book with a point of view: that despite psychological difficulties, therapy can bring patients to the ultimate goal of the process: to become vulnerable enough to love.
 
What kind of other works (books, scripts, poems etc.) have you had published?
 
My first book is Coming to Terms with Aging. Americans in particular have a hard time dealing with aging and their mortality. A huge amount of energy is expended to cover up aging and avoid the issue. Coming to Terms with Aging shows how we harm ourselves by dodging this issue and it describes the immense benefits gained from dealing with it.
 
My writing also appears in diverse publications including Advertising Age, Ergo Solutions, The CLIA Cruise Industry Annual Report, The American Banker and Plane and Pilot Magazine.
 
What will your next project be?
 
I'm just finishing a children's book: Mike the Moose, Master of Marbles. It's about a persnickety moose with an irascible personality. He saves humanity - among other modest accomplishments.
 
Who inspires you on a personal or business level?
 
Holden Caulfield inspires me still. This wonderful character from Catcher in the Rye remains my favorite hero. Holden is always questing for a deeper human experience and his search for sincerity and his constant efforts to preserve innocence inspire me still. Much of Salinger's writing underscores man's inhumanity to man as Catcher does and as does my favorite J. D. Salinger short story: For Esme with Love and Squalor.
 
In moments when I am feeling less fulfilled, I enjoy James Thurber's writings about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The word inspiring and Walter Mitty may be a curious combination , but Mitty reminds me of all that I still need to accomplish.
 
What type of work is the most satisfying for you?
 
I love to rework things I've written--to refine my thought order or improve my selection of words. I like to trim the excess. I completely rewrote Shrinkwrapped eleven times, refining and honing it, and I enjoyed every minute of doing it. I write without outlines, a habit I do not recommend. That means I have to rework what comes out and I organize and refine it after the fact. The price I pay for spontaneity is a lack of order. So I rewrite a lot.
 
What can you recommend for writers who are just getting started and are trying to make a name for themselves?
 
I can't say that I've made a name for myself and I can't tout myself as a wise old man of letters. But I will say that I admire the determination of many writer's to submit again and again to get published. I submitted Shrinkwrapped to over 100 publishers before I finally got a thumbs up from RDR Books.

Few writers I know find the path to publishing easy. So after you have rewritten a query letter fifty times--and when it finally sings--keep sending it out and try not to be discouraged. I have a friend who has been submitting his plays for thirty years and he's still at it. He had one of them recently produced in London's equivalent of "off Broadway," but he hasn't scored yet in America. But how I admire that he keeps trying. If he never makes it on Broadway, at least he's gained strength and maturity from an unflagging effort.
 
How did you get started as a writer?
 
As a student at the University of Vermont, I entered a contest held by the daily campus newspaper. I won first place in the contest and my prize was my own weekly column in the campus newspaper, The Vermont Cynic. (Yes, it's a dreadful name for a college newspaper.) I had a ball writing the column which lead to a journalism job later in life.
 
Which is your favorite book/work published? Is there a favorite?
 
I've mentioned my fondness for Salinger. More recently I'm in awe of Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout's books, for example Amy and Isabel. She's a brilliant talent and her pictures of small New England towns and the people that live in them show the power of a writer with her immense talent.
 
What does a typical work day look like for you?
 
I run a green on-line business,  mygreenmind.com,  and I maintain the Life Awareness Center  Web site lifeawarenesscenter.com,  a resource for those interested in aging, mortality and end-of-life issues. And, I try to write daily. So my day is spent at the computer. I'm what I call a "concentrator." I can sit at the computer for five, six, eight hours at a time without noticing the passing of time. I fully enjoying my time clicking away at the keyboard.

Have you ever had a mentor, or someone who sparked your passion for writing?
 
My publisher provided an Editor, Richard Harris, who helped me a great deal in polishing and reworking Shrinkwrapped. What I learned from Richard was that I have a tendency to be too telegraphic when I write. I pare into the bone when I should pare only to the bone. I assume the reader knows what I'm thinking and that he or she will fill in what I haven't said. So thanks to Richard, I've learned to provide more signposts.
 
Who is your favorite writer/author?
 
I hate favorite writer questions because I am a different reader every year of my life. Where I am in each phase of my growth as a person, alters my take on what I am reading. As a boy I was thrilled with Salinger. Today I like William Trevor or Elizabeth Strout. I think our favorites at any point in time says as much about us as it does about the author we like. I suppose if forced to answer the "deserted island" question, and I could only have one book, I'd take Moby Dick. But call me Ishmael or call me crazy, I'd rather bring my Kindle.
 
Finally, a most important question: what was the last song you sang out loud when you were by yourself?  :)
 
Singing in the Rain. And this season, because we've had so much rain, the neighbors have asked me to stop singing. In fact, they offered to give me my first book award--if I'd just stop singing!

Thank you Michael! We wish you great success with your online and print projects!