Charles Heller's Blog

PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME honored

2012-01-19T18:32:00.000-05:00

Writer's Digest has announced that Prague: My Long Journey Home was chosen to receive the magazine's Mark of Quality. Its announcement stated:

"We felt your book captured all the elements we were looking for when evaluating all Abbott Press titles. You are in fact the first winner of this difficult-to-achieve award and your book will feature the Mark of Quality seal." I feel honored and humbled by this prestigeous award.

PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME now available as e-book

2012-01-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

When we announced the launch of my book in late December, the e-book version was not yet available. Since that time, many readers have inquired about its availability. I’m happy to say that

it is ready for download to your Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.

For those of you who prefer to hold a “real” book in your hand, Prague: My Long Journey Home can be purchased in soft- or hard-cover from www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com. The most convenient (because you’re taken directly to my book by clicking on the URL) and quickest way to order is from the publisher’s web site:

http://bookstore.abbottpress.com/Products/SKU-000500210/Prague-My-Long-Journey-Home.aspx

A million thanks to those of you who have read the book and sent me so many flattering comments. You’ve been very kind and I truly appreciate it.

MEMOIR LAUNCHED!!

2011-12-23T18:55:00.001-05:00

My memoir, Prague: My Long Journey Home, went "live" today. While it is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, the fastest and simplest way to order it is directly from the publisher, Abbott Press. Simply click on:

http://bookstore.abbottpress.com/Products/SKU-000500210/Prague-My-Long-Journey-Home.aspx

and you're there. Then, on the right side of the page, select either the soft-cover book or the hard-cover book. (The e-book will be available soon.)

I will be pleased and honored if you read my memoir, and I will appreciate your comments about it.

Thank you, and I wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for he new year!

Sad day -- and not only for Czechs

2011-12-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

Today is a sad day for all the world because one of our great humanitarians and statesmen died. Vaclav Havel was the first president of free Czechoslovakia -- and later the Czech Republic -- after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. He was the last of my heroes in public life, and I mourn his loss.

PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME is being printed!

2011-12-16T11:45:00.000-05:00

Here it is: the cover of Prague: My Long Journey Home. The book will be available shortly. I will keep everyone informed via this blog, my Facebook page, and a blast e-mail to those on my mailing list. Anyone who wishes to be added to the latter should respond via my web site:

www.charlesoheller.com

Oklahoma State 44, Oklahoma 10

2011-12-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

What a grand day I'm having!

An ambassadorial endorsement of PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME

2011-11-29T14:28:00.000-05:00

I was pleased and honored to receive the following endorsement for my upcoming book, Prague: My Long Journey Home, from His Excellency Petr Gandalovic, Czech Republic's Ambassador to the United States:

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading Charles Heller’s new book, Prague: My Long Journey Home, an insightful and inspiring glimpse into the life of a man who was forced to deny his ethnic roots after coming to his new country but sought to uncover his old identity years later. Mr. Heller’s personal story, rather exceptional within the Czech-American community, touches upon several painful topics of our past and forces us to think about our identity in relations to our homeland. His authentic, powerful experiences present a better understanding of our history. I thank Charles Heller for having the courage to share his poignant and profound story with the world, in order to have a record of a history that should never be forgotten."

Endorsements for PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME

2011-11-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

As Prague: My Long Journey Home enters the production stage, endorsements are coming in from its early readers. Here are three:

“I enjoyed reading Charles Heller’s book Prague: My Long Journey Home. Having lived through the same times in occupied Czechoslovakia and later under Communists, coming to America 20 years after Dr. Heller, I understand and appreciate his experiences. His life is an example of tragedy, talent, enthusiasm, accomplishment and of never giving up. I was so impressed by the book that I invited Charles to present his life story at the Conference of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in New York in June 2011. Response of the audience was overwhelming. In fact, it was suggested to put it on the program of the 26^th World Congress of SVU again in 2012. What a story!”

Karel Raška, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

President, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New Brunswick, NJ

“It is not enough to record history; we must invigorate it. If generations after us listen and learn from history and make the world better for having done so, it will be because we told good stories. Charles Heller, by vividly recounting the story of his life, provides a window to the Czech-American immigrant experience, and makes an important contribution to the body of literature that will capture the hearts and minds of the future.”

Gail Naughton

President/CEO, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

“Prague: My Long Journey Home is an entertaining, compelling, and valuable complement to the several books I have read about Czech immigration to the U.S. It happened to a college classmate and professional colleague, not to someone’s grandparents. It puts a human face on the many stories of suffering, torture, and determination to seek freedom and succeed that had been ‘just on paper.’ Documentaries on Terezín, Lidice, Heydrich, and the aftermath of WW-II make the book even more valuable in telling ‘the rest of the story.’ ”

Bart Childs

Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas

PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME is in production!

2011-11-16T11:27:00.000-05:00

As of this week, all edits and preliminary tasks are finished. Prague: My Long Journey Home is in production at Abbott Press. The cover for the soft-cover version and the dust jacket for the hard-cover book are being prepared, and the manuscript is in the process of typesetting, pagination, etc. It's an exciting time.

The approximate publication schedule is:
     e-book -- late December
     soft-cover book -- early January
     hard-cover book -- late January

Thank you for your interest, and please watch for my announcements of publication dates.

Pat Conroy 'Way Back Then

2011-11-04T17:27:00.000-04:00

As readers of this blog know, I'm a huge fan of Pat Conroy. I consider him the finest living American writer and am insanely jealous of his ability to paint lifelike characters and scenes, and to keep a story moving at a torrid pace. I am on a mission to read three or four of his books which, for some strange reason, I have missed along the way. At the moment, I'm reading The Great Santini. A few days ago, I finished Conroy's first book, The Boo. The latter experience was a bit of a shock because, until I went back and read the introduction, I thought I was reading a book written by someone else.

The Boo is the nickname of a man --Lt. Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie, Assistant Commandant of Cadets -- a major figure in the author's life while he (Conroy) was a cadet at The Citadel. The book is a collection of stories of cadet life at the South Carolina military school. Since I failed to read the introduction before beginning to read the body of the book, I was struck by the fact that something was missing: Conroy's usual gorgeous descriptions of people and places, the beauty and passion of his writing -- those characteristics I've come to expect of this great writer.

Finally, about halfway through The Boo, I returned to the introduction, and then I understood. This was Pat Conroy's first book, written when he was a young man only recently having graduated from The Citadel, one who wanted to be a poet. In his own words: "...it would take me years to learn that prose required the same intensity and commitment (as poetry) of spirit. In 1969, prose was something I dashed off quickly; prose, all my prose, was a letter to the world telling what happened to me last summer. The Boo was my longest letter to the world; it was my angriest."

Once I read the introduction, I enjoyed the book immensely. Not only did it provide me with a picture of the life of a cadet, written by a young man who had only recently departed from that fortress of discipline, but it demonstrated the growth of a writer from the amateurish first pages to the mature voice of a writer at the end. Any fan of Pat Conroy needs to read The Boo in order to appreciate his growth as a writer.

A most powerful Holocaust memoir

2011-09-29T11:34:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, on the last day of our vacation in Canada, Sue and I walked into a used-book shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The "kid-in-a-candy-store" analogy is much too weak a description of my elation at being surrounded by thousands of wonderful friends just waiting to be read. I got lucky in this messy, yet organized, Valhalla.

In my continuing attempt to reconnect with, and to understand, my past, I have spent recent years reading hundreds of books about the Second World War -- particularly those dealing with the Holocaust. As if guided by an invisible hand in that Halifax store, I walked directly to a shelf at the end of which stood a tiny, soft-cover, 120-page, gem with a simple title -- NIGHT.

Written by the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel, NIGHT is a powerful account of his experiences in German concentration camps. I have read several of Mr. Wiesel's other books, but this one touched me more than the rest. Particularly powerful and poignant is the author's relationship to his father -- how he (16 years old at war's end) and his dad protected and cared for one another under circumstances so unbearable that they strain one's imagination. Wiesel's account of the cruelty of the Nazis is almost inconceivable, while the bravery and tenacity of the victims are beyond admirable.

While NIGHT is an almost unbearable read, it is a necessary one. I am grateful to Elie Wiesel and his fellow survivors for having borne witness to the horrors of the Holocaust and for sharing their memories with us.

U.S. publisher selected

2011-09-06T14:09:00.000-04:00

Last week, I came to an agreement with a publisher for the English-language (original) version of my first memoir, which is titled Prague: My Long Journey Home. The publisher is Abbott Press, a division of Writer's Digest, located in Bloomington, Indiana. We will be publishing both a hard-cover book and a trade paperback; at the same time, we will make it available as an e-book for Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.

