Best-selling author relocates from NYC to Cranford

(Continued from Page 12) depressed and dogs will be there.”

Goldstein admits, as much as he loved New York City, it was just getting too expensive, especially for a family. Someone had mentioned Cranford to him, and the next thing he knew, he was living there.

“We ended up in Cranford. We found an apartment.”

As for Goldstein, he’s still writing and he has aspirations.

“I’ve written for BP Hope for Bipolar,” he said. “It’s the only publication for bipolar. I had a blog. And I wrote for them for a couple of years.”

Books are still something he considers an option, even if not all of his ventures in the publishing world have been successful.

“You remember that craze, fidgets?” he asked. “It lasted about two or three months. I self-published a book about that, a work of fiction, and by the time I got it published, I missed the phase.”

“Escape From Planet Fidget” might not have made much of a mark, but Goldstein isn’t stopping anytime soon.

“I came up with a book about when I had the kids and I talked to my agents and they said there were too many kid books,” he laughed.

“Now I’m working on my new book. I have a courtroom thriller with a hook. It’s been around for 20 years. I wrote it as a screenplay, then shopped it around as a TV miniseries. My plan for my next couple of books is to selfpublish them and get someone to promote it. The pub- lisher gave me a publicist for ‘Puppy Chow’ in the beginning, but now I’ll do it myself.”

“If you don’t have a million dollars, they’re not going to come to you,” he says somewhat cynically, with more than a little knowledge from the school of hard knocks.

Goldstein still has strong feelings about his

“Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac.”

“I guess it’s a really relatable story,” he said. “This book has a happy ending. I do take four kinds of medication, but would I get off the boat? No way.

“I’m now at the 15-year anniversary of my first book being published. It’s been reaching people around the world since 2008.”

He hasn’t gotten another dog since Ozzy died, but has he thought about it?

“I don’t know if there will be a dog in the future. But I can’t even imagine it right now, and with the kids in the apartment ….”

Meanwhile, he and his story are still reaching people.

“When I meet someone with a dog, I start telling my story, and then they open up with me and start telling me their story. People really relate.”

As for right now, he’s still learning about Cranford and loving every minute of it.

“It’s a nice safe place that we moved to. I like where I live,” Goldstein said.

“This place is huge, but I still can’t write at home. I write best around people. Coffee shops in the city.”

I’m a New Yorker and I love walking everywhere.”

If you’re looking for Goldstein, you might find him at Track 5 Coffee in Cranford.

“I’m at the coffee shop every day,” he said.

Check out his books, too, particularly “Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac.” Goldstein is a man who can teach you a thing or two about himself, and about yourself as well.