About Me
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“Don’t sweat retirement. For at least a year, don’t go looking for projects to do. They’ll find you. You’ll be amazed.” …. Good advice from an old friend.
What does an old man do when (mentally) he still feels twenty, often acts like twelve or less (according to his wife) and suddenly has 24/7 free time to fill without career pressures? Nearly five years into it, a few things have sought me out and now I'm a happy and busy guy.
With six kids and five grandkids there has been lots of quality family time.
I was given a book called A Father’s Legacy That provided a framework for an autobiography aimed at my kids and future generations. One hundred pages later, the book was done and to my surprise, I enjoyed writing every word.
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This led to a creative writing class and a year later I’d completed my first draft of a Sci-Fi novel, Satan's Banyan, joined a writer's group-Critique Circle, and over the next year submitted the draft for member review.
I learned a lot about creative writing and did a major revision. The novel has just been published and is availble on Amazon Kindle. (See Novels section)
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I've recently completed an Adventure/Supernatural novel, This One's for Junior, that is currently in beta review and will soon be available on Amazon Kindle. (See Novels Section)
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A collection of my short stories is available (See Short Works Section). Some have been submitted to a prompt contest on Reedsy, whereI've received nice feedback.
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To help the creative juices flow, I’m taking piano lessons- something I’ve always wanted to do but never made time for. It’s not coming easy, but it’s a great feeling when the practice begins to pay off. Listening to jazz has always been one of my great pleasures. Now there’s some hope I might someday create some.
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Marc Rothstein
Author
Short Works
Novels
Satan's Banyan
An underground coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania could lead to an extinction level crisis. Why is a TV daredevil trying to hide this threat? Follow two researchers’ race down an alternate path of evolution to save the planet.
Marc Rothstein applies a lifetime of science experience and imaginative storytelling in this fast-paced tale. Based on actual extremophile research, Satan’s Banyan raises a chilling What if?
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Available on Amazon Kindle now: Amazon.com : satan's banyan​
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This One's for Junior
Coming Soon on Amazon
Eli’s had enough. Gun violence and drug overdoses fill his emergency room, in the worst part Philadelphia. At forty, he’s burning out fast. The murder of his best friend, Junior, a young ex-gang member, pushes Eli over the edge.
An abandoned turn-of-the-century insane asylum becomes his secret vigilante chamber of horrors. He’s joined by unlikely partners: a former casino hooker with psychic powers, a mental hospital director, and an assistant D.A..
Together, they infiltrate the crime family that enabled Junior’s neighborhood gang shootings and drug culture, leading to an unexpected ending.
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Earning my BS degree in chemistry from Temple University was no small feat—it took eight years of grinding through evening classes while juggling a wild mix of day jobs. I worked as a lab technician at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for five years, but I also spent three years selling audio equipment in local record shops. Music was my passion, and I genuinely enjoyed sales. For a while, I was at a real career crossroads. In the end, practicality won, and I chose chemistry, keeping music a beloved hobby. But honestly, it was a close call.
Next came five years in the research department of Leeds and Northrup, an analytical instrumentation company. By day, I was deep in lab work; by night, I was back at Temple earning my MS in Physical Chemistry.
My next chapter brought me to EG&G Princeton Applied Research, an electrochemical instrumentation company where I got to blend my love for lab work with marketing. I joined a fun crew of what my first wife jokingly called "traveling chemists." The job had me hopping worldwide while Marie kept everything running smoothly at home with the kids. The travel eventually strained our marriage, but those sixteen years were a whirlwind professionally.
I climbed the ladder from tech support to marketing management to division management, and along the way, I learned how different areas of science overlap—from corrosion research to neuroscience. My business development skills sharpened, and I finally felt ready to strike out on my own.
That's when my brother David and I founded Prime Synthesis, our venture into the rapidly emerging genetic engineering industry. We manufactured nano-porous glass substrates used for making synthetic DNA and RNA. Those last twenty-five years of my career were the most thrilling and rewarding. It was like a roller coaster: the painfully slow startup phase followed by the exhilarating rush of working with global labs contributing to the Human Genome Project and its countless biotech spinoffs.
Somewhere along that journey, I reconnected with Dianne, whom I'd worked with decades earlier at Leeds and Northrup. She was recently divorced and working on her PhD in materials engineering, and we hit it off. We got married, blended our families—three kids each—and she even joined Prime Synthesis as our Research VP, where her group became a major asset. Seeing each other 24/7 brought some challenges, but we made it work.
Eventually, it was time to find a good home for our "baby." That five-year quest was bittersweet. We found a buyer big enough to keep up with our skyrocketing market, but along the way, I lost David to a sudden heart attack. I know he'd be proud of what we accomplished. That thought stays with me.
I've written extensively over the years—research publications, marketing materials, business proposals, grant applications, you name it. But retirement has finally given me the freedom to chase a long-held dream: creative writing. Two novels and many short stories later, I'm still at it.
I've also started taking piano lessons, aiming to play jazz—my favorite genre. Progress is painfully slow, but it gives me something exciting to strive for.
For relaxation, Dianne and I enjoy spending time with our blended family and our growing treasure trove of grandchildren. We still travel a lot, and those adventures fuel my writing.
To be continued...
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