Charles Ota Heller

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…