Can you tell us a little about yourself? Are you a full time author?

 

I grew up in Camden, NJ, and moved to Santa Fe, NM, in 1982. In 1972, I traveled for a year through Europe and Asia. That journey is the basis for my recent memoir, From Camden to Kathmandu. I’m not a full-time author. Since retiring from the practice of law in 2012, I’ve built a house, worked on progressive political issues and started writing a blog, as well as written two books. I published my first book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, in 2016. I was a public sector ethics attorney for most of my career. At the same time, I did a lot of work advocating for non-profit, progressive political organizations. For over eight years, I directed The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution and was awarded a U.S. Institute of Peace Fellowship. I have one daughter who is moving to Italy with her husband in August.

 

Can you tell us about From Camden to Kathmandu: You Don’t Have to Know Where You’re Going to Get Where You Want to Be?

 

From Camden to Kathmandu is a memoir which chronicles my journey from practicing law in New Jersey to meditating in a Tibetan monastery outside Kathmandu, Nepal. For 10 months, I was driven by what Buddhism calls the hungry ghost of spiritual longing, seeking meaning to my life. I wandered around Europe, then overland in a vintage VW bus from Turkey through Iran and Afghanistan to India, and Nepal. Along the way, I met local people in various countries who treated me like family and taught me the value of community as I experienced the generosity of people with little means. After some amazing adventures and much self-discovery, I landed at Kopan, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Kathmandu, where I took a month-long meditation training with fellow seekers from all over the planet. There I went deep within to explore questions of identity and purpose.

 

 

Can you pick out a passage in your book to share with us?

 

From the beginning of my journey, I found myself running around Europe practically nonstop, trying to see and do as much as possible as quickly as possible. There was so much to take in. Yet I could never quite keep pace with my desire for something more. When my experience fell short of my expectations, I quickly consulted a map and rushed off to a new destination.

Though I didn’t realize it then, I was becoming what the Buddhists call a hungry ghost, one who could never quench his thirst or satisfy his cravings. In Buddhism, hungry ghosts are beings driven by intense emotional needs that cannot get their desires met. They’re creatures with pinhole mouths and necks so tiny they cannot swallow. They can never fill their bulging, empty stomachs. Whatever they try to ingest turns to fire or ice, which can’t pass through their minuscule throats to their very large bellies. In effect, I was trapped in the Hungry Ghost Realm — a realm below the Human Realm but above the Hell Realm — where I was constantly seeking something outside myself to curb an insatiable yearning deep within me. But for what, I had no clue.

 

How can people benefit from reading From Camden to Kathmandu: You Don’t Have to Know Where You’re Going to Get Where You Want to Be?

 

My memoir will inspire people searching for a deeper sense of self, or greater purpose in their lives, as well as those at a crossroads. It demonstrates how letting go and opening up to whatever the universe offers you can provide the real-life experience you need to find your way forward. It’s also a provocative story for readers who just want to immerse themselves in an exciting adventure.

 

Is this your only book?

 

No, I published my first book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, in 2016. It describes how Big Money dominates and corrupts our political system to the detriment of the American electorate and the public good. It then lays out how a massive democracy movement can overcome this problem and return political power to the people.

 

Thank you so much for this interview, Bruce. What’s next for you?

 

I will continue writing my blog. Go to https://openroadopenheart.substack.com. I’ll also work on political issues like getting money out of politics and serve on the board of New Mexico Men’s Wellness and other community efforts.

 

Where to purchase the book:

https://books.by/our-time-books

https://www.collectedworksbookstore.com

In 1972, Bruce Berlin — a young poverty lawyer from Camden, New Jersey — set off on a journey with no clear destination. What began as a restless escape became one of the most formative adventures of his life. Traveling overland through Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan at a time when those borders were still open to wanderers, Berlin found himself riding across the Afghan desert in the back of a truck with armed men and their rugs, navigating a world that would soon be transformed by war.

