Opinions Of America

It is difficult to know "what" is "really happening" over in the U.S.

From Me To You

Over these same six and some years, I have myself almost given up on writing three times... and could have similarly disappeared from here too.

Those Here Then

In my most recent two novels, and continuing in my next, I have chosen to have a go at a group and period not much fictionalized: Americans in Europe starting about a decade after US independence and into the early 1800s.

“Thinking Out Loud” (For Today)

"It's okay. Take a breath. I don't need to know all about Aunt Esther in Amsterdam just yet. We have all evening and a second date too perhaps, and maybe a lifetime even."

The Man Who Would Be “King”

"Manhood" to some men is a Serengeti. They think they must battle other men because in the end the man who wins the affections of the "real" woman partner(s) must be, such men believe, the most "manly" of men: "the King of the Pride."

Overheard On The Playground

Now there is public Twitter, which often resembles a school playground with those kids who look to stick it to others behind the others’ backs...

FACT: Editors May Need Editors

No human being *is* ever, and no group *are* ever, a virus.

I Could Not Have Been More Wrong

Any man who wants to write novels had better remember who will likely constitute the bulk of his readers...

Not YA (“Young Adult”)

While some "advanced" teens may like them, I agree that over-18s may best identify with and "get" lots more that is in my novels; that some "life experience" probably helps...

The Real Cowards

I open Twitter regularly to find brave retweets about not messin' with Texas, and Jefferson quoters telling us this is all invented. It's just a bit of flu, they declare. We all gotta die of "sumthin", they add...

After The Pandemic: More Change?

"1776" belongs to ALL Americans. With all its faults our America is not exclusively the property of a bunch of mouthy reactionary-right-wingers who insist only they are the "real" Americans and that they have the corner on patriotism and the understanding of freedom.

Bring On The Quarantined Authors

Writers tend to spend a lot of time indoors, uh, "social distancing" anyway. My wife joked that therefore in some ways this situation well suits me. (Smart alec. LOL!) That led me to feel that after my previous university poli sci global politics post, that I might wander next over to Twitter's #WritingCommunity hashtag and see what the other locked-down writers are saying...

Reaching Out From The Isolation

I told my Instagram friends that they should not listen to comedians and others; that in these terrible times in particular they should post pretty much whatever they damn well want to post if it makes them feel a little better.

The Countess

I have been working slowly on the new novel. It won't be out before probably late-2021 at the earliest. However, as we are all stuck inside...

Gosford To Belgravia

To talk about SOMETHING else and innocuous briefly.