I hope it will be possible to have the book available prior to the Holidays. However, that may be a tall order, and I may have to be satisfied with hitting the market early next year. I will keep everyone posted on the expected launch date. Thanks for your patience!

New title for upcoming English-language memoir

2011-07-21T17:36:00.000-04:00

Following the successful launch of the Czech-language version of my first memoir, we are in the final stages of preparing for publication in the U.S. the English-language version. The book's title will be:

PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME
A Memoir of Survival, Denial and Redemption

The current publication target is late October 2011, with an earlier date for e-books in formats for most available e-readers: Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPad.

From Prague, an English-language review of my book

2011-06-20T10:19:00.000-04:00

Having survived World War II, 13-year-old Ota Karel Heller was told to forget everything that happened when he and his parents left for the United States in 1948. Now in his mid-70s with a successful stateside career, Charles Ota Heller — as he is now called — revisits his past with all its blemishes in “Dlouhá cesta domů,” a newly published Czech version of a memoir he originally wrote in English as “Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial and Triumph.”

His account of disconnecting and reconnecting with his Jewish and Czech heritage is the culmination of a journey that began after the Velvet Revolution, when Heller started remembering things he had been forced to forget.

While in Prague to promote the book, Heller was still trying to track down his relatives. Bits and pieces of his family’s history are still missing. A similar visit in the early 1990s to Prague’s former Jewish Quarter in Josefov proved decisive for Heller’s coming to terms with his past.

“I remember being there all alone and staring at the wall [listing names of vicitims of the Holocaust],” he said about one of his first visits two decades ago. “It was very emotional — finding my grandmother’s name exactly where I was looking for mine.” ‘I tried to tell myself that I didn’t know. … I just completely blocked these things out.’

Heller lost most of his relatives in the Holocaust. It wasn’t until recently that he’s come to embrace his Jewish heritage — a vital chunk of his life.

“I knew my father was Jewish, but I never thought about the rest of it,” he said. “I tried to tell myself that I didn’t know, but I don’t think that’s completely true because there are many things I could connect. I just completely blocked these things out.”

Child’s eye view

The memoir opens with a recollection that Heller buried deeply. It was only in 2004 that he confided to his mother about when he was 9 years old he had shot a man he thought was a German soldier. Looking back, Heller hopes he had perhaps just wounded the man, who turned out to be a Czech Nazi collaborator. Back then, though, he “felt as if [he] had singlehandedly won the war,” he wrote in his memoir.

Unlike most World War II accounts, Heller presents the conflict from a child’s perspective, where youth’s naivety and the harsh realities of the times blend into unsettling accounts. ‘That’s how I thought about it — I was proud of the fact that my father was fighting the Germans.’

Heller’s father joined the British Army in 1940 and his mother was taken away to a labor camp in 1944 after hiding Ota on a farm where he spent most of the war. He never assumed that any of this had to do with religion.

“Every time something happened — like being thrown out of our home, being told that I’m not allowed to go to school — the reason I was always given by my mother [or] by my great-grandfather was, ‘Your father is fighting against the Germans,’” he said. “And that’s how I thought about it — I was proud of the fact that my father was fighting the Germans, and the fact that I was being deprived of various things, actually rather than suffering, I felt proud that in a way I was helping my father.”

The American dream

The break that Heller has been trying to mend as an adult came in 1948, when he and his parents left for the US. Since Heller’s father served in the British Army, the family was offered immediate asylum in the UK. Heller’s father turned it down, though, and the family spent a year-and-a-half in a refugee camp in the US sector in Germany waiting for a pass to what Heller’s father saw as “the land of opportunity.”

Settling in Morristown, New Jersey, Heller was directed by his parents to forget about the past. Renamed Charlie, he decided to become as American as possible. His family shied away from Czech and Slovak communities and spoke English at home in an attempt to assimilate as much as possible. ‘They told me I could become anything I wanted to be if I worked hard, and it was really true.’

“They told me I could become anything I wanted to be if I worked hard, and it was really true,” Heller said. “They told me I simply had to work harder than the Americans.”

Since starting over, Heller has gone on to become a successful academic, engineer and entrepreneur. He said he’s come to admire his parents for leaving behind their clothing manufacturing firm in Kojetice near Prague and walking to the US sector with two suitcases, bundled-up in blankets, going from wealthy entrepreneurs to minimum-wage laborers.

Speaking for his generation

After 1989, when the US began to take greater interest in Central Europe, Heller became interested in putting his memories down on paper. For a while, he was reluctant to connect his vignettes into a bigger work, doubting that anyone outside of his family would care to read about his experience. His own battle with the past as well as a desire to give a voice to the millions of children who lived in Europe in the 1930s and ’40s and whose lives have been shaped by the war eventually drove him to engage in a six-year writing project of more than self-discovery.

While he continues to search for a publisher in the US for the English version of is memoir, Heller’s already working on follow-up books about his life after coming to the US tentatively called “Cowboy of Prague” and “Ready, Fire, Aim: A Tale of Entrepreneurial Terror.”

Martina Čermáková is a Prague-based freelance writer

Dlouhá cesta domů

In Czech

240 pages

Available at bookstores and from

www.kniha.cz

Another Prague interview

2011-06-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

For my Czech-speaking readers: you may be interested in a two-part interview which appeared on the website TOPZINE. Here are the links:

http://www.topzine.cz/charles-o-heller-svuj-vystrel-na-nemeckeho-vojaka-si-pamatuji-jako-by-se-to-stalo-vcera

http://www.topzine.cz/charles-o-heller-za-komunismu-me-sebrala-stb

I would be interested in your comments.

Book cover

2011-05-20T17:18:00.000-04:00

Several friends who have followed my blogs about my "magical book tour" have asked why I haven't shown the photo on the cover of my book. Thank you all for the heads-up. Here is the beautiful, melancholy image of a family on the bank of the river Vltava by Czech photographer Pavel Kolin.

Czech-language book available in North America

2011-05-18T18:31:00.000-04:00

In order to save shipping costs for Czech-speaking North Americans who wish to purchase Dlouha cesta domu, we have made arrangements with a Canadian book-selling web site from which the book can be ordered. Please go on

http://www.czech-books.com/

and request Dlouha cesta domu by Charles Ota Heller. Thank you.

Final day of book tour -- May 2, 2011

2011-05-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

On the way to the Prague airport at five in the morning, I asked our friend Vlada to turn on the radio in order to catch the weather forecast. The first announcement we heard was: "Osama bin Laden is dead!" After a brief celebration, I experienced a selfish reaction. "Why couldn't they have waited a day?" I had been told that the story about me and my book was to run in that morning's Lidove noviny, one of the largest and most popular newspapers in the Czech Republic. Now, I thought, the story will be pushed into some remote corner of page 83.

After going through security, Sue and I headed to a newstand, where we picked up three copies of the paper. We took them with us to a nearby coffeeshop. We bought our breakfast and prepared to sift through the innards of the paper, in search of the story. Then -- surprise! There it was, on the FRONT page! The headline announced, "Strelil 'nacistu'. Bylo mu devet" ("He Shot a Nazi. He Was Nine"). The article continued on the back page, with photos from the book, plus one of me holding Dlouha cesta domu in my hand. What a finish to a fantastic book launch!

I am grateful to the Navy SEALS, not only for shooting America's Number One Enemy, but for waiting to announce it long enough to miss the deadlines of Europe's morning newspapers.

Days 7 and 8 of book tour -- April 30-May 1, 2011

2011-05-09T09:40:00.000-04:00

The formal book tour finished, Sue and I are free to spend the weekend with friends. Saturday is devoted to time with my distant cousin, Sylva Pustina (right in bottom photo), her husband Karel, and son Daniel (left in photo). All escaped from the communist regime and reside in Germany. Sylva and Karel have been at their Czech weekend home for three weeks; Daniel drives from Nurenberg (often at 200-plus km/hr) in the morning. We spend the day exploring Prague. Sylva has read a good portion of my book, and she corrects me on one matter, adds information about another, and then floors me by telling me that her dad had been arrested by the communists in 1948 after receiving a postcard from my father, informing him that we had made it "to the other side." When I wonder why I had never been told this by my parents, Sylva tells me that she doesn't think they knew. I will make the correction and additions to the English-language version of the book. If I'm lucky enough to have a second printing, I will also add them to the Czech version.

