I recently finished a book about the former Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University called Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, Clairvoyance and Other Phenomena of the Unseen World (Ecco, 2009). Scientists have always disdained parapsychology, but there was a brief moment in the early 1930's when the scientific community thought, well, okay, ectoplasm, seances and table rappings aside, maybe there is something going on. Duke opened a lab to study the various phenomena, and for a few decades, a group of serious scientists and graduate students tried to find if there was anything to it all. Unbelievable is the story of what they did and did not find.

The paperback of my previous book, "The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad," (Viking Press) came out in July, 2006. When enough time has gone by, I think I'd like to write an article about what it was like to work on a book about the NYPD. (It was very hard.)

My second book, "Waiting for My Cats to Die: a morbid memoir," (St. Martin's Press) came out in 2001. It's about my mid-life crisis on one level, but really, on a deeper level it's about this: I don't want to die.

I'm also an occasional contributor to the NPR show, "All Things Considered."

In 1990 I founded something called Echo. It's a NYC-based online service filled with people who log in everyday to talk about whatever -- work, love, how hard life can be, and what's on TV (my favorite obsession). I wrote about Echo and the internet in a book called, "Cyberville: Clicks, Culture and the Creation of an Online Town" (Warner Books). I stopped doing anything to promote Echo years ago, but I'm glad it's managed to survive. In between writing and research, TV, and the occasional movie or book, I love talking to people on Echo.

I grew up on Long Island, got a B.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a graduate degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. I was once a telecommunications analyst for the Mobil Corporation. It feels like so many lifetimes ago. I can't believe I used to wear a suit almost every day. Still, learning how to function in that environment was a good education. I continue to use everything I learned.

What else? I've been singing with the Grace Church Choral Society for my entire adult life, (soprano) and I've been a samba drummer with The Manhattan Samba Group since I turned forty.

If you go to my personal website you'll find a lot of posts about TV and my cats. I think the flavor tends towards the melancholy and the nostalgic, but it's hard to really have an objective sense of what you put out there.