Jeffrey Cohen

Close to a year...About nine months to write it, and then another six weeks to edit it into what's being published. With the advent of DropBox, as long as I had access to the Internet, I would tackle another few paragraphs after lunch and when the kids were in bed.

It's definitely not my life! And not just because the main character, Michael Kaufman, has a technical job (statistical analyst) and three kids. He's living on Long Island and I'm in Queens, he's got a daughter along with two sons. I just have the two boys. Right there, anything I'm writing about raising a girl is going to be pure conjecture on my part. But the book is not exactly a primer on how to deal with your children.

In a nutshell, Michael Kaufman is juggling problems at work with a home life that revolves around his wife (Gail) and three children. Twelve-year-old Brad is studying for his bar mitzvah. Now that's the most relevant thing for me, even though my 12-year-old did not start his prep until I was halfway through my first draft this spring. Nine-year-old Faith is a diva in the making. And there's a lot of drama surrounding her but she can also be very sweet. Six-year-old Simon just doesn't want to be left out of the mix. His birthday comes first in the book as well as his favorite holiday (Halloween). Writing occasionally from Simon's mindset, I was able to use his presence as a "greek chorus" to the action throughout the rest of the story.