Jeffrey Friedman, a Greenburgh resident, has written a series of books under the pen name Jason Edwards to help kids face their fears. The first book, “Will Allen and the Great Monster Detective,” introduces readers to Bigelow Hawkins, the great monster detective, as well as main character and narrator Will Allen. The second book, “Will Allen and the Ring of Terror,” will be published next year.
Photo credit: Staff

Jeffrey Friedman, a Greenburgh resident and former educator and video postproduction worker, has written over the years “for self expression and for my own amusement,” he said in a recent interview, but love and concern for his daughter put him on a path to professional author and publisher.

Friedman, 48, founded Rogue Bear Press (roguebearpress.com) last year to publish his children’s book, “Will Allen and the Great Monster Detective,” the first in what will be a series of books aimed at helping children face their fears. The books, written under the pen name Jason Edwards, feature Bigelow Hawkins, the great monster detective, who helps the book’s narrator, a boy named Will Allen, literally face his fears and thereby render them powerless. Friedman calls his book “an allegory about a boy whose fears had literally come to life,” but the real-life situation that led to his writing the book was far from literary.

The elder of Friedman’s two daughters, Jenna, now 12, was traumatized at age three by an auto-flush toilet at a public park. Such toilets, with their loud, unexpected and relentless noise, have been known to traumatize children; the New York Times ran an article on the phenomenon just this week (the Nov. 13 issue). Until she was eight, Jenna was unable to go anywhere without worrying that she might have to deal with one of the toilets, and the incident caused her to have anxiety issues in general. So several years ago, Friedman wrote the book in part to help Jenna face her own fears. Friedman’s other daughter, Jessica, is seven; his wife, Jan, works for a retirement investment company in Purchase.

Friedman, who was born and raised on Long Island, moved to White Plains in 1982; he lived on Lake Street until 1992. He got his undergraduate degree at SUNY New Paltz (in psychology and sociology) and a master’s in education from Manhattanville College. He worked as a substitute teacher at White Plains High School (where a certain student, now a reporter for the White Plains Times, was known to give him a hard time), and he had permanent teaching positions in Mamaroneck and the Bronx.

Even though his daughter is completely over her fears now, Friedman said his book, which is 82 pages and aimed at children seven years and up, should speak to older children as well. “As kids get older,” he said, “their fears become more complex” and are often characterized by jealousy, sibling rivalry and peer pressure. Friedman, who also illustrated the book, said he has six sequels written; the first of them, “Will Allen and the Ring of Terror,” will be released in 2008.

After dozens of rejection letters from established publishers, Friedman decided to start his own publishing company to release his books. He said he continues to be amazed at how much of his time the “business-related stuff” takes; he can go days or weeks at a time without writing, he said. His wife is supportive of the long hours he keeps, though she sometimes expresses worry when she sees him working as she goes to bed and then sees him still working as she leaves for work in the morning. Saying “the stars kind of aligned” to put him on his unplanned career path, Friedman said he continues to be surprised by what’s happened, and he’s proud of his early successes. “If anyone had told me two years ago, much less 10 years ago, that I’d be doing this today, I’d have called them crazy,” he said.

Besides writing and illustrating and running his business, Friedman has been busy with book-related events. He has staged “monster hunts” at area libraries, including earlier this week at the White Plains Public Library, and he conducted a book-signing event at Barnes & Noble in the City Center this week as well (for information on future events, visit
monsterdetectiveagency.com).

While Friedman’s example of finding a way to allay his daughter’s anxiety could be seen as a little extreme, his advice to parents, in terms of the way he helped Jenna, is to make sure kids are prepared not only to face their fears but to deal with the remedy or remedies without any ill effects. “I didn’t want to get her back on the horse,” he said of Jenna, “until she could ride the horse.”