“Reading a Book is Like Life:
You Live it One Page at a Time.” (Ron Yates)

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About Ronald E. Yates

Author,  former  foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and Dean & Professor Emeritus of the College of Media at the University of Illinois, his acclaimed works are now available through this site.

The Latest From My Blog

Hurricane Helene: A Note to Friends Outside of the South

I received this account from a friend in Georgia. It was written by someone who lives in East Tennessee and has just survived Hurricane Helene’s devastation. The person who wrote this commentary prefers to remain anonymous. It is a stark reminder of how difficult it is to live through a …

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Vance Waltzes Past Walz

At the risk of joining possibly thousands of others who have decided to opine about Tuesday’s debate between vice-presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, I feel compelled to offer a few lines of commentary. Here are my takeaways from the CBS-sponsored debate. First, the moderators, Margaret Brennan and Norah …

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GOP RINOs Endorse Kackling Kamala Harris & Tampon Tim Walz

I am sorry to report that three prominent GOP RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) from my home state of Kansas have defected to the two Marxist Democrats who want to seize the White House on November 5th. I feel compelled to apologize because I grew up in Kansas. In my …

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Q & A With Ron Yates On Writing Fiction (Part 3)

During the past few years, I have done several radio interviews on the topic of writing fiction and writing in general. I posted those transcribed interviews as a three-part series. This is the third post. I hope you find these posts interesting and, most of all, helpful. Here is Part …

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Q & A With Ron Yates on Writing Fiction (Part 2)

During the past few years, I have done several radio interviews on the topic of writing fiction and writing in general. I am posting those interviews as a three-part series for the next couple of days.  I hope you find these posts interesting and, most of all, helpful. Here is …

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Q & A With Ron Yates On Writing Fiction (Part 1)

During the past few years, I have done several radio interviews on the topic of writing fiction and writing in general. I am posting those interviews as a three-part series for the next couple of days.  I hope you find these posts interesting and, most of all, helpful. Here is …

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Is Inspiring the Assassination of Donald Trump a Democrat Campaign Strategy?

Here we go again. Another attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. I wonder what it will take before Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stop calling the former president a “threat to democracy” and a potential “dictator?” Will they and their sycophants in the corrupt state-run media cease with their endless lies …

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Why US Military Recruitment is Perilously Low

During her debate with Donald Trump, Kamala Harris insisted that the Biden administration had done an excellent job supporting and managing America’s military. The facts say otherwise. According to Military.com, an online site for news and information about the U.S. military, the U.S. Army failed to reach its recruitment goals …

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Why do Americans overestimate the size & power of minority groups?

From millionaires to Muslims, small subgroups of the population seem much more prominent to many Americans. Why? Part of the answer is attributable to the media—news and entertainment. Have you noticed, for example, that in almost EVERY film and EVERY commercial, there MUST be at least one or two of …

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General George A. Patton Pursues Pancho Villa: An Excerpt from the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy

What follows is a little more shameless self-promotion. It’s an excerpt from my Finding Billy Battles Trilogy that I posted a while back. I hope you will enjoy it, and naturally, I hope it will inspire those of you who have not yet read the trilogy to do so. I …

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Why Journalists Risk Their Lives: It’s Part of the Job

Why Journalists Risk Their Lives: It’s Part of the Job Nobody ever said doing good journalism is easy–or safe. In fact, reporters and photographers who have spent significant time covering war, revolution, political upheaval, and natural disasters are keenly aware that when they arrive in war-ravaged places like Ukraine, Iraq, …

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A Little Shameless Self-Promotion: Three Reviews of the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy

For most of my professional life, I worked as a reporter and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. I feel privileged to have been a journalist during one of that newspaper’s golden eras—from about 1969 to 1997 when I left to teach journalism as a professor and dean at the …

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