Joe Cocchiarelli is a retired academic and published author of fictlon and non-fiction.  His most recent book, TALKING PICTURES, is a collection of short stories inspired by the masterworks of Edward Hopper, whose paintings illustrated the anxiety and loneliness  of the 20th century city dweller.  Cocchiarelli currently lives in South  Carolina with his son and a household menagerie in a sprawling home beside a lake pond brimming with natural life.