We spend Sunday with my oldest friend, Vlada Svoboda (left in top photo) and his wife Marie. We explore Prague, pay homage to the Nazi-destroyed village of Lidice, and complete our day at the beautiful State Opera House, where we see Antonin Dvorak's "Rusalka."

Day 6 of book tour -- April 29, 2011

2011-05-08T11:00:00.001-04:00

I have Friday morning off. Sue and I walk to Josefov, site of a memorial where the names of 77,000 Czech victims of the Holocaust are printed on walls, in the manner of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. The martyrs are listed by their home towns. Each time we go, I find another member of my family. This time, listed among the victims from the town of Kralupy, I discover the man who raised my father after my paternal grandfather was killed in World War I. I find Papa's uncle, Emil Neumann, born October 10, 1891, and murdered on October 26, 1942, along with 11 members of his immediate family. Most people use city and state records to trace their geneologies; I fill in the missing pieces of mine by visiting memorials.

In the afternoon, it's back to work. First, I meet with Martina Cermakova, editor of the Prague Daily Monitor, an English-language daily newspaper (http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/s?keys=Charles+Ota+Heller). My second session is with Dana Vlckova from the magazine, Nase rodina (Our Family). The third interview of the day, and last of my magical tour, is interesting because it is with two university students who represent the website http://www.topzine.cz/ and who have a totally different view of the world from that of their adult counterparts. A young man whose name I don't know accompanies a pretty young lady named Katerina Ciborova. After having answered the same questions from various members of the media all week, it is refreshing to hear the young guy say: "Leaving your country must be like breaking up with your girlfriend. Really difficult." I laugh and agree.

Day 5 of book tour -- April 28, 2011

2011-05-07T12:14:00.001-04:00

I have reserved most of Thursday for our traditional loop of Prague-Kralupy-Melnik-Kojetice-Prague. My father was born and grew up in Kralupy. Melnik castle sits high on a hilltop, overlooking the confluence of the nation's two great rivers -- Vltava (Moldau) and Labe (Elbe) -- and overlooks the mountain Rip, which is important both in the history of the nation and that of my family. Kojetice is the village in which I grew up, the home of our former clothing factory.

Our friends, Vlada and Marie Svoboda, pick us up at the hotel. After a brief stop in Kralupy, we enjoy the sunshine and view from an outdoor table at the Melnik castle. It has become our tradition to drink a glass of Ludmila wine there (regardless of time of day), just as my parents did before and after the war. On to Kojetice, where we meet our good friend and town historian, Jaroslav Kucera. Together, we place flowers on a monument honoring local citizens who died in the two world wars. The WW-II plaque includes the names of my great-grandfather, grandfather, great-uncle, and godfather. Jaroslav has arranged for a tour of our former apartment and factory. Both are sad facsimiles of what were once a magnificent home and a bustling plant. I had received them through restitution a few years back and sold them, hoping that the buyer would restore them to their former glory. No such luck.

After a brief interlude in the Kucera home -- where Mother and I had lived in a single room for several months during the war -- we head for Prague and another interview. I spend an hour with Judita Matyasova of Lidove noviny, one of the nation's major newspapers. Judita doesn't finish, so she hops in a cab with Sue, Tony Koci, and me to complete her questioning, while we ride to the American Center of the U. S. Embassy. As she departs, Judita informs me that her article will run in Monday's paper.

Our friend Jana "Stepanka" Matesova arranged for me to speak and read (in English) at the American Center. The session is attended by a small, but very interested, group. Surrounded by flags and a banner featuring my book, I read the "hook" -- the story of my shooting a Nazi when I was nine years old. I sign books for those present and for Ambassador Norman Eisen.

Day 4 of book tour -- April 27, 2011

2011-05-06T10:53:00.000-04:00

Following an interview with the magazine "Sedmicka" ("Seven") -- one of many periodicals owned by my publisher, Mlada Fronta -- I change into the new suit I had bought expressly for the Big Occasion. Sue and I walk (in Prague, one nearly always walks) to Wenceslas Square and to the Luxor bookstore, where the book will be launched officially, with ceremonies slated to begin at five o'clock. Known as the Palace of Books, the seven-floor store is the largest in the Czech Republic. When we walk in, we are greeted by an announcement of the launch and reading on the PA system. It appears that we'll have walk-ins, as well as the invited guests in attendance.

After a brief strategy meeting, four of us take our places at the head table. Left to right in the photo: Antonin Koci (MF editor), Irena Zikova (translator and interpreter), I (the author -- sorry, I like the sound of that!), and Alexander Turkovic (District Governor-elect of the nation's Rotary clubs).

Tony Koci gives a brief welcoming speech and, suddenly, the mike is in my hand. In English with Irena translating, I introduce all those in the audience who are "characters" in my book. Then I surprise everyone by reading -- in Czech -- an episode describing my melodramatic return to Prague after the Velvet Revolution. There is applause and, as I look out over the crowd, some -- particularly our friends -- seem as emotional as I am. Sasha Turkovic speaks briefly about the meaning of Rotary and makes a connection between my life and Rotary's motto, "service above self." A Q&A session follows. Among many other questions, I am asked, perhaps for the tenth time this week, whether I feel more American or Czech. For the tenth time, I give the same answer: "Both, equally." [The next day, after some introspection, I will modify this answer.]

Finally, the big moment arrives. We break open the champagne and, with Sue joining the celebration, we christen the book. DLOUHA CESTA DOMU has been launched! I stay for a long time to sign books and finally have to be pulled away for yet another interview, this one with Czech Radio Leonardo.

As Sue and I walk away with our good friend, Jitka Thomasova, in search of a pub, I feel overwhelmed. Is this really happening? More than six years of writing and rewriting, Now, I really have a book.

Day 3 of book tour -- April 26, 2011

2011-05-05T07:48:00.008-04:00

It's time to get to work. At 8 am, I meet with Antonin (Tony) Koci and Magdalena Potmesilova of Mlada Fronta, my publisher. They brief me about the national TV show, called CT24, on which I will appear this morning at 10:10. The show is the equivalent of America's morning shows, and my segment will be ten minutes long. The station sends a taxi which whisks Sue and me to one of Czech TV's several buildings. Butterflies in my stomach are dancing a Czech polka while the make-up lady makes a futile attempt to make me beautiful. I'm wired and escorted to the studio. My hostess is a blond woman named Patricie Strouhalova. We sit behind a curved desk, with my book standing between us, its cover facing the camera. Suddenly, the red light goes on and Strouhalova begins speaking. I listen to her announcing the next segment in Czech, while an interpreter's calm voice is repeating her words to me in English. I find it distracting. It would be much better if my hostess were speaking a language foreign to me; I wouldn't be listening to both voices. I am asked to speak about my life and about the book. I'm o.k. and think that I handle the questions well until Strouhalova throws me a curveball. Opening my book to a page with a photo showing my father in a British army uniform in Tobruk, Lybia, she asks me about the current war in that country. I recover and give a bland answer. After that, the rest of the show is a blur -- and then it's over. I sit and stare into the camera until the red light goes off. I remember an old adage: any publicity is better than no publicity.

In the afternoon, I am interviewed by transplanted Englishman David Vaughan for an English-language program on Czech Radio 7, Prague. The show is taped, so I relax, knowing that any screw-up can be deleted.

In the evening, Sue and I walk to the Hotel Pariz (Paris), where I speak to the Rotary Club of Old Town. All but one Rotarian speak English, so I give the story of the book in my second language. Then I surprise the audience by reading a piece from my book in Czech. I stumble occasionally, but the Rotarians are kind and compliment me on "such great pronounciation." I stay after the meeting to sign books. As we head back to the hotel in a light drizzle, I'm happy to have gotten through the first day and feel confident that I can handle the upcoming challenges.

[The TV program begins at 52:25 of http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10101491767-studio-ct24/211411058060426/ ]

Day 2 of book tour -- April 25, 2011

2011-05-05T06:50:00.000-04:00

Today is a day off, in preparation for a superbusy week. It's Easter Monday, a national holiday in the Czech Republic. The irony is not lost on me: the world's most atheist (nearly 80%) nation celebrates Easter Monday! That's a subject I need to explore at another time.

Sue and I spend the day at Prague castle (photo), the most sacred spot in the CR. From there, we make our way down through Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter) to Stare Mesto (Old Town). In our hotel room, I sign my first book. Appropriately, it is for my collaborator on the book, our friend and my translator, Irena Zikova. We meet Irena for dinner in the elegant dining room of the Imperial Hotel. At dinner, we catch up on family happenings and strategize about the upcoming book launch event, at which Irena will be my interpreter. In the middle of the meal, Irena surprises me.