 

In India, something shifted. Visits to the sacred Buddhist sites of Bodh Gaya and Sarnath planted a seed. Then, in Kathmandu, a chance encounter with former law school classmates led Berlin to a month-long Tibetan Buddhist retreat at Kopan Monastery — an experience he would later describe as perhaps the most important month of his life. Guided by Lama Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Berlin began a practice that would sustain him for the next fifty years.

 

From Camden to Kathmandu is a memoir about following the open road before you know where it’s going — and discovering that the destination finds you. Written with the documentary authenticity of real letters sent home, it is the story of a restless young man’s transformation into a meditator, activist, and lifelong seeker.

 

From Camden to Kathmandu is available at Amazon.

 

╰┈➤ Book Details:

 

➺ Title: From Camden to Kathmandu: You Don’t Have to Know Where You’re Going to Get Where You Want to Be

➺ Author: Bruce Berlin

➺ Genre: Memoir

➺ Sub-genre: Motivational Self-Help

➺ Language:English

➺ Pages: 190

➺ Publisher: Our Time Books

➺ Publication Date: October 2, 2025

➺ Formats: Paperback, Kindle

➺ Paperback ISBN: ‎978-0996623223

➺ Price: Paperback $18.00, Kindle $2.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.lawlor.186/ 

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Are you a full-time author?

I retired from Federal service several years ago, but continued to work part-time in radio, my first profession. I’d written some short stories and an unpublished novel while in college, but then real life intervened, so they stayed in my files. Then one evening my wife was reading a paperback and tossed it aside. “You can write better than this junk,” she said. I decided to prove her right. The result was The White Vixen, my first published novel.

 

Can you tell us about The Dance We Shared (Men of Honor Book 3)?

The series is about men placed in situations where their personal honor is tested. How will they respond? Will they take the easy way out, as so many people do these days? Or will they do what it takes to meet the challenge?

In The Dance We Shared, we meet Ben Fletcher, radio announcer, age 54. He’s been single for a long time, has a good job, lives alone, trains in the martial arts, and tries not to think of Vernoica Starr, the glamorous TV host he loved — and lost — 20 years ago. Ronnie walked out on him after he made a foolish choice. She married another man and moved away.

One day, Ben is cleaning out a file cabinet in his office when he discovers an envelope. Inside is a card, with a phone number and a short message, in Ronnie’s handwriting: “Please help me.” Then he looks at the envelope and sees that it was postmarked five years ago…just before Ronnie disappeared.

 

 

Can you tell us a little about the characters?

Ben Fletcher was the top-rated radio announcer in La Crosse, Wis., when he met Ronnie. Recently divorced with two small children, Ben fell hard for the TV morning news anchor when they co-hosted a charity telethon. Things went well for a year and a half. There was talk of marriage and a child together, and then one night when Ronnie was out of town on assignment, Ben made a selfish choice.

Veronica Starr, the city’s most-watched TV news personality, seemed to recover quickly from her devastating discovery. She met an older man, a banker, married him after a short romance and soon moved with him to the Twin Cities, where she quickly rose to the top of the TV ratings again, getting notice from national networks. But as exciting as her professional life was, her home life was dull and suffocating. She often thought of Ben, and what they might’ve had together if she had just found the strength to forgive him.

Ben has moved on as best he can, getting a new job at the local university, spending his spare time weightlifting, swimming and training in taekwondo. Reasonably content, he’s starting to think about retirement, but memories of Ronnie won’t fade away. A day hasn’t gone by without regrets for what he did, but as time passes, so do his chances to make things right…or so he thinks, until the day he finds Ronnie’s five-year-old call for help.

 

Where is this book set and why did you choose that location?

As a native of Wisconsin, I like to set my stories in my beautiful state and its neighbors. We start in La Crosse, a charming city on the Mississippi, drop in on the Twin Cities, and then move to Wisconsin’s northwest, to the village of Birchwood, near where I lived for more than three decades. The novel then takes the reader farther north, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where Ben’s quest reaches its climax.

