Ronald Yates 
At the request of a faithful follower, today I am re-posting a column that appeared a while back in The Economist, one of the U.K.’s most prestigious magazines. Written by an unnamed foreign correspondent, it takes a sardonic and self-effacing view of foreign correspondents by suggesting that Harry Flashman, Victorian …
I was recently interviewed online by NovelPASTimes http://www.novelpastimes.com/ a blog for Historical Fiction Lovers. Here is Part Two. What would you like readers to gain from reading your book(s)? Because the Finding Billy Battles trilogy is historical fiction and is set in the 19th and 2oth Centuries, I would like …
I was recently interviewed online by NovelPASTimes http://www.novelpastimes.com, a blog for Historical Fiction Lovers. Here is Part One. Tell us a little about what you write. I write both fiction and non-fiction. Currently, my books fall into the historical-fiction/action-adventure categories. My previous books have been journalism textbooks, a corporate …
Over the past few years, I have been a guest on several radio and podcast shows, discussing topics such as writing fiction and the craft of writing in general. I posted the first two of those interviews for the past two. Today, I am posting Part 3. I hope you …
Over the past few years, I have been a guest on several radio and podcast interviews discussing topics such as 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 …
Over the past few years, I have been a guest on several radio and podcast interviews discussing topics such as 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 …
In 1995, I returned to Vietnam for the 20th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. During that trip, I made it a point to interview as many people as possible about their country–including former Communist Viet Cong cadres. What I heard was surprising. They were not happy with this new …
(This is a follow-up to the story I posted yesterday on the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon in 1975. ) After several dozen others and I were evacuated on April 29th, 1975, from the hulking Military Assistance Command-Vietnam building at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airbase, I filed my …
Fifty years ago today, I was scrambling aboard a U.S. Marine CH-53 Sea Stallion heavy helicopter along with some 70 or so other terrified people as we were evacuated from Saigon as it fell to invading Communist North Vietnamese troops. April 29, 1975, is a day I will never forget, …
This is a repost of commentary I did a few years ago about the skills my great-grandparents had that few people have today. When I examine what life was like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from about 1885 to 1905, I am amazed at how self-reliant and …