"I saw on your website the claim that you're a 'full-time writer,'" she says. "Don't make such a statement here. Czechs don't like bragging."
"That's bragging?" I ask.
"Yes, it is. You are not a writer. You're a successful businessman and educator. You may have written a book, but you're not yet a writer. That takes many years and much success."

I want to argue that I am now not only a writer, but I'm an author. Instead, I continue to chew my knedliky (those incredible Czech dumplings). I decide to follow Irena's advice as my magical book tour begins.

Day 1 of book tour -- April 24, 2011

2011-05-03T16:14:00.000-04:00

We check into the Marriott hotel near the Municipal House in Prague. The moment I've been anticipating for weeks arrives. The bellman comes out of the baggage room with a stack of books, which had been sent there by my publisher, Mlada Fronta. They're wrapped in clear plastic, five to a package. I want to grab the top pack off the bellman's cart, to tear it apart, and start admiring. Instead, I think: is that what Pat Conroy would do? No way!

I act casual, pretending that I do this regularly. When the bellman spots my photo staring at him through the covering, he asks: "Vy?" ("You?"). I answer "Ano," ("Yes") and take satisfaction from the admiring look on his face. As soon as he leaves our room, I rip off the wrapper and begin the examination of the product of 75 years of my life and more than six years of writing, rewriting, editing, and more rewriting.

There really is a book with my name on its cover! It's called DLOUHA CESTA DOMU (LONG JOURNEY HOME), and it's beautiful.

That evening, Sue and I celebrate at a nearby pub, under the stars. I have my favorite dish -- svickova -- accompanied by the world's finest beer, and we toast the book. I am an author!

I'll be reading and signing at the American Center of the US Embassy in Prague on April 28

2011-04-22T10:15:00.000-04:00

American Center's announcement:

Prague: A Long Journey Home by Charles Ota Heller

Ota Karel Heller was a Czech boy whose misfortune it was to be born a Christian-Jewish hybrid three years before a war which claimed the lives of six million people with whom he shared a common bond – of which he was totally unaware. He managed to survive, but fifteen of the victims of Nazi murderers were members of his family. Four years later – after his country was taken over by the communists – Ota Karel Heller disappeared. He was resurrected by his parents as Charles Ota Heller in America, having left not only his identity, but also memories and scars, behind on the other side of the Atlantic. Or so he thought… After many years of success as an American entrepreneur and academic, of happy marriage and fatherhood, and of having gained a degree of national prominence, he was confronted with demons of his past. Two cataclysmic events caused him to question his denial of his ethnic roots. He has written a memoir, Prague: A Long Journey Home, about his adventures. The book has been translated into Czech and published in 2011 by Mladá fronta as Dlouhá cesta domu. Program will be in English. Thursday, April 28, from 6:30 PM.

Preparing for book launch in Prague

2011-04-12T14:26:00.000-04:00

This is an exciting time for me. The official launch of my memoir, Dlouha cesta domu (Long Journey Home) is only two weeks away. I will be signing at the Neoluxor, the largest bookstore in the country, in Prague on Wednesday, April 27. Various other signings and interviews in Prague and the surroundings have been arranged. I have my fingers crossed for a good reception by readers and reviewers!

Panel of Czech and Slovak immigrants

2011-03-16T11:06:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, March 24, I will participate in a panel discussion at the Czech Embassy in Washington. We will talk about our experiences as Czech and Slovak immigrants trying to "make it in America." I'd like to invite interested readers of this blog to attend. The Embassy's invitation follows:

Dear Friends of Czech Culture:

The Embassy of the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML), will present the NCSML's oral history project: Recording Voices and Documenting Memories, on Thursday, March 24, at 6:30 pm.

The project captures and preserves the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War era and who settled in Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington, DC. At this event, project coordinator Rosie Johnston will moderate a panel discussion to include previous interviewees Vojtech Mastny, Dagmar White, Charles Heller, Juraj Slavik, and John Palka. Major Gifts Officer Leah Wilson will be on hand to talk about the NCSML's progress towards rebuilding and expanding the museum campus since the flood of 2008.

Wine and light refreshments will be served after the discussion.

The event is part of the project Democracy and Human Rights: Lessons from the Past for the Current Czech Foreign Policy, organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic from January through June 2011.

R.S.V.P. to czech_events@yahoo.com with “Oral History Project” in the subject line by March 23.

Additional questions: 202/274-9108, e-mail: jana_racova@mzv.cz

Location: Embassy of the Czech Republic, 3900 Spring of Freedom St., NW, Washington, DC 20008

Arnost Lustig

2011-03-05T14:17:00.001-05:00

Recently, we completed the final edits of the galley proofs of the Czech-language translation of my memoir, DLOUHA CESTA DOMU (LONG JOURNEY HOME). The first two pages of the book-to-be are blank. They were waiting to be filled by words from the pen of one of the most widely read, and beloved, of Czech contemporary writers -- Arnost Lustig. Sadly, it will not happen. After a long, courageous, battle with cancer, Arnost Lustig died a week ago.

Mr. Lustig was a survivor of the concentration camps, Terezin and Auschwitz. At the latter, he saw his father marched off to a gas chamber and his mother humiliated by German soldiers. At the camps, too, he experienced goodness from fellow inmates who cared for and protected the young boy from the Nazis. His books, in both Czech and English, and several made into movies, were based on his experiences in the camps. Occupying a special place in my own library are his INDECENT DREAMS and LOVELY GREEN EYES.

Early last month, my Prague editor, a close friend of the writer, went to Lustig's apartment to ask if the Foreword to my book was finished. Arnost's daughter Eva said that it was not, but she expressed the hope that her father might dictate it to her from his sick-bed. That was not to be. He said that he doesn't know how to dictate and that he must write himself on his "machine."

Naturally, I am sad that this great man did not partner with me on my book. But, I am devastated by the fact that I did not have the opportunity to meet him. His friend, the American writer Tom Chilcotte, wrote: "Arnost took great pride in his ability to assess people quickly, a skill he learned out of necessity in the camps. He knew as soon as he met someone whether he would have liked to have been imprisoned with them." I'll never find out whether or not Arnost Lustig would have been willing to share a cell with me. I can only hope so.

America's finest writer

2011-02-26T14:49:00.000-05:00

There's no doubt that many people will disagree with me, but in my opinion, the finest living American writer is Pat Conroy. I say this despite -- or because of -- the fact that every time I read or reread one of his books, Conroy's prose forces me to realize how inadequate my own writing is. There is no one alive who can describe a tree, a flower, a feeling, a woman, or a sunset as beautifully as this man with deep roots in the American South.

"The beauty of language, shaped in sentences as pretty as blue herons, brought me to my knees with pleasure. I did not know that words could pour through me like honey through a burst hive or that gardens seeded in dark secrecy could bloom along the borders of my half-ruined boyhood because a writer could touch me in all the broken places with his art." "He made the English language seem like a tongue he had invented himself."

If I possessed the skill, I would write the above words in praise of Pat Conroy. Instead, I'm left with having to turn his own words (about other writers) on himself. In his latest book, My Reading Life, he has articulated, as only he could, my feeling for the beauty of his prose. Thank you, Pat Conroy!

Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 7

2011-02-25T18:15:00.000-05:00

Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 6

2011-02-16T11:01:00.001-05:00

Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 5

2011-01-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 4

2011-01-03T14:24:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 3

2010-12-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

Charles Heller interview on YouTube, Part 2

2010-12-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

Charles Heller interview on You Tube, Part 1

2010-11-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

Happy to be part of oral history

2010-11-24T18:48:00.000-05:00

The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library (http://www.ncsml.org/), located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the "center of gravity" of immigrants, and their descendants, from the former Czechoslovakia. The NCSML runs interesting programs throughout the year, has a great online gift shop, and its library is the depository of many valuable books and documents. Despite the fact that the library was destroyed a couple of years ago in Iowa's disastrous flood, the treasures were saved and the building has now been rebuilt.

The Museum's current major project consists of collecting oral histories of Czech and Slovak immigrants. I was lucky enough to be selected to participate, and I was interviewed during the summer. The result of the interview was posted just last week on the Museum's web site. You can access it directly on:

http://www.ncsml.org/Oral-History/Washington-DC/20101108/69/Heller-Charles.aspx

Alternately, you can go on YouTube, enter "Charles Heller," and view several of the clips from the interview. Thanks for your interest -- and welcome to my blog!

