Works of Richard Seltzer

Liam knows Shakespeare. All of Shakespeare. Every word of every play. No one knows how or why. But tell him a line, and he'll go into a trance and perform the whole play brilliantly.

He performs at the local beach pavilion, play after play. Audiences swell, despite obstacles, until an unruly crowd trashes this quiet town, and the show shuts down.

Then a professor prompts Liam to recite a lost Shakespeare play and gets it staged at the Yale Bowl.

"I don't think outside the box. The very notion of 'the box' is an illusion taht limits the range of topics, squashes curiosity and creativity, and precludes innovative solutions. Please join me on my journey of exploration."
Categories covered:
Questions Big and Small
Identity, Memory, and Communication
Understanding Our World
Politics and Government
Literature, Reading, and Writing
Impact of Technology
History
Business and Product Ideas
Everyday Life

Five strangers, two men and three women, share a Back Bay Boston
apartment like a multi-generational family.

High-tech high jinks, vengeful jealousy, and violent death combine
to complicate lives and loves.

An elementary school class sets out on a field trip to bring back enchantment
to the world. They learn that you hae to go under the world to stand under it
and understand it. And there are many levels of understanding. They meet
such characters as Mr. Shermin (who used to be a teacher until he decided
to be a fish, and then he knew how to turn himself into a fish, which not
many people, even teachers, know how to do). Humpty Dumpty (who fell for
a little blue wallflower), Prince Frog (who would rather be a frog than a prince
because that's much less trouble), Sir Real (who has cereal instead of brains),
Lewis Carroll, the Knights of the Merry-Go-Round Table, the Mothers of Fact
(Miss Hap, Miss Take, and Miss Fortune), Mr. Plato, Daniel Boone, and
Joan of Noah's Ark.
Imagine The Phatom Tollboth crossing paths with a fifth grade class in
The Magic School Bus.

An antidote to social distancing, political chaos, environmental crisis, and war.
Laughs to help you get back to feeling normal.
3000 jokes, 500 pages, a pound and a half of laughs.

Grouped as:
Trump and Company
Nonsensical Science, Philosophy, History, and Religion
Letter, Number, and Grammar Play
Speaking in Tongues - Word Play in Two Languages
Never Grow Up - General Fun
Bedtime Whimsy and Romance
Pithy jokes for every taste and mood and occasion.

Abe explains the title:
"I'm writing from the midst of this crisis, not with the wisdom of hindsight. Even if it gets no worse than it is right now, much has been lost.
"I'm hoping that we can gether. That's a word that isn't in the dictionary.
"To gether is to find new ways to be together, new ways to meet, to bond, to love.
"Even when physically isolated, we can come together in spirit, to share experiences and emotions to the point that we are intimately connected.”
"In any case, may we always treasure our normal life, knowing, as we now know, that it is fragile and should never be taken for granted."

On one level, To Gether Tales is a collection of stories told around a dinner table. But it's also a novel, in which themes echo from one story to another and tellers both disguise and reveal themselves through what they say, all woven together in the frame of the narrator.

A refreshing antidote to the struggles borne of the pandemic, politics and threatening conflicts that haunt our daily lives. Richard Seltzer’s “To Gether Tales” takes us on an unusual ocean cruise that elevates our spirits and counteracts the current climate of cynicism and despair. Captivating, intimate and poignant stories brimming with romance, friendship, warmth, and humor bring a group of voyagers together. Seltzer's inventive and engrossing writing enables us to join the journey and participate as if we were on board, ourselves. We disembark feeling enchanted, renewed and reinvigorated.

The Princess Tango, a story from To Gether Tales, read by the author (YouTube video)

Shakespeare's twin sister wakes up in the body of a 99-year-old woman in a nursing home in 1987. Kate has quite a tale to tell:

-- twins separated at birth sorting out the mystery of their otherworldly connection to one another,

-- soul projection and transference linking individuals to one another and connecting past to present,

-- and the story of a young reporter who falls in love with the soul he finds in the body of an old and dying woman.

As a cross-dressing sword-fighting teenager, Kate beats Mercutio, captain of the King's Musketeers, in a duel in Paris.

As Will's double and writing partner, Kate enables him to do the work of two geniuses.

This outlandish view of Shakespeare's life and times stays true to the facts, while presenting explanations that are intriguingly plausible.

Like Shakespeare in Love, this is a humorous, romantic take on Shakespeare the man.

Like Yentl, a brilliant young woman finds creative ways to succeed in a man-dominated world.

Amazon reviews --
"Richard Seltzer’s story, Shakespeare’s Twin Sister, is a clever insightful romp.
We first encounter Kate as Lettie, a 99-year-old woman in a nursing home, 1987.
Her personality transforms and she tells her “real” story to a young journalist, Bill Greene.
He, in turn, retells a surprisingly plausible tale of Kate’s multiple identities (male and female) as Shakespeare’s twin sister.
Apparently, Kate played a large role in the writing of the famous works.
Not only that, but she is an arch feminist in men’s clothing with longings of her own.
The book is full of good humor – the Arden family quotes lines from Shakespeare’s play in their daily banter.
The titles are fun too – “If You Incest!”
Read this novel – it’s a mind-bending hoot!"

