Letter to Holly-Hyphen (and the world)…by Robert M. Katzman
(Note to my Readers) Holly Rotman-Zaid is a real person, a friendly and vivacious woman whom I met at a local Chamber of Commerce breakfast. So, this letter isn’t creative writing. But after we met, I simply couldn’t remember her last name. European Jewish names are not normally hyphenated. They are already difficult enought to spell one at a time. If my last name was Katzman-Schechter, I imagine I’d spend all my time spelling it. All my time.  So, I decided to call that woman I met  Holly-Hyphen, which I think is a pretty cool name for anyone. Holly likes it, in any event.
There are other good reasons I have trouble remembering people’s names, but, well…that’s another story. In the meantime, read this one)
Hey, Holly,
I’ve thought about how you seem to understand both the exoticness of what I do and the tremendous challenge of trying to make people realize what treasures exist in this too small store. Getting up every day of the week to wait in what is frequently a silent store gives credence to my alternative name for this place:Â
The Paper Prison:   Can’t stay. Can’t leave.  Jewish Purgatory.
On the other hand, now you have my first book. Like most people who don’t know me, you will be very surprised by what you learn about the bottom stratum of Chicago retail people and how on the edge they live. About how other people who believe they occupy loftier and more secure lives (as the devastating recent Recession has proven to be a fantasy) treat people whom they feel are lesser souls then they are.
I had hoped to be able to teach a class about creative writing, to show people who think they have to study other writers before they can sing their own songs. I had two years of college, left after unexpected and major cancer surgery and never took a class to learn what I believe is innate in some people, just as people who feel compelled to sing will often do it for free, just to be heard.Â
I believe some people are born storytellers, that it’s involuntary, that they must do that–record time in some comprehensible way–and then tell others about it. Storytellers capture time in verbal nets. They must, because sometimes there are words–ideas–that are too beautiful, too powerful, to let escape into the void.
Read my first book in order, even though the stories are not especially chronological. I intended for people to read it that way and to wonder about what will likely seem to be incomprehensible behavior. About two thirds of the way through the book, there is one story that answers that. My relentless motivation will fall into place after that. But once you find out why, you won’t like what you learn. True stories aren’t always so pretty.
There are nine completed books. I have also done all the cover design, photography and when there was no picture, I drew an illustration to solve that gap. My dream is to get my books into the Chicago school system, from middle school on up. After all, I’m preserving unique Chicago urban history that no one would know any other way, in a frank and often brutal first person narrative. Where’s the other guy who wrote a history of newsstands in the middle of the Twentieth Century? They’re all dead now, that’s where. I’m the relic.Â
Most people who read my stories online don’t scroll back very far. Try it. Besides the recently posted Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah story, about the hard death and unexpected rebirth of one of America’s last back-issue magazine stores, read about friendship among immigrant criminals in Joy’s Diamond Ring if you want to learn more about me and my often silent universe.Â
Look for these distinct stories and see if the words paint pictures in your mind:
Encounters With Empathy: The Compassionate Cops of Wales;Â
Grand Central Station Conversation
Hey! It’s Not Brain Surgery…Yes, it is
Giuseppe Rabinowitz and the Inter-Planetary Drugstore
Silent James
To be undiscovered as a writer is like telling stories to the wind. In short, the stories I write about cover these emotions or subjects:Â
Ambition…Terror…Judaism…Temptation…Wonder…The mystery of girls and sex to a teenager…Lost opportunities…Friendship-what it really means…Social injustice and prejudice… Passion… Crime…Finding ancient mentors and their subsequent deaths…Violence-more than you could ever imagine… Chicago corruption and politics at street level…Love…and my willingness, long ago, to exact revenge without regard of consequences upon some son-of-a-bitch who deserved it.  There’s no freedom quite like not giving a damn.
I’ve only written two stories about seduction and sex, at the ages of 17 and 19. The sex was not the point.  It is an essential part of each story, but what you will read sears the pages. I decided two stories were enough. Not an easy thing to write about in a serious way.  How to say something meaningful, but not distracting.
No fiction, ever. I don’t lie to make myself a hero. If I was stupid or a jerk in some story, that remains unchanged. If the stories were fiction, they might be kinda interesting in a general way. It is because all of these things have actually happened to one person that makes people stop and wonder how could that be. Â
Selling 5,000 books is in one way, nothing.  A blip.  Not enough to make a living or in any way close to it. But still, that’s a lot of strangers turning pages and wondering, book after book:  “…and then what happened?â€
I didn’t plan on writing this note to you, but I felt it might possibly make a difference to you if you decide to read my stories. Maybe you will want other people to read them. I hope so.  I’m not a shopkeeper, Holly. I’m a writer who has spent his life doing other things. That’s all I want to say. I had no idea I would type all this.
Be seeing you, Holly….Bob
Bob Katzman’s Magazine Museum: 100,000 periodicals back to 1681
4906 Oakton St.  (8000 north and 4900 west) Skokie, Ill 60077
(847)677-9444Â Monday-Friday: 10 am to 5 pm / Weekends: 10 am to 2 pm
Katzman’s Publishing Company site: www.FightingWordsPubco.com
Katzman’s free online non-fiction story site: www.DifferentSlants.com
E-Mail: Oldmags@MagazineMemories.com  (for both store and book sites)
I sell my five published books via mail order and accept major credit cards. I don’t use PayPal. I just talk to people on the phone. Fast, reliable service. Read my stories and see what you think.
I’m also available for hire to read my true Chicago stories to organizations and answer all questions. It’s always amazing to me how many questions people have about what they never saw. Nice, too.