I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear In Vivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

My most recent book is called Cold Moon and the Cold Moon of the Year is the last moon

of the year and it anticipates the winter solstice.

One night I was visiting in New Jersey and I looked over the ocean and to my left was

the moon.

This beautiful moon rising over the sea, shedding its light on the sea and reflected

in the waves and the waves almost look like an audience applauding the moon.

And we're little people doing little things and suddenly there's this bigness in front

of us.

And I thought, well I'm coming to the end of my life, I'm in the eclipse years of my

life.

What is important to me?

What is important to me that I have learned?

And it came to three simple things, life, love and responsibility.

And so I wrote Cold Moon on life, love and responsibility.

That's my friend Roger Rosenblatt.

As a friend, Roger is funny, thoughtful, generous and a gentle teacher.

So it's no surprise he's all of those things as a writer.

That's true in his essays and his plays and novels and in his writing about writing.

This is going to be real fun for me because first of all we're friends and secondly, I

always have fun when I talk to you.

Me too.

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