WALDMAN, Mark Robert

PERSONAL: Children: one son. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Mark Waldman Counseling and Ministerial Services, 21900 Marylee St., 274, Woodland Hills, CA 91367. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Mark Waldman Counseling and Ministerial Services, Woodland Hills, CA, director and therapist; Penguin Putnam Group, New York, NY, acquisitions editor; writer.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Art of Staying Together: Embracing Love, Intimacy, and Spirit in Relationships, Tarcher/Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor with Stanley Krippner) Dreamscaping: New and Creative Ways to Work with Your Dreams, Roxbury Park/Lowell House (Los Angeles, CA), 1999.

(Editor) Love Games: How to Deepen Communication, Resolve Conflict, and Discover Who Your Partner Really Is, Tarcher/Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life, Tarcher/Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Toni Gilbert) Messages from the Archetypes: Using Tarot for Healing and Spiritual Growth: A Guidebook for Personal and Professional Use, White Cloud Press (Ashland, OR), 2003.

(Editor) Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious: Reflecting American Culture through Literature and Art, Volume 1: Shadow: Searching for the Hidden Self, Volume 2: Healer: Dancing with the Healing Spirit, Volume 3: Seeker: Traveling the Path to Enlightenment, Volume 4: Lover: Embracing the Passionate Heart, Tarcher/Putnam (New York, NY), 2003.

Founding editor, Transpersonal Review.

SIDELIGHTS: Mark Robert Waldman draws upon his experiences as a therapist to write and edit books about personal and interpersonal fulfillment. Both The Art of Staying Together: Embracing Love, Intimacy, and Spirit in Relationships and Love Games: How to Deepen Communication, Resolve Conflict, and Discover Who Your Partner Really Is present strategies for couples who seek more depth to their relationships. Love Games offers a series of relationship exercises that can be "played" to extend mutual understanding and physical intimacy. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the book as a "gentle primer for couples on improving communication." Waldman told the Seattle Times that his love games "make extensive use of the powers of your imagination and creativity, and they challenge you to take emotional risks."

Waldman has made a collection of writings about writing and the pleasures and pains of the creative life. In 2001 he released The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life. This project began as a collection of essays on the writing process by such luminaries as Mark Twain, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Joseph Conrad. Then Waldman decided to query a group of modern writers from a variety of genres and solicit their essays on creativity as well. To his delight, some thirty contemporary authors responded, and their essays are included in the volume. More than sixty writers are represented in The Spirit of Writing.

According to Nancy Mehl on Myshelf.com, The Spirit of Writing is "a book that will stay close by the side of anyone who writes, who wants to write, or who knows a writer." In her Writer's Block online review, Lorie Boucher noted that the book presents "a more balanced view of the work of writing than is usual to collections of this type." Boucher concluded that the work "offers a buffet of opinions, insights, and perspectives."

In an interview with Susan McBride for Myshelf.com, Waldman said that publication of The Spirit of Writing fulfilled a dream he had "harbored for years." He added: "Being an editor . . . is as enriching as being a therapist. Both require a profoundly intimate dialogue with some of the most interesting people I've ever met. . . . Be it publishing, editing, writing or being a therapist-it's all about people for me. Writing and conversation, sitting in nature with your friends, what more does a person need?"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, December, 1999, Pamela A. Matthews, review of Love Games: How to Deepen Communication, Resolve Conflict, and Discover Who Your Partner Really Is, p. 163.

Publishers Weekly, November 15, 1999, review of Love Games, p. 48.

Seattle Times, January 27, 2000, Stephanie Dunnewind, "Games Can Reinforce Couple's Relationship," p. C2.

Tennessean, February 10, 2000, Tasneem Ansariyah-Grace, "Love Games More than Just Play," p. D6.

ONLINE

Disinfotainment Today,http://www.disinfotainmenttoday.com/darenet/ (October 23, 2003), Michael Dare, "How I Ended up in The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life."

Myshelf.com,http://www.myshelf.com/ (October 23, 2003), Nancy Mehl, review of The Spirit of Writing; Susan McBride, interview with Waldman.

Spirituality & Health Web site,http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/ (October 23, 2003), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, review of Lover: Embracing the Passionate Heart.

Writer's Block Web site,http://www.writersblock.ca/ (winter, 2001), Lorie Boucher, review of The Spirit of Writing.*