Archive for March 2012
No tears shed
Last week, a man convicted of 28,000 counts of being an accessory to murder was accorded three-quarters of a page in the obituary section of a major national newspaper. When my great-grandfather — Gustav Neumann – died, no newspaper carried a story about this wonderful man. John Demjanjuk was a native Ukranian who spent many…
Read MoreNewest review of PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME
I am pleased by the fact that 30 reviews of my book have been posted on Amazon,com (28 of them with a five-star rating). The latest was written by Dr. William G. Durden, President of Dickinson College: PRAGUE: MY LONG JOURNEY HOME is a memoir that confronts a myriad of haunting human questions–loss, identity, longing,…
Read MoreReview of my book in Outlook by the Bay magazine
Hello, friends! I am very anxious and excited to share a review of my memoir that was written by Vicki Duncan of Outlook by the Bay magazine. Please, read on: Local author Charles Ota Heller begins his compelling memoir with scenes of his early childhood in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Throughout years of persecution and hiding, with…
Read MoreOn Being a Memoirist
Courtesy of Anne Arundel Community College I envy my novelist friends. Throughout my writing career, I have had to stick with the facts. This began in high school, where I was a sports editor writing about games I and others played. It continued in college, where I was a reporter, and later editor, for an…
Read MoreOur Perfect Storm
While gathering information for my second memoir, tentatively titled Cowboy from Prague, I came across a photo of me at the helm of a sailboat. I have a smile on my face, the sky is blue, and the Atlantic Ocean in the background is smooth. But, oh, what memories of terror this photo brought! Our…
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