 

 

How can people benefit from reading The Dance We Shared?

Those of us lucky enough to still be with the love of their life, like I am, can remember a time when things were shaky. I don’t know any men who want to wind up like the guy in the Garth Brooks song, looking back on the memories of the dance he shared with the love of his life, knowing that it would end. Writing the novel took me back to a time early in my relationship with Sue, when it looked like we wouldn’t make it. But we did, and remembering those times, as tough as they were, can make us appreciate what we have. And for those who lost their loves, perhaps the story can give them some hope. It wasn’t too late for Ben, and maybe it won’t be for the reader whose dance ended way too soon.

 

Is this your only book?

Dance is my tenth published novel. I have four in my White Vixen series, which follows USAF special operator Jo Ann Geary through the 1980s into the early 90s. There are three in my Quest series, about middle-aged Wisconsin brothers Jim and Mark Hayes, partners in a security firm, and their adventures with their wives. Last but certainly not least are the first two entries in Men of Honor. In The Heights of Valor, modern-day Army officer Jake Dawson seeks inspiration and guidance from the diary of his great-grandfather Charles, who fought with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War. And then we have The Man in the Arena, set in modern-day Crawford County, in Wisconsin’s beautiful Driftless Region. Air Force officer Scott Armstrong, forced into early retirement after his marriage implodes and a mission goes sideways, goes back to his boyhood home along the Mississippi, where he starts rebuilding his life. He meets beautiful divorcee Beth, and things start looking up, despite the presence of a drug gang which is poisoning the county, staying two steps ahead of the police. But when the gang turns its attention to trafficking, and its first target is Beth’s teenage daughter, Scott decides its time to be the man his late grandfather always wanted him to be.

 

 

Thank you so much for this interview, David. What’s next for you?

My wife and I are in the midst of a move from Wisconsin’s Northwest down into the Driftless, so it’s an exciting time. I still don’t have radio out of my system, so I’ll be dabbling in that down here. As for writing, I’m already starting to plot out my next novels: Man on a Mission (Men of Honor book 4), Quest for Justice (Quest book 4), and The Black Orca (White Vixen book 5).

 

Where to purchase the book:

The ebook is on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3T01SNz

Ben Fletcher seems to have it all going for him. In his early fifties, he’s in great shape thanks to a disciplined regimen of weight training, swimming and martial arts. He has a job that pays him a good living in the charming Wisconsin city of La Crosse. Divorced a quarter-century earlier, he remains close to his two grown children and grandkids. Ben is content with his life.

But he’s not happy. Twenty years ago, he was, during that glorious year and a half he was dating the glamorous Veronica Starr. They were an “item”: Ben, the city’s highest-rated radio announcer, and Ronnie, an award-winning TV newscaster. They were starting to talk about the future, one that would include marriage and kids. But then, Ben made a stupid mistake, and it all came crashing down. Ronnie broke off the relationship, met an older man and married him. Within a year she was gone, moving with her new husband to the Twin Cities. Ben had no choice but to move on with his life the best he could.

One day, he’s cleaning out a file cabinet in his office and finds an old catalog. Before throwing it out, he riffles through its pages, and an envelope drops onto his desk. Opening it, he finds a card. In handwriting he immediately recognizes as Ronnie’s are a phone number and the words, “Please help me.” When he looks again at the envelope he sees the postmark: it had been sent five years earlier…just before Veronica Starr left her husband, quit her job and disappeared. 

David’s latest book is The Dance We Shared (Men of Honor Book 3).

╰┈➤Book Details

● Title: The Dance We Shared (Men of Honor Book 3)

● Author: David Tindell

● Genre: Romantic Suspense

● Language:English

● Pages: 229

● Publisher: KDP

● Publication Date: August 9, 2026

● Price: Kindle $2.99