The Invisible Bridge

2010-10-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

I began reading a novel called The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010) as part of my research on World War II, as I edit my memoir of life as a "hidden Child" during Nazi occupation. Only a few pages in, I was totally absorbed in this wonderful love story. Judging from her photo, Julie Orringer is a young woman. Thus, I find it amazing that she has been able to describe so vividly and accurately the horrors wrought by the Germans and their collaborators. Reading between the lines of the Acknowledgement leads me to think that the book may be based on the story of the author's family. Is this true? I don't know. I do know that, while the book is long -- some 600 pages -- and it took me two weeks to read it, I became totally absorbed in it. For the entire period, I was living with Andras, Klara, and the other characters. Now that I've completed the book, I feel that something is missing from my day. I'll have to wait for the movie.

Much harder than I had thought...

2010-09-22T17:50:00.000-04:00

It has been more than a month since my last blog. The reason? I underestimated the amount of work that would be required to get my book, Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Triumph, translated into Czech. The publisher, Mlada Fronta, asked me to make a few changes so that the book would be more suitable for the Czech reader. My original estimate was that it would take me perhaps three weeks to make these changes, before sending them to my translator in Prague.

The process has turned out to be considerably more difficult and time-consuming. First, I modify each chapter and perform several edits. Then, I e-mail it to Prague. Perhpas a week later, I receive the translated chapter, at which time I edit this Czech version. The latter is the tough part. It is very unusual for an author to know the foreign language into which his book is being translated. Czech is my native language. I know it quite well -- not well enough to do my own translation, but well enough to understand every word. Therein lies the problem. Occasionally, there are nuances and subtle meanings which get lost in translation, and my Czech collaborator and I must work through these. My knowledge of Czech turns out to be both a blessing and a curse.

The good news is that we're making progress. So far, we've completed the Preface and seven of 18 chapters. We're on schedule to meet our target completion date. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the Czech book will launch the first week of May 2011, at the Prague Book Fair, with a book tour to follow.

In the meantime, the search for a U.S. publisher for the English version goes on...

An unforgettable book

2010-08-19T16:33:00.000-04:00

Sue and I returned last night from our annual reunion of Oklahoma State University friends. On alternate years, we meet at the "cabin" of my college roommate, Don Gafford, and his wife, Sondra. Their home is located in spectacular country -- the High Sierras -- in the least populated county in the state of California. Sierra County has a population of only 3,300 people, but a multitude of snow-capped mountains, crystal-clear lakes, and green forests.

While relaxing in a hammock at the edge of Lusk Meadow, I had the pleasure of reading one of the finest Holocaust-era novels in print. Because of my own to-be-published memoir on the subject, I try to read any and all books on this subject -- fiction and nonfiction. Some are good, some are fair, others are outstanding.

Taking its place in the latter group is Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It is a fictional account of a young girl's separation from her parents, following a real event: the round-up of thousands of French Jews and their children -- not by Germans, but by French police. Ms. de Rosnay teaches us about this shameful and little-known crime by skillfully interweaving two story lines -- those of Sarah, the Jewish girl who holds a terrible secret and Julia, an American journalist, who uncovers the secret. The story is powerful and compelling. At the same time, it is so terrifying that -- on many occasions -- I wanted to stop reading. But, I couldn't.

I am grateful to St. Martin's Press, and its Griffin imprint, for publishing one of the finest books in this genre. Go out and buy this book. It will make you cry, but you will never forget it.

A book deal!

2010-07-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

After parting company with my literary agent several weeks ago, I implemented a new strategy for getting my book -- Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Triumph -- published. Following the example of several other first-time American authors of books dealing with the Second World War and/or the Holocaust, I decided to try to get my book published in Europe first. The writers whose paths I followed found European publishers, had their books translated into the respective native languages, and saw their books have successful sales runs. Book deals made in Europe caught the interest of American publishers, who -- based on this new credibility -- signed the authors to contracts for the U.S. market.

For me, the natural target was my native country -- the Czech Republic. I queried one of the largest publishers in the nation, Mlada Fronta -- a firm which owns one of the country's major newspapers, 45 magazines, and publishes more than 200 book titles each year. Within a week, I received an expression of interest and a request for the full manuscript. I sent it immediately and, one week later, we were discussing specifics. One month ago, we met in Prague and came to an agreement.

Currently, I am making a few modification to make the book more suitable to Czech readership. As I finish editing each chapter, I send it to Prague for translation. We will launch the book (with the same subtitle as the English version, but with a different title -- most probably, Long Way Home) at the Prague Book Fair, in early May 2011. A book tour in the Czech Republic will follow. More good news: one of the finest, and most beloved, contemporary Czech writers -- Arnost Lustig -- has agreed to write the Foreword of the book. I am honored and extremely pleased.

Naturally, I am excited and anxious to see my memoir on the bookshelves of my native country. At the same time, I hope to find an American publisher who will bring Out of Prague to American readers.

I can't resist!

2010-07-10T11:48:00.000-04:00

Everyone else in America is writing about the LeBron James debacle, and I can't resist chiming in. Up front, I must say that I love basketball too much to be able to watch the game played by today's National Basketball Association. There was a time -- that of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and all the way up to that of Larry Bird -- when professional basketball in the US was as exciting, and as well played, as the game's college version. All that changed with a guy named Michael Jordan. Enormously talented, he was permitted to change the rules. He palmed the ball, he double-dribbled, he drove through the lane while taking three steps without dribbling, and his defense consisted of waving an arm at his man as the latter drove by. The game became a sham -- and it continues so.

The poor quality of the NBA game is surpassed only by that of the character of some of its players. Coddled and managed from their early teens, these guys have been convinced by their adoring hangers-on and the cooperating sports press that the world revolves around them. There is no better example than the man-child who appointed himself "The King" -- LeBron James. This selfish oaf, with full cooperation from newspapers, magazines, and ESPN, deserted the city of Cleveland accompanied by fanfare which displaced news of deaths in Afganistan, oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, and the excitement of the World Cup.

Why does this disturb me so? It's the fact that people actually care about a jerk like LeBron James -- a guy who couldn't carry Bill Russell's jockstrap.

The Big Twelve Lives!

2010-06-16T15:13:00.000-04:00

My last blog, "Goodbye, Big Twelve!" lamented the death of "my" collegiate conference. Just a few short days ago, it looked as though the top football and basketball conference in the nation was about to dissolve, following the departure of the Universities of Colorado and Nebraska. But, not so fast! When the "big dog" of our league -- the University of Texas -- decided to stay, instead of jumping to the Pac-10, the remaining schools followed. The outcome -- and twisted irony -- is that the Big Twelve now has ten teams, while the Big Ten has 12 teams. Go figure.

Goodbye, Big Twelve!

2010-06-13T12:48:00.000-04:00

How sad that money drives college sports -- particularly football and basketball! The Big Ten (which is really an "Eleven") has its own TV network and, consequently, millions of dollars in revenues. At the same time, it is very weak in the two big revenue sports. In football, it has two powers and nine also-rans and, in basketball, it has one consistently good team. However, its powers-that-be are smart enough to distribute revenues evenly, meaning that even such major-sport midgets as Northwestern get the big bucks.

On the other hand, the Big XII -- "my" conference (that is, the conference of my alma mater, Oklahoma State University) -- was the most powerful football league in the country this past season (by a count of the number of teams in the top 25 and in bowl games) and had the highest RPI rating among conferences in basketball. Its powers-that-be can be said to have the "New York Yankee syndrome." Instead of distributing revenues evenly, the majority have gone to the winners. Thus, Texas has gotten richer and richer, while Iowa State has gotten poorer and poorer. This has made for unhappy "campers."

The Big Ten needs more competitve (and more attractive to TV) teams. Thus, it has coveted Notre Dame and Nebraska. The Irish have their own network and won't share money with anyone; they'll stay independent. But, Nebraska couldn't resist when it was asked to jump. Last week, it announced that it'll jump to the Big Ten. Colorado followed by deciding to align with the Pac-10.

That leaves ten schools in the Big XII -- only four in the northern division. My solution would be to move OSU and Oklahoma to the North and to add two schools (perhaps TCU and one other) to the South. But, apparently, that won't fly. The Pac-10 has made overtures to OSU, OU, Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M. All but A&M (which seems to favor jumping to the SEC) are ready to jump. If A&M decides to join its fellow Big XII movers, or if the Pac-10 finds another school to jump, the Pacific Coast league will not only extend to the prairies of Texas and Oklahoma, but it will be the most powerful conference -- by far -- in the land. Interestingly, the three schools which have won the most NCAA championships are Pac-10 members UCLA, Stanford, and USC. The fourth? Oklahoma State.