5.0 out of 5 stars
"Albert Einstein wrote: “The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” This revelation is illustrated in captivating literary form in Richard Seltzer’s “Shakespeare’s Twin Sister.”
In the setting of a nursing home, we find a 99-year old woman, who not only has a story of her early life, which is compelling in and of itself, but, also, a deeper tale, which challenges our assessment of our conventional, apparently linear existence. The duality of the consciousness of this amazing woman draws us in from the very beginning. Superimposed on this remarkable theme is the poignant love story of the reporter of this phenomenon for the younger self of the aged woman.
The theme revolves around the perspective of twins separated at birth, the girl belonging to a privileged family, the boy having a rough and tumble existence. Their common origin is unknown to both twins and they develop an attraction for one another. The boy is William Shakespeare, himself.
As always, Richard Seltzer’s books are both informative and imaginative. Here, we enter the realms of Russia, Elizabethan London and present-day America. Space and time are blurred like an Impressionist painting. Nevertheless, descriptions of place and historical anecdotes are true and told in a vivid manner so that we feel as if we are there.
Richard Seltzer’s novels dare us to extrapolate our own present-day existence with that of our past, possibly hidden, and future, so that our “souls” can shift or even transfer. That is the intellectual and engaging challenge of all of Richard Seltzer’s books."

Breeze, a young woman in present-day Connecticut, goes into a medically inexplicable coma. Her boyfriend, Yannie, a senior at Yale, has to get her the help she needs to survive while trying to solve the mystery of this goddess-like free spirit who appeared out of nowhere two months before.

In part two, Breeze awakens in a different body in a different place and time. She is at Troy in the body of Briseis, love-slave of Achilles. She fears she’ll be taken for a demon. She knows the story she is trapped in, and she learns that she can make changes in what the story leaves unsaid, so long as she doesn't alter the direction of the narrative.

In part three, Breeze finds herself in still another body. It's the fourth century AD and she’s at the temple of the Eleusinian Mysteries, near Athens. A young woman lies down on the altar next to the corpse of another young woman. In the ritual, she expects her soul will move to the body of the dead woman. Instead, the dead woman comes to life with the soul of Breeze. That glitch leads to humorous complications as well insights into the ironies of everyday life and love.

Breeze and Richard's three previous novels (Parallel Lives, Beyond the 4th Door, and Nevermind) can be read in any order. They are independent stories, with overlapping themes and styles. Each novel presents a different view of reality, a different way of trying to understand the mysteries of life.

Postings at medium.com -- stories, essays, poems, and jokes.

Other published works:

First published in 2002. The specific examples are dated, because business on the Internet changes rapidly. But the underlying principles and lessons hold true. "You're in basic training for the battle of your life. Your mission is to keep your company alive and to help it move forward quickly in unfamiliar territory. You must master the tools and techniques needed to serve customers and beat the competition into he strange and potentially hostile online business environment. This no-nonsense, tip-driven guide targets key activities that anyone can perform to truly achieve online business success. Internet marketing pioneer Richard Seltzer gets managers out of the boardroom and into the trenches for crucial hands-on Web experience -- which provides insight into how to win on the e-commerce battlefield. He also helps entrepreneurs develop a viable business model without depending on high-priced design services and consultants, as well as gives technology-oriented professionals a broad business perspective for tackling new online responsibilities."

- Take Charge of Your Web Site, MightyWords, 2001

Shop Online the Lazy Way (Macmillan, 1999. Braille edition published by National Braille Press) at Nook at Google Play at Apple

The Social Web: How to build successful personal or business Web sites, 1998) at Apple

The internet emerged and evolved so rapidly, that companies were faced with the need to adapt to a new environment.This early book focuses upon building communities on the Internet. It further provides information on establishing identity, motivation to succeed, and community. First published in 1995, many of the principals explained here still ring true.

- From Russia and Ethiopia to the Internet (Wesleyan College) article
- Surviving as a Small Business in the Age of Google: Generate Search-engine Traffic (NEXPO, Washington, DC) article
- The Future of Business on the Internet (Lewiston, Maine) script
- Increase Traffic on the Internet Without Advertising (IQPC Conference, San Francisco, CA) article
- Corporate-wide Knowledge Management (ExpoManagement 98, Buenos Aires, Argentina) article
- Business Opportunities on the Internet (Comdex, Buenos Aires, Argentina) script
- The Social Web: from Hyper-links to People-links (Web Week 97, Oak Ridge National Labs, Oak Ridge, TN) book
- Basics of Effective Web Sites: How to Succeed When the Rules of the Game Change (Boston) book
- Building Communities on the Internet (Internet Expo/Email World, Boston, New Orleans) article


	Webseltzerbooks.com

WORKS OF RICHARD SELTZER

Postings at medium.com -- stories, essays, poems, and jokes.

Other published works: