Over the past year, the author has read poems and told jokes at local cafes, scatted as the lead vocalist of a band he called ''Special K and His Crew'' in the city's annual talent show, exhibited what he calls his ''new-cubist'' artwork at a local gallery, and helped a local bar brew a beer his grandfather made more than a century ago. Johannes Brahms quit composing symphonies when he was 55. Fifty-five is a long time ago for me now. Many of his friends and family are now dead - and that has deeply affected him. He can't stop writing.
Writers are very lucky.