For OSU, this would be the fourth conference since my freshman year there. When I matriculated, we were members of the Missouri Valley Conference. In my junior year, we made the Big Seven, the Big Eight. Later, after the breakup of the Southwestern Conference, we took in the four Texas schools (Texas, Tech, TAMU, and Baylor) and became the Big XII. What a shame that it has to end this way! I wonder if any of the university presidents and athletic directors ever think of the students. Do they ever think about the fact that kids aren't going to drive from Stillwater to Pullman, Washington, or Los Angeles, the way they did to away games in Lawrence, Kansas, or Waco, Texas? Oh, but the students don't matter. It's about hard cash. What a pity!

Another book by another friend

2010-06-08T13:02:00.000-04:00

It seems that many of my writer friends are busy publishing these days. In recent blogs, I've talked about books by Lillian Lincoln Lambert, as well as Jim Rosapepe and Sheilagh Kast. This week, I finished a provocative book by one of my newest friends, Peter Hruby, a distinguished historian.

Peter and I have a couple of things in common. Both of us escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1948, and both of us now live in or near Annapolis, Maryland. Where our stories diverge is in the period between those two end points. Whereas I came to America, via refugee camps, soon after our escape, Peter spent the majority of his life in exile in Australia. His book, Dangerous Dreamers: the Australian Anti-democratic Left and Czechoslovak Agents reveals a little-known saga of the Cold War.

While living Down Under during the period of the east-west struggle, Peter was dismayed by the activities and provocations of Australian leftists, such as Wilfred Burchett and Ian Millner. They, and many of their leftist comrades -- the "dangerous dreamers" -- worked toward turning Australia into another state under the domination of the Soviet Union. Following the Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia opened up the archives of its Communist secret police. Hruby went to Prague and spent many weeks combing the records which showed the connection between Czechoslovak Communists and their Australian cohorts, and their joint efforts to subvert a democratic government and society. Chilling!

If you're interested in a little-known aspect of the Cold War, you'll find Dangerous Dreamers both fascinating and disturbing. I recommend it highly. It is available from http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/.

The Road to Someplace Better

2010-05-14T16:47:00.000-04:00

I've been derelict in that I've failed to blog for an entire month. The main reasons: I've been attending board meetings, writing -- and reading (o.k., I admit to the fact that I've played a little golf, too). Interestingly, most of the books I've read recently have been written by friends. I've reported on a couple of these in recent blogs, and I hope that some of you have had the opportunity to read and enjoy them.

The book I just completed was written by a good friend whom I met while running the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. I found her such an impressive, intelligent, knowledgeable -- and charming -- lady that I asked her to join the Center's board of directors immediately after meeting her. To my delight, and great benefit to the entrepreneurs whom we served, she accepted. I knew a little about her background, and a lot more about her business successes, back then. Now, I've read her memoir, and -- as the man said -- I know "the rest of the story." I think you'll want to know it, too.

Lillian Lincoln Lambert grew up very poor on a small family farm in southern Virginia. In her early years, she studied by the light of a kerosene lamp because there was no electricity. But, there was something in her genes, perhaps coming from her pioneering mother -- an African-American woman who earned a college degree in the 1920s -- that drove Lillian toward great accomplishments. She left home after high school to make her fortune, but she ended up in menial jobs in New York and Washington. In order to improve her lot, she began attending Howard University on a part-time basis. Eventually, she became a full-time student and received her degree. Her Howard mentor, H. Naylor Fitzhugh, convinced Lillian to apply for admission to Harvard Business School.

HBS was something of a shock. She discovered that she was an anomaly in a world of white men from ritzy private schools. She was the odd person out -- female, black, and poorly prepared for the competitive world of HBS. But, she not only managed to persevere, but to thrive. Now, she has taken her place in the history of Harvard as its first African-American woman to have received an MBA. Eventually, Lillian went into a business she knew best: maintenance of office buildings. Before cashing out, she built Centennial One into a $20-million, 1,200-employee company with top-tier clients.

With the assistance of Rosemary Brutico, Lillian has given us her life story in The Road to Someplace Better: From the Segregated South to Harvard Business School and Beyond, published by Wiley. It's an inspirational story of a remarkable lady. Read it -- you won't regret it!

Seeing one's name in print

2010-04-12T13:41:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite writers, Anna Quindlen, says that "the stages of a writer's professional life are marked not by a name on the office door, but a name in ink." For some 30 years -- as CEO of two software companies and later head of a nonprofit organization -- I had my "name on the office door." But that recognition didn't provide me with the same thrill and, yes, the same ego trip, as seeing my byline and photo at the head of my newspaper columns.

The exhiliration didn't come without a great deal of anxiety. For many years, every Sunday morning would begin with an early walk out to the mailbox for the newspaper. My hands would shake as I would search for my column. By the time I would walk through the front door, my wife, Sue, would know by the expression on my face what I had uncovered. About two-thirds of the time, I would be smiling, indicating that the powers-that-be had faithfully reproduced my work of art. The other times, my disgusted look and accompanying cuss words would tell her that the headline writer had completely missed the point with his/her clever choice of phrase or the typesetter had misspelled my carefully chosen words, or both.

In a previous gig with a biweekly newspaper, I faced an additional problem. The publisher was an Anglophile who applied British spellings to my American words. Thus, my "neighbor" became "neighbour," "color" turned into "colour," and "realize" was changed to "realise." In my final pre-submission edit, I would attempt to purge each column of all words which might be subject to such translation. Yet, invariably, I would miss one or two. Post-publication, I would flog myself for allowing such perversion under my byline.

Today, I still get a kick out of seeing my name appear atop my writing. However, seeing it on a computer screen is not the same as seeing it on real paper. Anyone can write a blog. Moreover, the thrills I experienced in 18 years of seeing my byline in newspapers and magazines were nothing compared to the exhiliration I can only anticipate to come from seeing my name on the cover of a BOOK! I can only hope that day will come soon for Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Triumph.

Dracula Is Dead

2010-03-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

I am privileged to know some wonderful and accomplished people. In my last blog, I wrote about Bernie and Rita Turner, and the book about their founding of Walden University. I had just finished reading Aspire toward the Highest at the time.

Yesterday, I completed another wonderful book by yet another terrific married couple I know. The book has a great title, Dracula Is Dead, with the subtitle, How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It, and Emerged since 1989 as the New Italy. The authors are Jim Rosapepe and Sheilah Kast. Jim was the American Ambassador to Romania during the Clinton administration. Today, he is still active in Romania and serves in the Maryland House of Delegates. I first met Jim while I was running the entrepreneurship center at the University of Maryland; he is one of the school's biggest supporters and serves on its Board of Visitors. Jim's wife, Sheilah Kast, is a well-known TV and radio journalist, with her own show on National Public Radio. In the past, she could be seen on ABC and CNN.

In Dracula Is Dead, Jim and Sheilah describe their experiences in Romania in the style of a travelogue. For a memoir writer, this is a fascinating format for a book in our genre -- and it works very well. Their stories and anecdotes give a clear and insightful picture of a country which has transitioned from a Communist satellite state to a vibrant, market-driven, democracy in a relatively short time. I found them particularly fascinating because many mirror those I have encountered in my own native Czech Republic since 1998. I highly recommend the book -- it's a great read.

You'll find a link to Jim's and Sheilah's book web site under "Links" on my site, http://www.charlesoheller.com/.

Aspiring toward the highest degree and purpose

2010-03-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

For several years now, I have served on the Board of Directors of Walden University, a unique international institution. Walden is a for-profit, accredited, university which -- by virtue of offering all its courses online -- is designed for the nontraditional student, typically a professional who is working full-time, has a family, is looking to improve his/her job opportunities, and needs the flexibility of attending lectures and studying on his/her own schedule.

From my position as a director and chair of the board's financial affairs committee, I have marvelled at the accomplishments of Walden's management team, the quality of the faculty, and state-of-the-art technology used to deliver courses throughout the world to some 40,000 doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students in disciplines from engineering to education to nursing, and beyond.

Sitting on stages at commencements in Bloomington, Minneapolis, and Dallas, I have seen men and women my age receive their diplomas to the cries of "'Way to go grandma!" from the audience. I've shed tears during touching scenes such as a quadraplegic man wheeled onto the stage by his mother, who had labored for years typing on a computer keyboard as he dictated his assignments, and a black daughter of a poor family receiving her master's degree in education -- the first person in her family to go past the eighth grade.

