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It isn't often you can help a man fulfill a life's dream, but when the chance presents itself, I'd say the concept of good karma just about demands you do it.
The chance presents itself, dear reader. I've met a local dreamer we can help with the click of a mouse.
At 52, Ron Goldberg, a divorced father of two grown kids, is on the brink of a professional writing career. He needs your online vote to push him over the line.
If you've lived in Bucks long, you might already know mild-mannered Ron as the owner of In-Step, an old-fashioned family shoe store in the Summit Square Shopping Center in Middletown. But the soft-spoken shoe salesman has a dynamic alter ego. When Ron locks up the shop, he's Raz Steel, romance writer. As yet unpublished, he prays that's about to change.
Raz, err, Ron — who has a new woman in his life with whom to practice romance — is a finalist in the American Title III contest. Think “American Idol,” only contestants compete in rounds for a book deal, and they do it online. Voting deadline for fans this round — the second of five —is Nov. 26.
You can go to www.romantictimes.com and click on the American Title icon to meet the writers, three professional judges — I told you this was like “American Idol” — and review entries. In this round, writers profile their hero and heroine. Raz (I know, I know. But this is romance, and Goldberg just wouldn't cut it) is getting rave reviews from the toughest judge.
But your vote is what counts. Vote at the Romantic Times Web site or go straight to www.razsteel.com and click on “Vote Now!”
I met Ron over breakfast at Moish and Itsy's deli (also in Summit Square) to talk about his craft. Writing is his passion and getting published has become his sole purpose.
“If the winner received a huge check for winning, but the runner-up had his book published, you know where I'd want to finish,” he said. “Publication is the entry into the world of my first best destiny.”
He envisions a day when he can write and teach writing full time.
Ron's direction wasn't always so clear. He is the son of a hardworking merchant who wanted him to be a doctor. Raised in Lower Makefield, Ron was enrolled at Lafayette University and hating it when his dad died of a heart attack. It was 1972. At 19, he left school and took over the family business — Irv's Surplus in Trenton, a combined shoe and Army Navy store his dad opened 27 years earlier.
Ron didn't intend for retail to be anything more than a bridge to his own path, which he couldn't quite see yet. But one day turned into another. He married, bought a house and started a family. He not only didn't sell Irv's as he planned, he started a second business so he could keep providing for his family. Enter In-Step.
So, retail is what he's done all these years, it isn't who he is.
In the last decade, Ron has penned five manuscripts. His romantic comedy “Pass the Kryptonite” is the one that's landed him among eight remaining finalists in “American Title,” sponsored by Romantic Times (a book review magazine) and Dorchester Publishing. (You also can review contestants and vote at Dorchesterpub.com.)
The story is no bodice ripper, just a “sweetheart” story about an off-beat college coed and a neurotic, 30-something professor. He hopes it will make readers both laugh and cry.
It's good work if you can get it. Raz, err Ron, is hoping you'll help.
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