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Life is like a dream. One thing leads to another, and before you know it you’re somewhere you never expected to be. I didn’t expect to write a book about family history. I didn’t expect to write a book, period. But the cat disappeared, and I made up a story about where she had gone. Then she came back and told me that she actually had been a guest of the Gypsy Esmarelda in the Alternate World. So I wrote the whole thing into a novel, THE TIME DANCER. Then I met Harry Willson, of Amador Publishers, and he said he would publish the book. That inspired me to reclaim the name Gatuskin for my pen name - the name I ought to have had from birth, had not great-grandpa Bereh Gatuskin been re-named Barnet Gordon when he became a U.S. citizen.
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I haven't minded being a Gordon; as a kid, having Zelda for a first name was hard enough. But I was curious about the Gatuskins, so little is known about them, and how Bereh came to marry into the big Plagoff family in Vitebsk, Russia. In my maturity as a soon-to-be-famous author, I decided to boost the odds that if there were other Gatuskins on the planet I might meet them by adopting the name as my pseudonym. Grandma Sadie said, "You have taken the name of a very fine man, and I know he's up there somewhere smiling down at you." Those words reminded me of my childhood craving to know the people who came before; and so I was launched into the exploration of genealogy, cultural identity and Family History that led me to write ANCESTRAL NOTES, a family dream journal. (It was Harry's idea to add the illustrations.) The book may be complete, but the journey continues. The Web is the perfect place to document the many threads I've followed, and to connect with fellow seekers of the past. It is constructed like the house of many rooms I visit in my Dreams. I get lost easily, but I know that everything's connected. And everyone. Welcome.
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