But, I never appreciated the innovative minds which conceived this revolutionary educational concept, nor the difficulty of getting such an institution off the ground and having it recognized and accredited by the conservative and self-preserving education community, until recently. A few weeks ago, I received in the mail a book titled, Aspire toward the Highest: Bernie and Rita Turner and the Founding of Walden University by Wade Keller.

The book was sent to me by one of the two co-stars of the book, Bernie Turner, a man I am very proud to call my friend. (As a personal aside, I discovered that Bernie, as a very young Army private, was one of our liberators when George Patton's division routed the Germans and entered the western part of the Czech Republic in 1945.) Bernie and his beautiful wife, Rita, came up with the Walden concept in 1970, long before the advent of the Internet.Their story, and the tale of Walden University, make for a great read for anyone (like me) who gets excited by stories of American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and enterprise, and who appreciates the premise that, in America, anyone who wants it badly enough, has the right and opportunity to pursue "a higher degree..a higher purpose" (Walden's motto). The book is available from Keller Publishing, wade@KellerPublishing.com.

An "Orange Power" weekend

2010-03-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

What a weekend for my alma mater! On Saturday, the Oklahoma State Cowboys took on the number one basketball team in the nation, the Kansas Jayhawks, in Stillwater. In no time, we led by 16 points, as James Anderson, Keiton Page, and Obi Muonelo destroyed KU with their sharpshooting. We handed the Jayhawks their second loss of the season and assured ourselves of a spot in March Madness. The next day, the OSU Cowgirls, who had hit a dryspell after reaching a record of 18-3 and a top-ten ranking, knocked off Texas Tech. Both the men's and women's teams now are 20-8 -- peaking and rolling.

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles to the west -- in Phoenix -- Cowboy alumni were blowing away the opposition on the golf course. In an incredible showing for one university, OSU Cowboys captured three of the first six places in the PGA Phoenix open: Hunter Mahan was first, Rickie Fowler finished second, and Charles Howell came in sixth. Wow! Surely, that must be a first for one school.

Actually, I had hoped that it would be both an orange and a red-white-and-blue weekend. Without question, the most important sporting event of the year was Sunday's Olympic finals game between Canada and the United States. Despite the fact that our guys had beaten Canada a week before, they were derided as flukes and nobodies. One of the NBC announcers stated before the game that only two players on the American team would be good enough to make the Canadian squad. What arrogance and idiocy! Our guys skated beautifully, Ryan Miller was fantastic in goal, and they tied the score in the last minute to send it into overtime. Sadly, they lost on a sudden-death goal. But, they have absolutely nothing of which to be ashamed. They should hold their heads high and be proud of their silver medals. By the way, my fearless prediction: while Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby will continue (deservedly) to receive the accolades, the next big hockey star will be an American. His name is Zach Parise.

Writing While Snowed In

2010-02-06T14:03:00.000-05:00

I've been a skier since the age of three, so it's frustrating to sit inside and watch a blizzard here in the flatlands of the Chesapeake Bay, rather than being out on the slopes or the trails. But, a 25-inch dump is good reason to do some serious writing. I am working on my second memoir -- the working title: Cowboy from Prague -- which deals with my life in the U.S. after coming here from Czechoslovakia at the age of 13.

This snowy weekend, I am working on a chapter titled "A Life-Altering Scandal." It deals with my love affair with the sport of basketball. Although my high-school coach in New Jersey wasn't enamoured with me or my play, I managed to do well enough in various summer and semi-professional leagues to attract interest among some college coaches. In those days, some of the best basketball in the country was being played in the New York metropolitan area. NYU, CCNY, LIU, St. John's, and Manhattan College were national powerhouses. I dreamed of playing for one of them.

But, then it all came crashing down. Players from those schools -- as well as others from Kentucky and Bradley -- were implicated in a gambling scandal. They had been taking bribes from big-time gamblers to shave points such that final scores would be within established point spreads. I was heartbroken -- and my dream was dead.

Then, one day, I happened to pick up a copy of my parents' Life magazine. I opened it to a two-page spread. The left page was headlined, "Basketball at its Worst," and it showed some of my former heroes in handcuffs, being led off to a courtroom. The right page was headlined, "Basketball at its Best." It had a photo of a stern-looking man named Henry Iba, accompanied by several action shots of his Oklahoma A&M Aggies. I read about the school and its squeeky-clean program, and my dream was restored. This time, it was a dream of one day playing for the man known to everone as Mr. Iba.

Thanks to the point-shaving scandal, and to having been lucky enough to pick up my parents' magazine, my life was altered forever. I did play for Mr. Iba, and today I "bleed orange" as a proud alumnus of Oklahoma State University -- formerly Oklahoma A&M College.

THE GLASS ROOM by Simon Mawer

2010-01-04T18:15:00.000-05:00

The best thing about going on a big-ship cruise is the opportunity to read books, uninterrupted by phones, e-mails, or pressures of deadlines. We returned yesterday from such a cruise on board the "Carnival Pride" -- from Baltimore to Port Canaveral to Nassau to Freeport and back to Baltimore. The first day out in the North Atlantic, we encountered westerly winds of 55 knots, gusting to 62, and rough seas. Thus, it was appropriate that I spent a good part of the day in my bunk, finishing The Proving Ground, G. Bruce Knecht's story of the 1998 Sydney-Hobart sailboat race, during which boats sank and men died in a cyclone.

After completing this excellent, thoroughly-researched, true adventure, I switched from a subject out of my recent past -- sailboat racing -- to one from my more distant past -- my native country in the heart of Europe, Czechoslovakia. For Christmas, my wife Sue had given me a novel called The Glass Room by Simon Mawer. The center of gravity of the book is a modern house of glass and steel, the home of two members of the country's pre-war upper crust, a Jewish husband and a Catholic wife -- just like my own parents. The house becomes a gathering place for artists, thinkers, and businesspersons who have discarded old-world thinking in order to build "a state in which being Czech or German or Jew would not matter, in which democracy would prevail and art and science would combine to bring happiness to all people." If I had not known that this was a work of fiction, I would have been certain that Rudolph and Ilona Heller had been frequent visitors to the Glass Room of this house.

Simon Mawer, an Englishman, shows a wonderful grasp of Czech culture, of the time and place, and he uses the Glass Room masterfully to portray people who struggle to live and love during a period which is frightening and irrational. A great read!

A SHORT LIST OF "MOSTs"

2009-12-23T15:16:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago at a meeting of writers, a novelist whom I had just met told me that she was "impressed by all the things you've done in your life." She had read my bio on my web site and was reacting to the fact that I've gone through five distinct phases of professional life.

"Do you find the latest phase, being a writer, the most difficult one?" she asked.

I responded in the negative, but I didn't elaborate. It was only later that I had time to look back and contemplate nearly 50 years of my professional life and to determine not only which phase had been the most difficult, but also how each of the other phases could be described with a single "most." Here's what I concluded:

Phase I:    Engineer              -- most boring
Phase II:   Academic           -- most satisfying
Phase III: Entrepreneur       -- most terrifying
Phase IV: Venture capitalist -- most difficult
Phase V:   Writer                 -- most frustrating

I should explain why the current phase is "most frustrating." Most of my career has been about control. As long as I had some degree of control over matters -- when my own actions and decisions could affect outcome -- I was able to overcome obstacles and to maintain my sanity. As a writer, I feel that I have little control, beyond putting words on paper. Others make decisions while I wait for that e-mail or phone call, telling me that I'm going to get published. That's frustrating -- but I'm still enjoying myself.

I wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for the new year! Thank you for reading my blog.

Maryland -- A State of Writers

2009-12-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last night, I attended a meeting of the Annapolis chapter of the Maryland Writers' Association. We meet monthly at a coffeeshop in a part of town which calls itself "The Maritime Republic of Eastport." Last night's affair was a book fair, whereby exhibiting members sold their respective books to other members. As I browsed through most of the publications on display, I was blown away by the quality of the writing and the imagination behind some of the plots -- from mysteries to adventures to memoirs to poetry. As a relative newcomer to our community of writers, I continue to be amazed by the amount of talent in our quaint, small town, known more for sailing than for literature.

The talent extends far beyond Annapolis. The state of Maryland seems to be a haven for writers and poets. I urge you to sample some of the works of these incredible individuals. The best way to see what's out there is to go on the web site of the Maryland Writers' Association, http://www.marylandwriters.org/, and to click on "Member Web Sites." You will find brief bios of 46 Maryland writers and references to their books, which cover nearly every possible genre of fiction and nonfiction. You may find some interesting presents for your friends and family for the Holidays.

