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."

As If It Really Happened

I had over the decades read far more non-fiction and historical fiction than “fantasy”... and I know that has made its mark on me.

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...

Review: “The Witcher”

In lockdown, and knowing my youngest nephew - he is recently age 18 - is a fan, and realizing it will give us something new to talk about with him by Facetime, Saturday night we decided to watch the first episode of the latest apparent "craze" on Netflix...

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...

A Pivotal Moment (In My Life)

I had never known anyone like her. Through her I also made other friends… and traveled to places that just a few years earlier I had never imagined I would have ever seen in person...