Button, button, who's got the button? Read this for the answer, and learn about 3 readable books

‘Tis the season in which folks often focus on family and friends.
 

The Roving I, a mostly light-hearted book that was just released, does just that — focus on family and friends. But its 70 first-person columns also include some that feature serious stuff, and numerous humorous others that showcase overheard conversational tidbits and one-liners.
 
Sounds like a perfect holiday gift to me, and it’s not too late to order one (or two, or more). I have a vested interest, of course, since I cherry-picked the essays from an archive of many more that I, Woody Weingarten, wrote over more than a dozen years.
 
Highlights, among other recollections in the collection, are an amusing tale about my pre-wife earning a slot in my Little Black Book, an upbeat story of a friend turning Parkinson’s Disease into an asset, an awesome family drama about a woman carrying her sister’s “miracle baby” inside her for five months, an inspirational adventure about a Cambodian slave-labor camp escapee becoming a successful U.S. entrepreneur, and a peek at legendary comic Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.
 
Button, button, who’s got the button? That’s a refrain from my childhood (not mentioned in the book), but it certainly resonates today. Chanukah’s not over yet, and Christmas is in the offing. So, check out my website — http://woodyweingarten.com — and push the appropriate buy-button to purchase The Roving I.
 

Or push one for Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy co-written by my 8-year-old granddaughter and aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds. Or Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, which details how my partner and I learned to cope, and which can benefit anyone who knows someone with any life-threatening disease.
 

It's easy to find what my website labels fantasy, facts, and florilegium (an opaque, unfamiliar word meaning collection). Just go to http://woodyweingarten.com  and select your favorite book outlet.

Grandpa, grandkid publish 'Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates,' fantasy book for kids 6-10

It’s been five years since I, Woody Weingarten, and my granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin, close despite a 70-year difference, finished co-writing "Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates.” But we had to wait for the marvelous full-color illustrations to be done — and 2,149 tweaks. 

The fantasy, aimed hat 6 to 10-year-olds, is now available from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Nobel and a bunch of other places. You can check out what it's all about on my new website —   http://woodyweingarten.com.

The book tells of a sorcerer who frequently must get his granddaughter Lily and her best friend Penny out of trouble when the two eight-year-old fairies mess up their magic spells. 

Readers willing to let their imaginations run wild can learn about winning a division of the Unicorn Racing Championships, baby chicks that sing jazz instead of cheeping, a wizard who can make robot movie characters less scary, and two girls who want to stop “all the thunder-and-lightning storms, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes all over the planet.”

And — you can bet on it — more, much more.

It's a fun read.

I, of course, am also the author of "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a book I aimed at male caregivers.

Book about sorcerer, fairies set for prime time

Fantasy, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, and related website approach their launch dates

The pandemic, believe it or not, has had some positive impact.

For instance, it's given me — Woody Weingarten — plenty of time to tweak my new website, which is nearing completion and which will promote the fantasy book I co-authored with my then eight-year-old granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin.

It's also given me plenty of time to tweak the magical book itself, probably ensuring that Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates will meet its hoped-for publication date next month.

Bottom line: Both the volume itself, which is aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds, and the related website are both almost ready for prime time.

The VitalityPress book, which is illustrated in full color by Joe Marciniak, a longtime artistic pro, tells the four-part tale of a sorcerer, Grandpa Graybeard, who often has to get his granddaughter, Lily, and her best friend, Penny, out of trouble when the two eight-year-old fairies mess up their magic spells.

Their misadventures become terrific fun for all three characters — and for young readers who enjoy letting their imaginations run wild.

While proofs of Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates are on the way to me for approval, and the finishing touches are being put on the website that can be found at woodyweingarten.com after it's launched, I'm also editing The Roving I, a book that will embrace newspaper columns I'd written over an 11-year period.

This interested in caregiving might check out, through your local bookstore or Amazon, my earlier book, Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress volume I aimed at male caregivers but one that can also aid female patients and caregivers through factual information and anecdotes. It's a comprehensive memoir-chronicle and guide to scientific research, meds and where to get help.

Though I became an expert reluctantly, I at last can unflinchingly share what I've gleaned from personal experience (including a weekly support group I've run for more than 25 years). 

And that's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth — no fantasy.

Story of wizard and fairies 'in homestretch'

Children's fantasy by the author of 'Rollercoaster' and granddaughter is getting close to publication

Illustration by Joe Marciniak for 'Grampy…'

Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night, to borrow a phrase, can stop my writing. 

Nor can the coronavirus. 

Although Covid-19 has caused a major delay in the publication of "MysteryDates," which may not find its audience for another year or so, it won't be able to stop the public from seeing "Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates," a children's fantasy co-written by me, Woody Weingarten, and my granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin.

The collaborative effort — about a wizard, his fairy grandaughter and her fairy best friend will be published any month now, even though we're Sheltering in Place just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Pre-publication details, as they say, are rapidly being ironed out — and are entering the proverbial homestretch.

Also in the offing (a little further down the 2020 road) is "The Roving I," a compilation of columns I'd penned over an 11-year period.

For those who need to see that I can put one word after another, check out "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I aimed at male caregivers (and which I'm seriously thinking about updating).