END OF SEASON

2009-11-27T14:52:00.001-05:00

For us, Thanksgiving weekend marks the end of the boating season. For nearly 30 years, we raced sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay. Every year, we prepared our boat for haul-out immediately after the Thursday holiday, and she would go "on the dry" on Monday. Sailboat racing had been a family sport for us. Sue and I sailed together, and David began crewing around the age of six. We began with a Catalina 27 named "Serene," and later graduated to a C&C 30, which we named "Blue Ice." Our last sailboat, a C&C 35, was called "Pistol Pete," after the mascot of my alma mater, Oklahoma State University.

We sold "Pistol Pete" and gave up racing soon after David married and Sue and I took up golf. We thought that we could be happy without a boat. But, living near Annapolis and being without a means to get out on the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay proved to be impossible. We bought a small runabout, which satisfied us for a couple of years. But then one day, I spotted the most beautiful powerboat I had ever seen. She had a dark green hull, teak decks, a mahogany caprail, and gorgeous lines ending in a rounded stern. At the time, I was involved in a company about to go public, and I announced to Sue and our friends: "That's going to be my IPO boat!"

And so we ended up buying an Italian Apreamare and we named her "Czech Mate." Although work and golf have kept us from being on the water very often, we've now enjoyed our mini-yacht for ten seasons. This weekend, we're holding with the tradition we established with sailboats -- before going over to the "dark side" -- and we're getting ready to put "Czech Mate" on the dry on Monday.

Why another "survivor memoir?"

2009-11-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

Soon after the overthrow of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime in November 1989, I reunited with my closest boyhood friend, Vladimír “Vlád̛a” Svoboda. I had left him behind when my parents and I escaped from the country in 1948, and both of us were twelve years old. Now we were in our mid-fifties, and we had travelled along divergent paths – dictated by our respective environments – to get there.

“We should write a book together,” Vlád̛a announced one day over a beer in a Prague pub. “Two boys grew up together. One escaped to find success and happiness in a free country. The other stayed behind and, because he refused to join the Communist Party, was unable to reach his potential and ended up a poor man. The contrast between living under democracy and totalitarianism would make for fascinating reading on both sides of the ocean.”

Although I had been a part-time writer throughout my life, I was not enthusiastic about the proposed project. The logistics, geographic separation, and the fact that I would be writing in English while Vlád̛a wrote in Czech were reasons enough to reject the idea out of hand. The fact that I was working nearly one-hundred-hour weeks in the “day job” which put bread on our table, and thus had little time to write -- while Vlád̛a was about to enter retirement in the mountains -- rendered it impossible from my standpoint. But, I could not simply turn my good friend down. I promised him that we would seek a professional opinion about the viability of such a book.

Alan Levy, senior editor of The Prague Post, had written a lengthy article about me and, subsequently, we had become friends. Alan had been a New York Times correspondent in Czechoslovakia, had written two wonderful books about life in the country under communism, and had won international acclaim for his most recent book, The Wiesenthal File. If anyone could advise us about the potential of Vlád̛a’s proposed book, it would be Alan. On my next visit to Prague, he joined Vlád̛a and me, along with our wives, for lunch at a French restaurant in Obecní dům (Municipal House). Alan’s Czech was excellent “for an American,” and he listened intently as Vlád̛a explained the essence of the book. When the latter finished, Alan wiped the remnants of a chocolate éclair from his lips, scratched his head, and looked first at me and then at Vlád̛a.

“I’m sure it will be a wonderful book,” he said in Czech. “Your families will love it.”

The late Alan Levy was a great writer partly because he could say so much using very few words. His two-sentence indictment killed the project.

Following the Velvet Revolution, Americans seemed to take a special interest in the small, far-off, country of Czechoslovakia. I responded to frequent inquiries of friends, acquaintances, and various organizations with stories and speeches about my youth – anecdotes about life during the Second World War, our liberation from Nazi oppression, the communist take-over, our escape, and life in refugee camps. I was told: “you must write your memoir” several hundred times. But, whenever I entertained the idea of putting pen to paper, I recalled Alan Levy’s words. After all, who but family and friends could possibly want to read my story?

I was in a hotel room one night when a television skit called “Jaywalking” started me on the road to changing my mind. On “The Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno was doing one of his man-on-the-street interviews during which he asked passers-by questions labeled by their low level of difficulty: “third-grade questions,” “eighth-grade questions,” and so on. On this particular night, he was standing on the campus of the University of Michigan and asking students “sixth-grade questions” pertaining to the Second World War. I sat with my mouth wide open in astonishment as I listened to one university student after another admit that he or she had no clue about the approximate years during which the war had taken place or who had been President of the U.S. during that time. When one student told Leno that Americans and Germans had fought side-by-side against the Russians in World War II, I nearly fell off my chair.

“Oh, my God!” I gasped.

Even worse, I was reading in newspapers and magazines about people – many of them know-nothing anti-semites, but also a few who seemed otherwise articulate and educated – deny the existence of the Holocaust. With such liars and naysayers populating the world and influencing the thinking of young people, I knew that I had to speak out, to bear witness, to set the record straight. Later, when I looked into the faces of our three grandchildren – Sam, Sarah, and Caroline – I knew that I must record the story of the Heller/Neumann family and how it was affected by the upheavals of twentieth-century’s greatest tragedy. After all, in a few more years, there will be no one left who can provide personal testimony.

Hundreds of books have been written about the Second World War, but only a small percentage of them have presented the story through the eyes of some of the millions of children who lived in Europe during the late 1930s and early 1940s and whose lives were shaped forever by the dangers, horrors and unsettling events they experienced. I was one of those children, and I decided that I had to write Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Triumph. I hope it will be published soon and that you will take the time to read it.

Why Am I Doing This?

2009-11-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

This blog becomes part of my writer's web site -- http://www.charlesoheller.com/ -- which I have just created and which goes live today. I call myself a "writer," despite the fact that I've spent the majority of my professional life (translated "my day jobs") as, first, an engineer, and then a university professor, a software entrepreneur, a company CEO, a venture capitalist, a speaker/lecturer, and a member of numerous boards of directors. But, always, I have been writing -- one way or another. In high school, I was a sports editor; in college, I wrote for and edited the #1-ranked university magazine in the country; and, while running companies, I moonlighted as a newspaper columnist and freelance writer in fields ranging from sailing and skiing to entrepreneurship and corporate venturing. Always, I've driven my colleagues and employees crazy with my red proofreader's pen. Now, I'm opening myself up to the same scutiny from others.

I was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, three years before the Second World War. When the Germans occupied us, my father escaped to join the British Army and my mother was taken away by the Nazis to a slave labor camp. She hid me on a farm, where I spent most of the war as one of the so-called "Hidden Children." My parents and I reunited at the war's end, but soon discovered that we were the only survivors in our family. In 1948, the Communists took over our country, and my parents and I escaped. We spent a year-and-a-half in refugee camps in the U.S. Zone of Germany, while awaiting a visa to America. We settled in Morristown, New Jersey, where I met my future wife and lifelong companion, Sue. We've had a great life together -- most of it having been spent in the Land of Pleasant Living, upstream from beautiful Annapolis, Maryland. Our son David, his wife Bobbi, and our three grandkids, Sam, Sarah, and Caroline, live five minutes from us.

We're about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the so-called Velvet Revolution, which -- in November 1989 -- brought an end to Communism in Czechoslovakia. I had been asked -- no, directed -- by my parents to forget everything I had seen on the other side of the Atlantic the minute we stepped onto American soil. I had done as I was told. Or so I thought. My frequent visits to my native country -- which included the recovery of our family properties -- brought me face-to-face with my past. Much of that was heartwarming: reuniting with friends and the places where I had spent my early years. But, some of it was extremely painful: coming to grips with the fact that I had spent years denying my background and ethnicity, and thus, unknowingly, disrespecting my dead family members.

This battle with the past, in addition to a desire to add my voice to those who have borne witness to horrific events which some people deny and many more ignore, drove me to the realization that I must write a book. Out of Prague: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Triumph is a result of work which has taken some six years. Many people have helped and inspired me along the way. I was extremely lucky to be united with a super agent, Elaine Markson of the Markson Thoma Literary Agency in New York. Elaine has been instrumental in making me sharpen the book's focus; she is now shopping the manuscript to publishers, while I'm working on a second memoir and keeping my fingers crossed.