Actually, yes. The idea actually started five years ago during the book fair at Congregation Agudath Israel, when I noticed there were books about Moe Berg, Sandy Koufax, and even Shawn Green, but nothing about Jeff Halpern. Who's Jeff Halpern? At the time, a little-known Jewish player for the NHL's Washington Capitals; as of this year he's the team captain and one of only three active NHL players who are Jewish. When I protested the lack of Jewish hockey books, my wife suggested that I write one. She just didn't know I'd take her seriously.

Since then, we've seen the NJ Devils win the Stanley cup twice, I've put the skates and gloves back on, my son has played hockey everywhere from Washington DC to Ottawa, Canada to the Olympic Rink in Lake Placid, NY, and I've spent a lot of days and nights in ice rinks.

I wasn't sure if I was writing a story about youth hockey, or about overweight, over-age and over-stressed Jewish guys who play in a beer league, or about being a Devils fan. But Mary Smaragdis, marketing genius, provacteur, and expert blogger, called the shot the right way -- I'm writing a love story. About hockey. About fathers and sons. About fan loyalty. About an amazingly simple game that brings warmth on the coldest of days. About discovering where you're from. About miracles. About the number 8 and those who wear it.

What's the status?

The book got a major kick in the pants over the 2005 holiday season as I came close to finishing a formal outline. My current plan is to write through the winter months, trying to get a manuscript done by early summer, with a tentative publication date around September 2006.

Current project: take the 40-50 pages of journal I kept over the course of three seasons, merge it into the working outline, and pick up some of the themes -- Russian heritage, the 1980 Olympics, four years at Princeton, and what it's like to share a practice facility with your heros.

When can we read it? Who will publish it?

Chapter 1, which is more about the number 8 and those who wear it than about hockey, is available for download. It's likely to change, but this should give you a flavor of the book.

I believe that this kind of book is best marketed by word of mouth and through electronic channels. I'm likely to go the self-publishing route for this one, having lost a lot of confidence in traditional publishing houses with my last book project.

last updated: 21 January 06