Greetings

Welcome to Woody Weingarten’s website, where you’ll find details about — and excerpts from — my four books:

• MysteryDates® is a “how-to” relationship and travel guidebook that contains hundreds of workable ideas on what to do, how to do it, and where to go (locally, nationally, globally). 

This volume includes not only a wealth of amusing and imaginative personal anecdotes but endless tips on what to do, how to do it, and where to go (locally, nationally, globally).

• The Roving I, a treasure chest of 70 newspaper columns I wrote over a 12-year period that focuses mainly on the unusual personalities and skill sets of ordinary folks.

This book displays my wit, wisdom, and self-exposure in a unique collection (or florilegium, for those who mischievously like to use an arcane word that means the same thing).

• Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a fantasy for kids 6 to 10 that I wrote with my granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin, when she was 8 — merely 70 years my junior.

This whimsical children’s story- and picture-book showcases a sorcerer who frequently must get two young fairies out of trouble when they mess up their magic spells.

• Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, a nonfiction odyssey of my wife’s battle with the disease.

This book, which can greatly aid caregivers (male and female) and patients as they face life-threatening diseases, is a real-life chronicle, a love story, and a guide to research, meds, and support. 

Buy Rollercoaster… here:

Want more info?

Well, MysteryDates can help you retain, resuscitate, or refresh the joy that flared when sparks first sparked between you and your mate. It’s a “how-to” guide for happy relationships sandwiched between travel and trek cues that might better be dipped into rather than read cover-to-cover in a single sitting. 

Memoirs were culled from 35 years of dates that either I or my wife created; tips emerged from my doing countless hours of research.

The Roving I includes scores of my memories — including my partner earning a slot in my Little Black Book, a woman carrying her sister’s “miracle baby” inside her for nine months, and Robin Williams transforming himself into a talking vagina.

My favorite endorsement for the book comes from Fiona Quinn in Chicago: “This collection is brilliant! Woody Weingarten has the rare capacity to connect with readers through humor and thoughtful analysis simultaneously. This is no small feat, and this collection can be compared to Mark Twain’s pithy humor, which camouflages the depth and seriousness of his subject matter.”

Hannah lovingly hangs on to Woody.

Meanwhile, the misadventures of Grandpa Graybeard, his granddaughter, and her bff in our four-part fairytale, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, become great fun for all three and for young readers who love to let their imaginations run wild.

That’s especially true if they’d want to giggle at the idea of romping in piles of blue and purple and pink leaves, jazz-singing chicks, winged albino otters, or a pair of 8-year-old fairies accidentally making 1,498 cartons of ice cream.

Joe Marciniak, longtime artistic pro, colorfully illustrated the story. Not incidentally, he later exquisitely designed the covers of MysteryDates® and The Roving I as well.

My first book, Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, contains tons of factual information as  well as a chronicle of how my wife and I coped with the serious disease, its treatments, and its aftermath. 

Although I became an expert reluctantly, I now can unflinchingly share what I’ve gleaned from personal experience (including a weekly support group I’ve facilitated for 30-plus years).

A glimpse of my mental meanderings (individual and with Hannah), guest blog posts, and factual information I’ve gathered in recent years about disease — all that may be found in “Woody’s Favorites.”

Be the first to read my blog posts: Just give me your email address here.

  You can also email me at: voodee@sbcglobal.net.